Page 11 - 3997 StrictlyBusinessWinter

Strictly Business 11

he Williamsburg-Whitley County and Sims bark, which is a mulch, soil and
Airport is a facility utilized far rock products company that is locating
more often than many people in Corbin at the old General Shale brick
tmight realize, and it is proving to facility.
be a resource that local businesses and Sims Bark has been flying in daily for
industries are using on a regular basis. more than a month, officials said.
Airport Manager don Stricklin esti- White noted that Sims bark has
mates that on average at least 40 planes been very complimentary of the airport.
use the airport on a weekly basis with five “it has been a good way for their
or six landings per day. executives to be able to access our com-
“You don’t really realize it until you munity and help to put together this large
A small turboprop jet stops to fuel up recently at the get out here,” Stricklin noted. “So many project that is going to bring a lot of jobs
Williamsburg-Whitley county Airport. reasonably priced people will come overnight and use the and a lot of economic activity to our area,”
fuel is one reason landings at the facility are on the
upswing. courtesy car. they will go back to Wil- White said.
liamsburg and use the restaurants and “there is always a chance that the
the hotels. there is always that one airport could be just the thing to get some
chance you will get some industry from it. industry in the area,” Stricklin added.
“if nothing else, we are ready for it if
somebody comes in. if somebody comes Low fuel prices
in, they are going to come into a nice fa-
cility, and they are going to say ‘gosh, i Stricklin credits the airport board’s
would like to be here.’” strategy of keeping fuel prices low for
Airport Board Chairman Jeff Shel- much of the activity.
ley noted that it is extremely important “That gets us quite a bit of traffic,” he
to have an airport in a community for said. “We have been successful the last
growth. year or so getting jets to stop in. once
“it is primarily for especially large they stop, they generally return when
companies and businesses to access an they are back in the area. We need things
area quickly,” he said. “i think it is criti-
cal for the infrastructure. typically all the
businesses showing an interest in the
area, their primary questions are do we
have an airport, how big is the airport,
do we have fuel available and things like
that.”
Shelley said that the airport recently
had two companies interested in utilizing i think it is critical for
it not just for bringing in planes, but also the infrastructure.
for establishing a business on site.
one of those prospects fell through typically all the
because the runway didn’t meet the com-
pany’s criteria, but the owner of the other businesses showing
company is still trying to work out a deal, an interest in the area,
he said.
“When you are recruiting business, their primary
you have to put in place things to accom-
modate the way they want to travel, busi- questions are do we
nesses quite often travel by air,” added have an airport, how
Whitley County Judge-executive Pat White
Jr. big is the airport, do
operations Manager Harvey Alder
noted that a variety of people use the air- we have fuel available
port, including several businesses, such and things like that.
as Firestone-bridgestone, Jones Plastic