Repair work done at Steele Municipal Airport

Pictured is one of the newly built Tee-hangars at the airport in Steele.

Mike Lee of Earl’s Flying Service has been doing a lot of work lately to improve the Steele Municipal Airport, such as repairing the taxiways and reopening one and building hangars. “We’ve been needing hangars for some time out here, and there’s no money available for hangars - no state money, no federal money and no kind of grant,” he said. He used his own funds and had six Tee-hangars built, and they have all been rented out.

Lee plans to open a taxiway that has been closed down because of much needed repairs. “We did get a state grant to do this taxiway,” he explained. “This was an old taxiway we had to close because we didn’t have the money to fix it. We got a state grant, which is a 90/10 grant, which totaled about $480,000, that will fix the taxiway so we can reopen it.” The taxiway attaches to the six hangars. “There are three hangars on each side. They are all modern and have electric doors on them. I did it [built the hangars] for the local pilots.”

There are two phases to all the work that is going on according to Lee. Phase two will begin next week when several areas of the taxiway will be repaired. “We have some spots falling through. It’s becoming real bad,” he stated. The work will begin Monday, June 19 and should be completed by the end of the week.

Several areas at the Steele Municipal Airport need to be repaired.

Lee also explained how the airport is maintained. “No city money is used out here. We have farmland that we rent out that takes care of all the needs of the airport. This was a World War II airport, and they gave all the airports to the local governments, with the stipulation that they spend the revenue to maintain the airport. Not one nickel of city money - the taxpayers’ money - is spent here.”