One runway at the Apalachicola airport will close in the next year

                The Apalachicola Airport will be able to keep all three of its runways open for the next year, but one of them will likely have to be closed after that.

The airport has three runways – each a mile long.

The DOT does not feel that an airport the size of Apalachicola’s need to have three runways and they aren’t willing to fund maintaining all three.

Runway 8136 is the least used of the three and will likely be closed in the next year.

Airport manager Jason Puckett told county commissioners this week that the airport has “begged, borrowed and pleaded” to keep the runway open for an additional year so the airport can mitigate any impact closing the runway will have.

The pending closure of the runway is not a surprise; airport officials have known for years that the runway could be closed but have done everything they could to keep it open as long as possible.

The county couldn’t afford to maintain it without DOT assistance.

Just remarking the runway costs more than 170 thousand dollars – and that’s the least of the maintenance costs.

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