Runway project to close airport

I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.

July 11, 1996

By Devlyn Brooks

Staff Writer

Travelers wanting to fly out of Bemidji between July 31 and Aug. 2 may find themselves frustrated. One of Bemidji/Beltrami Airport's runways will be closed for rehabilitation those three days closing both runways and disturbing more than 30 flights.

The renovation of the primary runway, last rehabilitated in 1980, will begin at 11 a.m. July 31, said Brian Freeberg, a representative of Haack Engineering, which will be doing the project. Completion is expected Aug. 2, he said, unless the weather does not cooperate. Then the project will more than likely be finished Aug. 3.

The $750,000 project will rehabilitate the 1,600-foot-long, 150-foot-wide primary runway and the intersection of the runways. That is why the airport needs to be closed, Freeberg said. The intersection serves both runways but needs to be done, he said.

Nine percent of the project's funding was received from the Federal Aviation Association, and the other 10 percent was the responsibility of the local Airport Commission.

Last year, the secondary runway was rehabilitated on both sides of the intersection, but the intersection itself was left intact so regular operations could continue. The secondary runaway had never been rehabilitated and was built in 1950.

However, Freeberg said that was not normal because most runways are rehabilitated every 15 to 20 years. That one had not been done before because it was a secondary runway.

Representatives of Mesaba Airlines, which operates out of the airport, could not be reached Tuesday and Wednesday.