Albany, Schenectady airports receive federal funding for improvements

The Business Review (Albany)

Two area airports have received nearly $2.5 million in federal funds to buy property, install new lighting and to remove trees and other obstructions near runways.

New York senators, Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer, said Albany International Airport and Schenectady County Airport were awarded grants from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The Albany airport will spend a combined $1.66 million removing trees and other obstructions from two runways. The airport will acquire about 12 parcels of property as part of the work, according to the grants.

Property to be acquired includes land belonging to the Shaker Ridge Country Club, said airport spokesman Doug Myers. Albany Shaker Road cuts off the property from the rest of the golf course, so the country club no longer has a use for it, he said.

Myers said he didn't know the acreage of the property.

Also, some of the federal funds will be used to secure easements and air rights on other properties that need trees to be topped off or removed because they are tall enough to interfere with aircraft approaches into the airport, Myers said. That will include work at Memory's Garden Inc., a nonprofit memorial park and cemetery in Colonie.

The Schenectady County Airport will spend $275,000 replacing its rotation beacon and lights on one of its taxiways. Both are more than 20 years old and beyond repair, the grants say.

That airport will also spend $515,000 to remove "off-airport obstructions" to increase safety, according to the grants.