Lordsburg airport plans fence design after livestock safety concerns
Lordsburg is spending federal money to design a new fence after livestock repeatedly entered the runway, with the full project now pegged above $700,000.
Lordsburg moved to design a new airport fence after city officials said livestock had become a serious safety problem on the runway. The Sept. 3, 2024 council resolution approved participation in a Federal Aviation Administration Airport Improvement Program grant for perimeter-fence design, a $51,761 award that required a 10 percent city match and came with a full fencing estimate of more than $700,000.
That spending is aimed at keeping Lordsburg Municipal Airport usable, not just visible. The city’s engineering request for proposals says the airport sits about one mile southeast of Lordsburg, averages roughly 4,800 annual operations based on an FAA 5010 inspection dated April 12, 2022, and is neither a Part 139 certificated airport nor a controlled-tower field. More recent coverage puts the airport’s asphalt runway at 5,224 feet and says the nearest commercial flight access is about 150 miles away, underscoring how much Hidalgo County depends on a small local field when residents, visitors, or businesses need an air option closer than a regional commercial airport.
The city’s own airport engineering list shows why the fence is only one part of a larger maintenance bill. Over a four-year span, Lordsburg sought engineering help for runway 12-30 and taxiway pavement rehabilitation, apron repairs, perimeter fence and gate work, runway 1/19 rehabilitation, runway safety area grading and drainage, a helipad, AWOS rehabilitation, a phone system, updates to the master plan and airport layout plan, a wildlife hazard assessment, and environmental planning including a stormwater pollution prevention plan. In practical terms, that is the hidden work that keeps a rural airport open for pilot training, business travel, emergency access, and the kind of outside investment that usually passes over communities without reliable aviation infrastructure.
Lordsburg’s airfield also carries a deeper local legacy. Historical material says the airport opened in December 1938 and was New Mexico’s first airport, while another account places its start in the mid-1920s and also calls it the state’s first. Local history further says Charles Lindbergh stopped there during his 1927 transcontinental Spirit of St. Louis air tour.
The stakes reach beyond aviation alone. Hidalgo County says its centralized dispatch system helps provide emergency care across nearly the whole county and parts of southern Grant County, making a maintained airstrip relevant to medevac and other urgent response needs in a wide, sparsely populated desert region. In the city’s 2024 comprehensive plan, Lordsburg says the goal is to prepare for the future by anticipating growth and coordinating public and private success, and the airport remains part of that calculation. A 2025 federal funding report later showed that effort continuing, with $323,483 awarded for the final phase of constructing 18,253 feet of perimeter fencing.
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