Union County awarded $150,000 ODA grant for La Grande airport taxiway expansion

Doug Wright, Union County public works director, told the Union County Board of Commissioners on March 4 that the county had been awarded a $150,000 grant from the Oregon Department of Aviation to support Phase II of the Southwest Hangar Taxi-Lanes construction at the La Grande / Union County Airport. The Board authorized Public Works to accept the award at the meeting.

County officials said the ODA funds will be applied together with matching Federal Aviation Administration grants to complete the second phase of the taxi-lanes. Union County’s 2018 La Grande / Union County Airport Master Plan and Capital Improvement Plan assumes AIP grant awards of about $12.6 million for Phase II, and that FAA support would likely be a mix of Non-Primary Entitlement, State Apportionment, or Discretionary funds; the county has not released detailed matching figures for this specific project.

The Phase II taxi-lanes are intended to expand hangar and aircraft parking capacity at La Grande Airport, a tangible priority given local demand. Wright said, "around 40 aircraft are currently on the waiting list for housing at the airport," identifying immediate pressure on available hangar space and the potential local economic benefit of added capacity for private and business aircraft based at the field.

Union County’s airport planning context dates to the March 2018 Airport Master Plan update, which also notes the county receives entitlements of $150,000 per year for eligible airport projects and lists prior and proposed projects such as a rappel base building and fuel and maintenance facility improvements. That CIP lists Phase I AIP assumptions of roughly $7.2 million and Phase III at $10.8 million, underscoring the scale of airport improvements contemplated beyond the current taxi-lane work.

Key administrative details remain to be confirmed. The county’s reporting and the March 4 announcement do not include a grant number for the ODA award, and county materials have not yet specified whether this $150,000 is drawn from the county’s recurring annual entitlement or from a separate ODA program. The public record from the March 4 meeting records that commissioners approved Public Works to accept the grant, but a vote tally was not included in the available meeting summary.

For La Grande Airport users and hangar developers, the immediate outcome is clearer capacity planning and advancement of Phase II design and funding. Before construction begins, Union County will need to finalize FAA matching commitments, set a project timeline and budget for Phase II, and confirm the source and accounting for the $150,000 ODA award in relation to the airport’s broader CIP assumptions.