The Vermilion Airport saw a busy year led by the consistent use from medevacs.
Vermilion council heard a delegation from Geoff Hancock, who was presenting the airport advisory committee at the March 11 council meeting.
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He says it had been a while since the committee brought an update to council.
“We just thought it was time to bring an update from the airport advisory committee. It’s been a while since we’ve seen you here at council,” said Hancock. “We’ve had a really eventful year at YVG.”
He says they’ve had a lot of aircraft movement at the airport saying they’re not a good stopping point.
Hancock says they’ve had several people stopping in Vermilion on their way up to Alaska.
“We’re a good stop point for people coming from the north,” he said. “That’s kind of an annual migration of little airplanes. We’ve never been able to be a stop before.”
While the airport may be seeing constant traffic, the Town of Vermilion is also seeing some benefit from the increase in aircraft.
“Several, at least two that I know for sure and probably more overnighted in town, used our bicycles, headed into town and stayed overnight,” said Hancock. “One stayed for several nights due to weather.”
He says the benefit of the Vermilion airport is visitors can go see their plane at the airport whenever they want, even if they’re in town.
Hancock also explained 69 students attended school education day.
“The kids just love it,” he said.
The events at the airport didn’t stop there.
“We had a Father’s Day fly-in, antique car show, we had an extremely windy day. We had two fixed-wing airplanes, and a helicopter came,” said Hancock.
He says they went to the school as a backup plan for breakfast.
Events have fuelled engagement at the airport, but a major use is still medevac flights.
“Medevac flights have been steady all year. We don’t have a count, one of our requests to administration is to get the count from the camera,” said Hancock.
He says they have a local resident that keeps track, and she counted 10 medevacs since the first of January.
“We know there were more than that, medevacs have been really steady,” said Hancock.
He says a nasty weather system bringing snow and rain in mid-December left the airport closed. Through a collaborative effort with town maintenance workers, they managed to get the airport back open.
“We really appreciate the involvement of Councillors (Kirby) Whitlock, (Paul) Conlon and (Robert) Pulyk,” said Hancock. “That really pulls together the community.”
He says the airport is vital to remain open even after a storm.
“We had three medevacs, two of which were life-saving medevacs. It just kind of points out how critical it can be to not have that facility,” said Hancock.
With summer on the horizon maintenance is top of mind for the airport.
“Immediate concerns, we’re coming into spring, probably our most immediate concern is crack filling,” he said. “Our cracks have opened up; it’s been several years since we’ve filled.”
Hancock says it’s important to get it filled in the spring so the summer rain can’t get into the cracks. If they crack-fill soon they do not have to mill according to Hancock.
“It’s imperative, we believe, that we work toward the airport master plan,” he said.
The master plan found the pavement was in fair condition in 2019 but now it is something the airport needs to deal with.
“We’re already passed our projected life of our pavement,” said Hancock.
He says it’s important to look at applying for grants to replace the pavement.
City of Lloydminster maintenance workers have offered to train Vermilion maintenance workers in terms of protocols and how Lloydminster manages snow.
GPS approach, the engineering is done and could be published as soon as April.
“So, we could have a GPS approach to both ends of the airport as soon as April 17. We need the funding,”
Hancock says they’re working with some community groups and are working towards getting funding for the initial capital outlay and the first year of maintenance.
Moving to the second GPS approach it would give incoming planes a better approach.
“I’d like to invite economic development and council to engage with the existing businesses here,” he said. “We hear lots of buzz about inviting new businesses to town, encouraging new businesses. We’d love to engage as some of the existing businesses.”
Hancock says he’s disappointed as a drone project came to the airport and they were given no advanced notice.
“I believe the definition of economic development would’ve been to say ‘Hey, we’re glad you’re coming why don’t we connect you with the existing business,’” he said.
Hancock says when they got out there, there was nothing secret about it and they were willing to engage and explain what they were doing.
“As businesses, we ended up with the runway closed which shuts my business down,” he said. “Going forward we’d really encourage just communication, love to engage with the economic development group.”
Communication is a key topic for Hancock as he would like to engage with economic development.
“I’ve had a business license in the town of Vermilion since 2016, I’ve been in business in the county since 1994, and I’ve never had a visit with anyone from economic development,” he explained.
Deputy Mayor Joshua Rayment thanked Hancock for his presentation.
“We always appreciate you guys coming out and filling us in on the year at the airport,” said Rayment.
An offer from council was made for the airport advisory committee to sit in on an economic development meeting to help facilitate out communication between the groups.
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