Read the full story by Todd Van Kampen on journalstar.com.
NORTH PLATTE — Tuesday morning’s groundbreaking for a new $29.6 million passenger terminal at the North Platte Regional Airport was about as “ceremonial” as you can get.
As there’s no exposed dirt east of the 1952 terminal to dig into, Nebraska’s U.S. senators and governor and North Platte dignitaries cast their shovels into dirt piled out the south door.
The event marked another milestone in the city’s economic revival nonetheless, causing Gov. Jim Pillen to quip that, “I actually think I’m in North Platte more than I’m home in Columbus, for crying out loud.”
Pillen and three other speakers praised North Platte’s continued momentum while heaping praise on Sen. Deb Fischer, who gave the morning’s last speech.
The Valentine Republican, battling registered Omaha independent Dan Osborn for a third Senate term, led the way in securing federal appropriations that raised the combined federal and state funding share of the new terminal’s costs to between 85% and 90%.
Roads, bridges and airports are “the heart of our modern life,” Fischer said. “We don’t always think about the effort and the resources and the funds that it takes to maintain and to also modernize airports. But we see here today (that) obviously there is a lot that goes on behind the scenes.”
Between 80 and 100 people, including many North Platte and Lincoln County leaders, attended the ceremony that featured the airport’s main taxiway as a backdrop behind the podium.
Construction of the new 24,600-square-foot terminal should be completed in spring 2026, airport officials have said. Sampson Construction of Lincoln won a $29.63 million contract Aug. 26 from the North Platte Airport Authority.
The replacement for the 105-year-old airport’s 72-year-old terminal took just three years to come together after the Airport Authority completed a new 20-year master plan in 2021.
Airport leaders secured full federal funding to prepare the master plan, saved $3 million from its share of COVID-19 federal aid and aggressively sought to tap funds available for terminal upgrades in Congress’ Bipartisan Infrastructure Law of 2021.
Tuesday’s speakers said Fischer, using her clout as a member of four key Senate committees, provided the pivotal assistance in assembling a $22 million package of five federal and state grants beyond the airport’s saved pandemic aid.
Fischer also steered $7 million in earmarked “congressionally directed spending” toward North Platte’s new terminal, Sen. Pete Ricketts said.
“Deb works hard for us behind the scenes,” said Ricketts, who replaced the resigned Sen. Ben Sasse in 2023 and faces Democrat Preston Love Jr. of Omaha on Nov. 5 for the right to finish the last two years of Sasse’s term.
“She’s not one of those senators who’s looking to go on the Sunday morning talk show and get her name plastered all over the media,” he added. “She’s about doing the business for Nebraska.”
Meanwhile, the Nebraska Department of Transportation announced Aug. 20 that the airport would receive $3.4 million in FAA Airport Improvement Program money toward the terminal project. Two smaller federal grants are pending but expected to be awarded in time.
