Bud Kunkel, chairman of the Airport Advisory Commission, told city councilors on Thursday that decisions about major projects at the Roswell Air Center (RAC) need to be made sooner rather than later.
One of them in particular is the expansion of the terminal building so that it can accommodate the estimated tens of thousands of people who will arrive by plane to watch the National Championship Air Races, an event that will hold its air races in Roswell starting in September 2025.
Kunkel called on city councilors to set up a working group to look into expanding the terminal building. This type of construction is expected to take more time than hosting the air races.
Some numbers are tempting. For example, the report from the University of Reno (Nevada) found that the total economic impact of the 2023 air races was $158 million and that 150,000 people attended the final race there.
If the Roswell Air Races are held with regional cooperation among communities in southeastern New Mexico, they could attract attendance in the mid to high five-figure range. Airport commissioners have received numerous estimates of how this event could develop here. That information was discussed during that commission’s meeting in April. Kunkel reiterated Thursday that there are numerous estimates.
The city is 18 to 24 months behind in providing adequate facilities and infrastructure for the air races. In June, the RAC recorded 5,933 aircraft boardings. But for the 2023 air races, which will be held Sept. 13-17 at Reno-Stead Airport, about 24,800 people traveled by air to and from that event.
For an event of this magnitude, the terminal building would have to efficiently handle significantly more passengers through check-in, security checks, boarding and disembarking from aircraft, baggage claim, and rental car pickup and return.
Kunkel noted that the number of attendees using the airport will be lower in the early years of the event because some of those attendees are expected to fly to other airports such as Albuquerque, Lubbock, El Paso and Midland-Odessa, then rent cars to get to Roswell and drive back to the departure airport.
Roswell’s monthly passenger numbers are only “about 24% of the passengers who flew into Reno during race week,” Kunkel pointed out. “Now you have a pretty good idea of the magnitude of the difficulties Roswell faces in moving people through our current airport terminal.”
Kunkel then pushed for the formation of a small working group of four or five people, consisting of representatives from Roswell, Chaves County, the Roswell-Chaves County Economic Development Corporation and the National Championship Air Races. The group would focus on finding a workable way to handle the influx of visitors coming here for the event.
Expanding the terminal building has been an issue for city and RAC officials long before efforts to attract air racing began. The first designs for the building’s expansion were drawn up in 2019, when three different options were presented.
The working group must expand knowledge based on existing technical studies to find the “fastest and most cost-effective way to increase” the space in the terminal building to accommodate these visitors, he said.
The terminal is nearly 50 years old and has undergone several renovations, but none of them were this transformative. The 2019 design work included several options at different costs.
In addition to developing that plan and a timeline to actually achieve that goal, the group will also be tasked with “finding funding sources for a terminal expansion that the city can afford,” Kunkel said. The $2 million secured so far is “just a drop in the bucket.”
Depending on the scope and approach, the cost could easily exceed $10 million.
The most expensive design concept for the terminal building from 2019 was estimated to cost at least $30 million.
“We cannot afford that,” stressed Kunkel. But if planning does not begin soon to find a viable solution, “we will be embarrassed.”
The company should be able to deal with this situation within about 90 days.
Investment plan for infrastructure improvement: City councilors chose five priority items for the Infrastructure Capital Improvement Plan (ICIP) for fiscal years 2026-30. Some councilors were unhappy that the process did not receive the attention – and publicity – that had originally been proposed.
Councilman Robert Corn called the process “secret.” Corn and several other councilors said the process weighed too heavily on the opinions of city employees.
Corn proposed an amendment to change the process for setting final priorities. One change he was unable to get enough support for from the other council members was to allow each council member to use all five of their options on a project.
Mayor Timothy Jennings was among those who said that city councilors should attend the meeting if they wanted to participate in such actions.
Councillor Angela Moore, who joined by telephone, said the proposals should have been discussed and agreed upon earlier.
The deadline for submitting the plan to the state ended on Friday.
ICIP is technically a planning document, but when proposals are well drafted, they can increase the likelihood of important projects receiving funding from the state and federal governments.
Here are the five most important ICIP projects:
1. Real-time Crime Center
2. Airport terminal generator
3. Expansion of Roswell Fire Station 1
4. Columbarium for the South Park Cemetery
5. Acquisition of land to expand the municipal sewage treatment plant.
FEMA Agreements: City councilors approved two separate agreements with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to use a building and property at the airport to continue relief efforts needed following fires and flash floods in the Ruidoso area.
FEMA will lease 10 acres of land in the southeastern part of the airport to build emergency shelters. Up to 120 FEMA employees in various capacities are expected to remain there until conditions in Ruidoso are made more bearable.
The agency will also lease the former New Mexico Department of Health building near the intersection of Gail Harris Street and E. Challenger Street.
Both rental contracts have a term of up to 12 months and also offer shorter termination options if required.
These agreements were placed on the Council’s agenda and voted on together with numerous other items.
