By Pepper Fisher

SEQUIM – Thanks to a couple of grants from the Washington State Department of Transportation, pilots taking off and landing at the Sequim Valley Airport are doing so on brand new surface.

The 3500 foot runway is a private corporation but open for public use. Owner Andy Sallee says the engineering and paving grants, plus the 5% match the airport partners had to come up with, which totaled about $900,000, is just the start of what will be a series of upgrades.

“That’s a game changer for the airport in terms of our long-term planning. Because now we can put more money towards things like new hangars and upgrades to current facilities. Better weather recording equipment, things that will help pilots and things like Life Flite helicopters coming in. We’ve got about 25 airplanes that are based full-time out of Sequim Valley airport now and this just gives them a better facility all around.”

You’d be forgiven if you live in Sequim and don’t know where the Sequim Valley Airport is. It’s actually located in Carlsborg and has been operating since 1988. Sallee says business is good, with all the hangars currently full, and there’s a waiting list. And although it’s privately owned, the grants they got for upgrades require that it remains a public use airport for at least the next 20 years.

Sallee says the airport provides a lot of benefits to the community that many of us never think much about. Besides Life Flite helicopters, he says the Coast Guard and Army train there, and if the big one ever comes, Sequim Valley Airport will play a crucial role.

“And maybe the biggest thing the airport provides; the big 9.0 earthquake in the future, hopefully, we don’t in our lifetime, but if we did, that would be an area for staging food, because we’d have 101 probably washed out where the casino is, and Morse Creek, we’d be isolated. And Sequim Valley Airport would be be a place they could land helicopters and airplanes and distribute food and supplies to the local community. So there’s a lot of hidden things about the airport that it provides to the community that people aren’t aware of.”

Sallee says they got lucky when a lot of things came together late in September with near perfect weather conditions, an available paving crew, and dry soil conditions, all allowing them to complete the job in two weeks.

(Photo: Andy Sallee)