Angela Brandt
Havre Daily News
abrandt@havredailynews.com
The newly remodeled terminal at the Havre City-County Airport is now open.
“We've needed this terminal for a long time. It was nice to see it,” said Big Sky Airlines pilot Eric Knudson.
Jim Clark was seeing his wife, Betty, off to visit their daughter in Billings on Friday afternoon.
“They needed to do something. The old terminal was really bad,” Jim Clark said.
Betty Clark said she especially likes the rock work on the interior and exterior of the building, but thinks the terminal would look better if money were spent on new furniture.
Her husband agreed.
“Once we can get some furniture in here, it will be complete,” said Jim Clark.
Havre station manager for Big Sky Airlines, Jamie Lambrecht, said she considers the new terminal a “blank canvas.”
She said the terminal has a lot of potential.
“It would be really neat if we could get pictures, fossils and animals to show people what Havre has to offer,” Lambrecht said.
Penny Velk was at the airport sending a foreign exchange student back home to South Korea. She frequents the airport to send and receive students and said the new look is a great improvement.
“Before I would have to tell the students, ‘Don't be scared because the terminal is shabby,'” Velk said.
Shawn Stadel, who works for a general contractor, was putting a few finishing touches on the terminal on Friday, installing vertical blinds. Friday was the first time he had seen the completed building. The last time he had seen it was during the remodeling.
“It's a beautiful building,” Stadel said.
The new terminal includes a secure luggage room, a meeting room, lobby and a vending machine room.
The cost is $517,000 so far, said city finance director Lowell Swenson. The airport board estimated the price of the remodeling would be a total of about $640,000. The costs will be covered with federal avaiation funds, some of which were borrowed from other Montana airports and will need to be repaid.
The construction included a new, sloped roof to replace the leaking flat roof the terminal had previously.
“That (the flat roof) started the whole thing. It went from redoing the roof to redoing the whole building,” Swenson said.
The building was completely gutted out with only its foundation and cinderblocks remaining, Lambrecht said.
A trailer was used as a temporary terminal during construction, which began in summer.
An open house for the new terminal is being planned.
