Hutchinson County Airport in Borger Serves the Area’s Largest Employer and Tries to Ward Off Wildlife
By Brandon V. Webb
Texas Transportation Institute
Dennis O’Bryant has seen more than a few oddities in the 15 years he’s spent managing the Hutchinson County Airport near Borger. From celebrities like Jerry Springer, Roy Clark and Anna Nicole Smith, to a meeting between a Citation XL and a wayward deer (plane’s repair bill: $300,000), he’s had a lot to manage.
In-between celebrity sightings and near misses with wildlife, he’s overseen the repair of some 60,000 feet of runway cracks in a single year, and he expects to repair at least that much in the coming months.
The airport was built in canyon country in 1948. The runway is flanked at the end by a canyon drop-off that could inspire heartburn in the saltiest of pilots. O’Bryant says the facility was built atop a canyon smoothed out by fill dirt, to which he attributes the constant runway cracks. As he puts it, maybe dirt was cheap.
“We wrapped up a big concrete ramp improvement project and fixed a three-percent grade that was causing a safety issue with airplanes rolling off,” O’Bryant says. ‘We resurfaced the runways and taxiways, improved drainage, widened hangar access and all with the help of the Texas Department of Transportation’s (TxDOT’s) Aviation Division. It’s been a real pleasure for me to work with their staff. They’re into airports-just like I am.”
On the Horizon…
“Our next big project is a new terminal building, which came about through our Borger Economic Development Corporation,” O’Bryant says. ”They approached me about what they could do at the airport, and I said the biggest thing we could do to enhance our facilities is build a new building-this one is 58 years old.”
Upping the terminal square footage from 2,000-square feet to 3,500-square feet, adding office space, a secluded pilot’s lounge and a weather briefing area are improvements O’Bryant says will better serve the ever-growing list of people who use the airport.
”Virtually every major employer in Hutchinson County has business interests that utilize the airport,” O’Bryant says. “ConocoPhillips, our largest employer in the county, has Gulfstream IVs and Vs. They have a lot of work going on in this refinery and they’re merging with EnCana, a Canadian company, so I’m starting to see their aircraft come in from Calgary. Last time they brought in two jets and 38 people. Oil and gas is the industry here for sure.”
The massive ConocoPhillips Borger refinery certainly is eye-catching from its perch near the airport. The facility predates the airport by 21 years, having been built in 1927. It was the first facility to produce 100-octane fuel and the first refinery to remove sulfur from gasoline and diesel-a hallmark of environmental improvements in fuel production.
Shoo, dangit!
As if the veteran airport manager doesn’t have enough on his plate keeping fuel prices low, servicing industry executives and building a new terminal, he’s got to keep a wary eye toward the runway and the deer who like to graze at its edges.
“The next project we’ll kick off is a game fence,” says O’Bryant. ‘With our proximity to the Canadian River and with all of the fires the last couple of years, the game were scavenging for food. We have a real deer problem, and they like to run across the runways. The Citation pilot who hit that deer on landing said his aircraft was still doing about 100 knots.”
So with TxDOT’s assistance O’Bryant will fend deer off part of the 360- acre airport with an eight-foot game fence.
“I’m looking forward to getting that in. Those deer show up in the evenings.”
