by Brandon V. Webb,
Texas Transportation Institute
Take a deep whiff in the windy heart of Hereford, Texas, and you’ re bound to come up with more than a snoot full of Panhandle grit. That certain something in the air, what locals call “the smell of money,” suggests there may be one or two head of cattle nearby. Try 3.5 million or so in the surrounding area-with a million head fed each year in Deaf Smith County alone, where Hereford is the county seat.
The town is at the center of the cattle feeding industry in Texas and dubs itself the “Beef Capital of the World.” But it’s also at the leading edge of the quest for alternative energies. In Hereford, they’re turning corn into gold and cow patties into a prize worth premium pay. Smack dab in the middle of the emerging Texas “new energy” boom sits the Hereford Municipal Airport and Director Teresa Lyons.
“When I got here four years ago less than half of our hangars were filled, and we would go days without even a single plane landing,” says Lyons. ‘We might sell 1,000 gallons of Avgas every two months and less of Jet A Now we’ re up to about 2,000 gallons each of Avgas and Jet A-every month. One month I sold 4,000 gallons of Jet A”
A sure measure of an airport’s air traffic volume, fuel sales in Hereford have risen sharply to accommodate the growth in travel for ethanol energy executives and contractors traveling to their new facilities at Panda Ethanol and White Energy. Texas’ open embrace of agriculture has also invited a boom for cattle dairy executives seeking to move operations and flee states with soaring taxes, land prices and regulations.
“The ethanol plants have brought in so much traffic, but the dairies and feed yards bring in traffic, too,” acknowledges Lyons. ‘We recently saw a study showing that for 30 years Hereford averaged one new house built per year, and that was true through 2003. In 2005, there were 17 built. In 2006, 17 more were built. Then 25 were built in 2007, along with two apartment complexes completed and a third on the way. Things are exploding.”
The Lyons Family
Lyons, a second-generation pilot and graduate of Texas A&M University, is a passionate advocate of flying, airports and her husband-a tall, patient figure answering to “Kevin,” who is an instructor and corporate pilot. The two live in a city-owned home on the airport property, which allows Teresa to work five days per week, each a 24-hour on-call shift. Kevin proved an exceedingly patient teacher during our post-interview flight, where yours truly seemed bent on running our nose into the nearest feedlot. I felt certain an extra pattie or two was deposited when unsuspecting cattle looked up to see our Cessna 172 lurch toward them while under my control. His patience, steady hand and humor made an impression on me, but nothing like the impact his wife Teresa has made on the city of Hereford.
Within a year of her employment at Hereford Municipal Airport, the facility had increased revenues by 400 percent. The perfect storm created by Lyons’ affable and professional management style, the Panhandle’s energy boom and a fortuitous turn in the agriculture markets with no end in sight-has drawn attention to the airport’s need for growth.
A terminal fit for living
Dwain “Pitt” Pittinger, a retired spray pilot who serves as the airport’s unofficial/ official Ambassador, Greeter and Chief Historian, gave Wingtips a guided tour of the terminal upon arrival.
The terminal is an architectural jewel comprised of two four-corner boxes, one inside the other, to form an eight-sided building. It is timeless, thirty-something, with great bones and solid wooden doors from New Mexico. The interior is inviting, fresh, spotless and is undergoing improvements to add a lounge and update equipment. But most of the real blood, sweat and dollars are being dedicated to the meat-and-potatoes part of any airport-the flat stuff outside.
Big help for Hereford
With funding from the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT}, the airport and the City of Hereford are undertaking an $8 million improvement project that comprises a new runway, created from scratch, that will lengthen the airport’s overall runway space from 5,378 feet to 6,100 feet.
The new runway will widen the existing space from 75 feet to 100 feet. In addition, the airport will get new runway lights, a parking area in front of the fuel pumps and the taxiways will get a facelift.
The new runway will replace the existing runway that, upon inspection, is deeply cracked and slowly sliding apart in layers. The city plans to demolish and recycle the old runway once the new asphalt strip is stretched. The new runway will be “double-strength” and sufficiently wide enough and long enough to meet insurance takeoff and landing requirements for large corporate jets. In addition, the longer runway allows jets to take on more fuel, which always helps an airport’s bottom line.
“I’ve heard stories where the airport is the redheaded stepchild of a city,” says Lyons. “I’ve heard cities don’t like to spend money on the airport, or they begrudgingly spend money on it. But the city manager here, especially, and the mayor and city council all seem to know how important this is. Anytime I tell them we need something, they get it for us .”
