Photo Courtesy of KYTV
The Missouri Governor’s office recently denied a funding request from the City of West Plains to fence out wildlife from the airport’s runways.
According to a report from KYTV, the city requested the money due to frequent problems with wildlife wandering onto the runway and into the path of pilots. There have been no injuries reported from the incidents, however they have caused damages to airplanes.
Cody Sanders, Public Relations Coordinator with the City of West Plains, says “Over the last six years, we’ve had five or six animal strikes by airplanes. This year, we had one that caused approximately $800,000 in damages to an airplane.”
The city requested around $1.5 million in order to build a fence to prevent wildlife from accessing the runways. The governor’s office denied these funds.
In response to the denial, Sanders states “It’s disappointing. We are trying to keep everyone safe. We want our pilots and everyone on board our planes to be safe in this setting. We want them to land with no potential obstruction. We’re currently working on the 2025 budget, so we’ll see what we can do internally. We’ll always be looking out for grant opportunities and filling out grant applications every chance we get.”
The city was informed they wouldn’t receive the funds from an area state representative, but they still have yet to hear from the governor’s’s office why the funds were denied. Governor Mike Parson’s veto letter states the general assembly “grossly overappropriated Budget Stabilization Funds.”
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