The Sparta Board of Mayor and Alderman voted Thursday night to allocate $120,000 to the Upper Cumberland Regional Airport to assist with future grant requests.
Sparta Mayor Jerry Lowery said the city along with the airports other three owners, Cookeville, Putnam County and White County all agreed to put in the same amount of money. Lowery said the money will be set aside for when the airport needs it.
“We’re just trying to get that, if it happens, we’re going to be ready to do that,” Lowery said. “And then we can go ahead and put that money in a matching fund account for the growth of the airport. We’re just trying to be proactive because we know some of these things are coming, and there are deadlines. So we thought, let’s beat the deadlines before it happens.”
Lowery said there are no set plans for purchases right now. Lowery said he expects some future purchases will likely include land for parking, a traffic control tower and electronic instrument reading equipment.
Lowery said the airport is a valuable asset to all of the Upper Cumberland.
“People don’t want to go to Knoxville and to fight the Nashville traffic,” Lowery said. “They’re figuring out that we’ve got a good airport and gas airport here and they’re flying in, stopping filling up. We’ve got car rental there now, they’re renting cars and they’re pulling in and going to Fall Creek Falls. They’re going to business deals in the area, so they can avoid Nashville.”
In other business, Aldermen approved spending $11,810 to repair a garbage truck and $19,785 to repair a dump truck.
