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Baxter County is about to authorize its second large round of airport spending in two months, and in both cases the county pays the bills before the money comes back.
An ordinance on the Quorum Court’s Sept. 1 agenda would appropriate $1,493,557.63 in state and federal grant funds for the Baxter County Airport. Added to the $632,973.52 justices approved in August, that puts airport grant spending past $2.1 million since the start of July.
The ordinance spells out why the appropriation is needed. The grants are reimbursable, meaning the county has to spend the money on eligible work and then bill the state and federal agencies to get it back.
Four projects are named. The largest is $620,705.88 for the third phase of taxiway rehabilitation, funded through the Federal Aviation Administration’s Airport Improvement Program.
Another $393,226 goes to phase two of the same taxiway work, drawn from a federal grant tied to the infrastructure law. Carmichael told the court last fall that phase two is a mill and relay job scheduled across 2026 and 2027.
The remaining two line items cover hangar work. The ordinance sets aside $346,554 for an 80-by-60 clear span hangar, listed as hangar No. 3, and $133,071.75 for hangar access. Those come through two state grants from the Arkansas Division of Aeronautics.
The county is putting in money of its own. The ordinance directs the treasurer to move $82,617.98 out of the Airport Fund and into an airport grants cost share account.
The August ordinance drew more attention than most items that night. Airport Director Taylor Carmichael stepped forward to talk about growth at the airport, and the minutes note that the vote came only after much discussion. It passed 9-0.
The spending follows a construction pace the airport has kept up all year. Crews poured footings on a new 80-by-60 hangar in June, a six-bay hangar was set to break ground in July, and a private 100-by-100 hangar is going up as well, with other private builds under discussion.
The demand is not speculative. Carmichael has been working against a hangar waiting list of roughly 50 people. Two years ago the airport had about 70 aircraft registered and only 40 hangars, with another 60 planes asking for space.
The taxiway work has been in the pipeline nearly as long. Carmichael said last year the airport had been approved to start phase one design, which was meant to lead into the larger phase two.
Federal records show the money arriving in steps. The FAA awarded the airport $67,450 for taxiway rehabilitation in July 2025, then $741,071 more in May of this year. The 2026 award was made up of $341,071 in entitlement funds and $400,000 in discretionary money.
An earlier grant of $100,043 in August 2024 paid for the runway visual guidance system the airport installed and later put into service.
Airport supporters have long made an economic case for the spending. The airport generates as much as $9 million a year in activity for the county, according to figures the airport has cited, and it handles medical flights, military aircraft, business travel and tourism.
The facility has also drawn interest as an economic development site. The county’s Economic Development Committee voted last winter to survey two parcels at the airport, of 76 and 62 acres, for possible addition to the industrial park.
County Judge Kevin Litty and the airport advisory board have been working through a five-year plan approved by the FAA, with a longer runway as a long-term goal. Each expansion is treated as a step toward that.
What the packet does not show is the full picture. The ordinance lists this year’s appropriations but not the total cost of the taxiway rehabilitation across all three phases, and it does not say how much county money has gone into cost share over the life of the projects.
That number matters because of how reimbursable grants work. Between the appropriation and the reimbursement, the county is carrying the cost, and the timing of that gap is a fair question for the treasurer’s office.
The court meets at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday in the second-floor courtroom of the courthouse.
