Umatilla To Buy 50 More Acres Of Land At Airport

    The City of Umatilla is looking to expand its municipal airport footprint in a big way. The Umatilla City Council on Tuesday night approved a Florida Department of Transportation grant that will fund the city's purchase of 47.58 acres of open land just to the east of the airport and across Skyline Drive.
    The FDOT has approved a $1,025,000 grant for the purchase. The land is currently owned by members of the Martin family, descendants of the late Bob Martin, who lived on land adjacent to the parcel under discussion.
    While the city has no immediate plans for the land, owning it will prevent development on it, and in time, the property could be absorbed into the airport by the relocation of Skyline Drive to the eastern part of the parcel.
    The city has no match for the grant.
    The purchase is just the latest activity at the airport. Currently, contractors are on-site undertaking the northern extension of the airport runway. That project is expected to cover an estimated 300 feet. That project has included the creation of a large dirt pit on city property just east of the airport, dirt that is being moved to the north end of the runway to make the area appropriate for the extension, as the land on the north end of the airport dips toward a lake.
    “The borrow pit will be graded and sodded once all is done,” said city manager Scott Blankenship on Monday while providing an update on the project.