Mesquite airport plan takes shape

      WASHINGTON -- Southern Nevada has moved a step closer to another commercial airport with the introduction of a bill in Congress allowing federal land to be bought for an airfield outside Mesquite.
      The legislation, introduced May 9 by Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., would allow the city of Mesquite to buy just more than 7,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management property.
      Mayor Ken Carter said the proposed airport would focus on freight and, to a lesser degree, commercial and charter air traffic.
      "What we're keying on is more of an influence of cargo," he said, adding the city's central location to Phoenix, Salt Lake City and Los Angeles is also a plus.
      "If Mesquite could become a regional distributor for a postal company like UPS, they could actually land in Mesquite and be on the road while they'd still be circling the Las Vegas area," Carter added.
      The Mesquite project is the second Southern Nevada airport proposal to surface this year.
      A privately funded cargo airport is on the drawing board for Ivanpah Valley, between Jean and Primm about 45 miles south of Las Vegas. It recently passed a feasibility study, according to Ray Young, project manager for the planned Nevada International Industrial Air Centre.
      Although Clark County would be an active partner in developing the Mesquite site, officials said they do not want to discourage the private venture.
      "We want to encourage them (the Ivanpah group), but we're concerned that the financing may not be in place," said Tina Quigley, assistant planning director at the Clark County Aviation Department.
      Carter said he was unconcerned about the Ivanpah Valley project but added it might prove to be a competitor in the future.
      "I would imagine that UPS or whatever would want to concentrate on only one regional site," he said. "That would be a threat to one of us."
      Ray Young, project manager for Nevada International Air Center, downplayed competition with Mesquite by stressing his proposal would eventually be one hub of a worldwide distributed cargo network.
      "We don't anticipate head-to-head competition with the Mesquite site," Young said.
      The mayor said he anticipates no funding conflicts with the other proposal.
      "It's kind of a different thing altogether. Theirs is private and ours is more of a municipal facility," Carter said. "The Federal Aviation Administration would be more prone to finance public ventures."
      Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., who is studying the Ivanpah proposal, is considering action in the Senate to simply transfer the Mesquite land to the city.
      "We're considering adding language to the Interior appropriations bill to give the land to the community," said Jenny Backus, a Reid spokeswoman.
      According to his staff, Gibbons is not aware of the Ivanpah proposal and has thrown his support to the Mesquite airport.
      "The proposed airport will serve the needs of Mesquite's growing resorts and, one day, the airport may relieve Las Vegas' McCarran International," he said.
      Clark County estimates the Mesquite project would cost between $30 million and $40 million. Quigley said the $10 million difference is because of the airport's proposed location atop the one-mile by six-mile Flat Top Mesa, four miles west of Mesquite. Population 9,000, Mesquite is on Interstate 15 about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
      Quigley called it an ideal location in alignment with prevailing winds.
      "If ever God created a site for an airport, that is the site," Quigley said. But because the facility would be built on a mesa, "access to the site is going to be complicated," she said.
      Spearheaded by Carter and Mesquite-area businesses, the proposed airport would serve to remove strain from McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas and later as a new commercial hub for western Nevada and Southern Utah.
      "It would be great for relieving McCarran Airport from some cargo and charter flights," Quigley said. However, she added the real effects of the new facility would be felt 15 to 20 years from now when McCarran is expected to reach capacity.
      The construction time line is up in the air, largely depending on the availability of federal matching funds, Quigley added. "We probably won't see any federal funds until fiscal year 1998," she said. "After that, it's going to be two or three years before construction can begin."
      The airport would be built with a single runway, capable of handling 230,000 takeoffs and landings a year, Quigley said. Quigley said her department has submitted funding requests to the FAA for a site selection study, environmental assessment and later the design of a master plan.
      Mesquite-area business owners have also pushed for the airport.
      "It not only will help our business immensely, it will help the community immensely," said Alan Green, a land developer and head of Oasis, a Mesquite hotel.
      Green anticipates a 15 to 20 percent revenue increase within a year of the airport's opening. If the airstrip attracts commuter or commercial carriers, those numbers would increase further, he said.
      "The passenger travel will naturally follow from the freight being established first," Green said. "This whole area will open up."