Aviation View | Volume 2, Issue 2

78 AVIATION VIEW VOLUME 2, ISSUE 2 attests, “The water that comes off the property and into the streams is so filtered that’s it’s probably cleaner than what’s in the streams already. So we made sure we protected the environment around our community.” For the future, Brienza has some key objectives in mind. He shares, “On the west coast, we suffer from wildfires in Washington State and California, and the smoke comes in and affects our commercial airlines. So to help combat that, we have the U.S. Forestry Service based here. They bring in VLATs (Very Large Air Tankers) to get filled with fire retardant – but we don’t have room to accommodate more than one. So we’re expanding that ramp by three-fold, which will allow four of those aircraft in at any given time. It appears that we are in a very good position to receive state funding to assist with that project. “Looking ahead, The Aviation Center of Excellence is high on our radar, we really want to get that off the ground. We need to start being the pipeline for people interested in aviation careers because the pilot shortage is unbelievable. And we also want to be able to build general aviation facilities so we don’t have to turn developers, and eventually revenue, away from the airport. So many great things on the horizon!” PREFERRED VENDORS/PARTNERS n Travel Medford www.travelmedford.org 101 E 8th Street Medford OR 97501 n Travel Southern Oregon www.southernoregon.org 33 N Central Ave #203 Medford OR 97501