People have until Sunday, Jan. 15. to submit public comments on a draft master plan update for Kalispell City Airport prepared by Stelling Engineers Inc.

"We are getting comments in and we will be going over them," said Jeff Walla, an engineer with the company.

Walla said he did not know how many public comments have been sent in so far. "They will be part of the public record. Depending on how many we get in, we may include them as an appendix in the final document."

Comments can be sent via email to jwalla@stellinginc.com or by mail to: Stelling Engineers Inc., 1372 Airport Rd., Kalispell, MT 59901.

Walla said Stelling has not received any comments on the draft master plan update from the Federal Aviation Administration. The lengthy document was sent off for comment following a Dec. 19 work session with the Kalispell City Council.

"We're hopeful we'll get [FAA] comments back sometime in January, and then we can start wrapping them together for a final document, but I have no way of gauging when they'll come in," he said.

The earliest possible completion date for a final master plan update is likely early March, Walla told the City Council.

Completed over nearly two years, the $97,000 master plan update is mostly funded by the Federal Aviation Administration.

The study includes an airport inventory, statistics on airport use, aviation forecasts, facility requirements and more than a dozen alternatives that have been explored to either maintain, upgrade or close the 83-year-old general aviation airport in south Kalispell.

The draft master plan update narrows those alternatives down to five options.

What to do with Kalispell City Airport has vexed city officials for more than 10 years.

The council eventually will have to pick a path forward, depending in part on whether it wants to upgrade the airport to make it eligible for federal funding through the Airport Improvement Program, which funds airport improvements through aviation fuel taxes and passenger ticket fees.

That federal funding could cover an estimated 90 to 95 percent of upgrade costs and include up to $150,000 a year for annual maintenance - going back as many as four years - and potential reimbursement for some $3.1 million the city already has spent on Kalispell City Airport.

The draft master plan update is available for review at Kalispell City Hall or online at www.kalispell.com/mayor_and_city_council/CityAirportInformation.php.

The five options and estimated costs spelled out in the Stelling study include:

• A "do-nothing" option that would eventually close the airport as its pavement deteriorates over the next five to 10 years. Stelling estimated it would cost the city about $4.8 million to buy out various lease holders, a total that would shrink over time as the leases near their expiration dates.

• Immediately closing the airport and transferring tenants and users to Glacier Park International Airport. This option also would require the city to buy-out existing leases, and leave the city ineligible to be reimbursed for its past expenditures.

• Upgrading the airport at its current location to meet A-1 and B-1 aircraft standards, but not make it eligible for federal funding. That would cost an estimated $2.73 million, all of which would be borne by the city.

• Upgrading the airport at its current location to meet B-2 aircraft standards and make it eligible for federal funding. That would cost an estimated $10.116 million total, with a local share of about $505,000.

• Relocating the airport to a site near West Reserve Drive and West Spring Creek Road and making it eligible for federal funding. That would cost an estimated $11.224 million, with a local share of $1.543 million because some costs could not be recovered.

Reporter Tom Lotshaw may be reached at 758-4483 or by email at tlotshaw@dailyinterlake.com.