Photo from Le Roy Airport website.
Ray Detor doesn’t yet know the full scope and price of a future project at his Le Roy Airport, but he does know he would like to be considered for a grant that’s been offered for public and private airports throughout New York State.
The engineer studies are in progress for work that includes making the airport more energy efficient, updated with renovations to restrooms and office space and shored up with new doors on a Quonset hut, Detor said.
“Gov. Hochul was offering airports the ability to apply for a grant, and we are in the process of applying for one. The cost is undetermined at this point, but it's to further to continue and maintain the airport in the state-of-the-art fashion that it already is, with upgrades along the way that we have needed in a long time,” he said Wednesday to The Batavian. “Our applications basically don't go in until the 22nd of January, so everything is still being put together and determined to be what is the best approach for a number of different options."
Earlier Wednesday, his project was briefly presented to the Genesee County Ways & Means Committee for legislators to endorse the Le Roy Aviation Services, Inc. grant application.
Detor's not certain about how many applicants he will be competing against, and being a private airport doesn’t provide any discrepancy in the required paperwork, guidelines and regulations that he must abide by than others such as John F. Kennedy International Airport, he said.
Le Roy Airport is privately owned but is available for public use, so “you have to sign grant assurances and do the same thing that JFK does, that Syracuse does, that Buffalo does, all the airports have to sign the same kind of paperwork,” he said.
"As for the award, we may not know for a year. It just depends on how quickly everything works," he said. "As long as we’re coming in with something appropriate for an airport, everything is considered and judged on various merits.”
The grant is being offered through the state Department of Transportation. Eligible project activities include safety projects, preservation projects, new construction, sustainability and other projects that enhance business development and economic competitiveness, according to the state's website.
Projects will be selected through a competitive solicitation process and rated based on established criteria. These include economic benefits for surrounding communities and businesses, adherence to regional economic development plans, safety improvements, improved operational efficiency, and energy efficiency and emissions reduction.
More specifically, the Le Roy work includes LED lighting, solar panels — either on top of a building with a sunny southern exposure or in a field removed from the runway — and adding one or more electric car charging stations, depending on the budget.
“If we can supplement any of our energy costs that make the airport more efficient, that’s a win for everybody,” Detor said. “An existing hangar with office space and restroom facilities will be updated and made ADA compliant.”’
That work will be in approximately 1,000 of the building’s 8,000 square feet, he said. The Quonset, a 1960s half moon-shaped structure, is still “in really good shape,” though the doors could use a refresh, and will be replaced with a weather-resistant aluminum or other strong material, he said. These buildings are often spotted on farms and were used post-World War II to keep troops safe, allowing rain and snow to just slide right off the arching roof. They are amazing structures, he said.
Needless to say, that Quonset isn’t going anywhere for some time to come.
Actually, the airport receives plenty of attention on a regular basis, Detor said, with an upgrade two years ago with a new $700,000 hangar, asphalt crack fill and sealing, and fuel pump upgrades planned for 2025.
Le Roy Airport has been around since 1945, he estimated, and as owner for 30 years who began to fly at age 14, he hasn’t just invested financially but emotionally as well. Why?
“It’s freedom. When you get up in the sky, you’re dealing with the third dimension. See on the ground, we can go left, right, straight. But when you jump up in the air, for example, just to jump as a person jumping up, you're now defying gravity," he said. "And when you fly, well, you're taking that third dimension all the way. You're going away, to where you're going up to, whether it's 2,000 or 5,000 or 8,000 feet, and you're going to the destination no different, really, than you would if you were in a car or a boat. You just happen to be in a plane, and a plane going through the air.
“It's nothing more than going through water because that's what, basically, what the air is. It's nothing more than water. But what it is about the sky is it’s just beautiful," he said. "Looking down at the ground, seeing the snow-covered fields this time of year, or the farmers out doing the planting at different times and harvesting, you get flying all over, it looks like somebody made quilts all over the place, different colors.”
This project may align with the World Aerobatic Competition coming to Batavia in 2026, and that’s a nice coincidence, not planned, he said. Event competitors will be using Le Roy Airport as one of four practice sites before the 10-day event in late August.
Part of a practice site will mean setting up an air box, which involves the Federal Aviation Administration and will be regulated boundaries set up with measured zones that each competitor plane must stay within during his or her routines, and other air traffic will be alerted that it exists once set up.
“So the notices are published out there. And once they’re published, then they have to be adhered to. And if somebody does not adhere to it, well, of course, they can get in trouble,” he said.
He looks forward to the airport upgrades and upcoming event at his busy facility. Visitors fly in from anywhere such as Maine to California, he said.
Legislators in the committee agreed to endorse the application. A resolution will go on to the county Legislature for a final vote to endorse the grant application for state funds under the NYS Aviation Capital Grant program for an Airport Energy Efficiency Improvement Project.
Under State Transportation Law, the state Department of Transportation requires that privately owned airports submit an endorsing resolution from the governing body of the county where the airport is located. There is no budget impact for Genesee County.
