COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL | WEDNESDAY, MAY 1, 2019 | 9A
Center
from A1
Self-promotion has been
part of that uptick. To accel-
erate the airport’s populari-
ty, Nadine has been getting
the word out about the new
center to various aviation
bodies, putting the modest
airport on the map.
Shawn, a pilot himself, is
an aero-volunteer for the
Oregon Department of Avi-
ation. “That basically means
that there’s nobody else
around, so I’m here,” he said.
As part of his routine du-
ties, Shawn walks the run-
way, calls in general mainte-
nance issues, checks to make
sure everything is up to snuff
and helps visiting pilots
however he can.
Though Nadine accept-
ed the Impact Award at the
Cottage Grove Chamber
of Commerce Banquet this
year for getting the welcome
center built, she takes her
role with some humility.
“I’m just the wife of the
pilot,” she said with a laugh.
“And I wanted a bathroom
here.”
More than a decade ago,
the previous owner picked
up the entire structure that
had been there and moved
it off-site, leaving nothing
but a barren slab of broken
cement and a portable toi-
let by the tarmac. For years,
this was effectively Cottage
Grove Airport’s point of wel-
come. Unsurprisingly, aerial
visitations were in a slump.
At a Chamber of Com-
merce meeting on attract-
ing tourism in 2014, Nadine
turned to her husband and
said how nice it would be to
just give the airport a bath-
room. From this the wel-
come center was born.
“I wanted something that
looked good,” said Nadine.
As the nearly-four-year
project took root and gath-
ered momentum, the State
of Oregon was very recep-
tive to the building of the
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center when approached by
the Kelleys. Their plan had
included making donations
tax deductible and handing
ownership over to the state
once construction was com-
pleted.
“Because even if we owned
it, we could just shut it down
next year and say, ‘Sorry. It’s
demonstrated their seri-
ousness in completing the
project, they suddenly found
themselves at the top of the
state’s priorities list. In 2016,
they got their entire runway
redone and they’re also ex-
pecting the tarmac to get
some work to even it out in
the future.
“I’d say about 80 percent
of the people who land
here go into town.”
— Shawn Kelley
too hard. We don’t want to
operate it. We don’t want to
pay for everything,’” Nadine
said. “They were the best
choice because they’ll keep it
open as long as ever is ever.”
Getting the state on board
was a boon for the airport in
more than one way.
At the time, the runway at
the north end was cracked,
uneven and failing. On the
state’s list of 28 airports to
maintain, Cottage Grove was
at the bottom of the repair
priorities list due to its small
size and low traffic.
Instead, the state had
planned to mark off and
abandon 500 unusable feet
of the 3,188-foot runway,
limiting the kinds of aircraft
that could land and further
reducing its attractiveness
for pilots.
“3,000 to 3,500 is normal
length,” said Shawn.
Such situations can be a
death spiral for small air-
ports.
“When we start cutting
your runway, next thing you
know fuel isn’t here anymore
and then once you don’t have
fuel here then traffic really
shuts down the state goes,
‘Ehhh, okay,’” said Shawn.
“And it happens. Once you
start cutting it, you start giv-
ing less and less maintenance
and then you know it’s over
with.”
W
hen the Kelleys came
to the state and
In all, the project cost a
little more than $100,000 to
see its August 2017 ribbon
cutting. The Department of
Aviation officially calls it a
“pilot’s lounge,” but the Kel-
leys call it a welcome center.
“It’s really a tourist infor-
mation center for pilots,”
said Nadine. “They can find
information, relax, get out of
the weather.”
Before the center came up,
Nadine lamented the state of
the airport when bad weath-
er would force pilots to land.
“There’ve been several pilots
over the years who’ve been
stuck [here],” she said. “And
what do they do? Stand un-
der the tree.”
Now, with a place to sit
down inside and do flight
reviews or planning, flight
schools from Corvallis and
Lane Community College
have started using the air-
port, the former benefiting
from a flight distance of over
50 miles, which qualifies
student pilots to log valuable
“cross-country” time.
As an added bonus to the
center, the City of Cottage
Grove has provided a cour-
tesy car at the center for vis-
itors to borrow and take into
town. Through donations,
the Kelleys gave the city back
$140 toward car mainte-
nance at the end of last year.
The airport’s quaint charm
makes it an attractive pit stop
for pilots like Californian
Elias Murraymetzger, who
took a few minutes to chat
at the welcome center while
waiting for the courtesy car.
“This is a lovely airport.
Absolutely lovely,” he said.
“It’s a shame more people
don’t know and understand
that there are so many air-
ports like this all over the
United States — in Oregon
and in California.”
Murraymetzger is a flight
instructor out of San Carlos,
Calif.
“I run an instruction-
al service and my students
like to go cross-country, so
we pick interesting destina-
tions and head out,” he said.
“That’s the thrill for me as
an instructor, to go to some-
place new because it always
presents new and interesting
challenges for both the in-
structor and the student.”
The Cottage Grove State
Airport is a non-towered air-
port, also known as an “un-
controlled airport,” which
means it lacks air traffic con-
trol from a tower.
“It’s a different challenge
than landing at a larger air-
port that has a control tow-
er or radar services,” Mur-
raymetzger said. “Here it’s
self-announced and you ne-
gotiate with other pilots in
the area.”
Such landings are useful
skills for student pilots to
learn.
Students may also benefit
from the airport’s newly-im-
proved runway.
“When we landed, ev-
erybody commented how
smooth the runway was,”
said Murraymetzger. “That’s
a special treat because a lot
of the runways could use
some improvement. … We
love it when we see airports
that are well-maintained,
that have a fresh runway and
have ample parking.”
On top of the amenities,
Murraymetzger appreciated
the small-town intimacy that
comes with landing at places
like Cottage Grove. “I’d make
a strong argument for the
small airports any day of the
week,” he said.
As the flight instructor
took the courtesy car into
town, two new arrivals
hopped on the airport’s bicy-
cles to seek out nearby points
of interest recommended by
Shawn.
“I’d say about 80 percent of
the people who land here go
into town,” Shawn said.
The airport’s location also
puts it within walking dis-
tance of several restaurants,
which many visitors are said
to take advantage of.
While it’s difficult to quan-
tify the economic impact of
the welcome center on the
town, fuel sales at the air-
port provide a bit of insight
into the degree of traffic
increase. Since the center’s
construction, fuel sales have
increased 21 percent and, by
the end of the current fiscal
year, the airport is reported-
ly on track to increase sales
another four or five percent.
The Kelleys are hopeful
those numbers will continue
rising.
“An airport is an aviation
gateway to a city and it can
bring in unique economic
advantages as well — besides
just getting a new bathroom
instead of a Porta Potty,”
Nadine said. “Our goal is to
bring business into Cottage
Grove.”
Nadine makes sure to pro-
vide updated information on
Cottage Grove businesses for
visitors who drop in, going
as far as to pick up menus
from new restaurants to add
to the center’s catalogue.
“The hotels, and shops and
Cottage Theatre — anything
I can think of I try to bring
in to the book so people can
see what they can do,” said
Nadine. “Now I want to pay
the people back. … and give
back to the community in
that way.”
For this particular kind of
weather-dependent tourism,
the coming summer is an
opportunity to see how well
the word has spread among
the pilot community.
“The old Porta Potty was
just a bad message: ‘Do your
businesses, now go away.
Leave us alone,’” Nadine said.
“Now we say, ‘We want you
here. Look what we’ve got to
offer you.’ Because Cottage
Grove has a lot to offer.”
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