2021 will see completion of a nearly $1 million updgrade at the Bluffton airport, according to Jesse Blackburn, village administrator.

A November airport planning meeting included a review of 2020 and earlier grants and status updates for several future grants. The discussion points of that November meeting were part of the Dec. 14 Bluffton council agenda.

Blackburn told council members that in 2020 the village received a federal grant to upgrade certain airport taxiways. In 2021 engineering for those upgrades will take place.

Originally the grant for that project included 90 percent federal payment, with the state picking up 5 percent and the village picking up 5 percent of the project cost.

The covid CAREs Act changed that. The federal government will now pay for the entire project, which has a price tag of $977,878.

Attendees at the Nov. 15 airport meeting were Blackburn, Nick Vance, fixed base operator, Jana Radtke and Delvin Lewis, FAA, Eve Brodkin, Ohio Department of Transportation Aviation, and Pat Schwan of WallacePancher, engineering firm (formerly Richland Engineering).