Personnel from U.S. Customs stop by the Adirondack Regional Airport in Lake Clear for lunch in January 2018. (Enterprise photo — Glynis Hart)

LAKE CLEAR — Adirondack Regional Airport was awarded $295,000 in federal funding last week, and while Airport Manager Corey Hurwitch is still waiting on the rules from the Federal Aviation Administration on how the money can be spent, he’s sure he’ll find something to spend on.

“We’ve always got ways we can spend money,” he said with a laugh. “It’s definitely helpful and greatly wanted.”

This isn’t a ton of money, he said. Their projects — repaving runways and renovating hangers — cost millions of dollars. But it helps.

The Harrietstown-owned Adirondack Regional Airport is one of 59 New York airports getting almost $137 million through the recently passed Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

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Superfund site

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Hurwitch is waiting to see if the money can be used toward remediating the PFAS chemicals contaminating the water and soil there. Last year, the airport was designated as a Superfund Site because of the harmful chemicals which have been sprayed there.

“The biggest thing for the airport is and will continue to be for a long time, the superfund status,” Hurwitch said. “Everything that we do is affected by that.”

He said it has slowed down essential projects and added costs.

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Revenues stayed steady

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Despite the coronavirus pandemic, revenues there have been stable, Hurwitch said.

Last year, revenues were way down in the spring, which concerned him.

“When the lockdowns and everything happened it was pretty scary how much revenue we could have lost,” he said.

But by the end of the year, revenues exceeded expectations. Thanks to a very busy August, the airport was able to recover.

Hurwitch said 2021 revenue is “significantly up” from 2020 and even 2019. That’s because general aviation business has been up.

Commercial air travel — like Cape Air, which contracts with Harrietstown to use the airport for flights — is still not back at pre-COVID levels. It’s been a year of more private plane flights.

Hurwitch said the airport makes most of its revenue through jet fuel sales. It also makes revenue through parking, landing and ramp fees. Harrietstown taxpayers make up the rest.

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Hertz leaving hurts

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Hurwitch said when Hertz pulled all of its rental cars from its franchise at the airport in June, its caused a lot of problems for air travelers.

“They were horrendous about it,” he said. “They didn’t notify people. Even as late as September, we were still getting people arriving who thought they had a rental car.”

He said Vermont Rental Cars has been a great help with finding passengers last-minute cars. Hurwitch hope the company will eventually base a few cars at the airport, so people can avoid dropoff and pickup fees, which add a “substantial” price for the average renter.

He said this will be hard because business is so seasonal at Adirondack Regional Airport.

For now, Hurwitch said the air is less busy around the airport, which is fine, because he said they’re spending a lot of time plowing the runway.