By David Vitrano
L’Observateur

RESERVE  – In most places, 1,500 feet of asphalt doesn’t mean that much, a short length of road requiring several hundreds of thousands of feet more to be really useful, but at St. John Airport, that 1,500 feet of asphalt means the world.
“It’s a game changer for us,” said St. John Airport Manager Kent Greene.
The length of added runway, bringing the total to slightly more than 5,150 feet, opens the airport up to traffic it could not handle with its former 4,000-foot landing strip. The opening of the lengthened runway was celebrated with a Friday ribbon cutting ceremony that drew officials from across the River Parishes and beyond.
In his last official speech as Port of South Louisiana executive director, Joel Chaisson, who handed the reins over to Paul Aucoin Monday, said, “People don’t realize what you have here. Most of you realize the Port of South Lousiana is a jewel among ports.”
He said the airport improvements along with good rail and highway connections will do even more to attract new businesses to the River Region.
“Each day our doors are being beaten down by businesses that want to locate along the Mississippi River,” he said, adding, “We’re serious about contributing to the prosperity of Lousiana.”
He also made sure to let the pilots of smaller aircraft who have been the bread and butter of the airport for years they will not be left out in the cold.
“We hope to accommodate you as well as we can,” said Chaisson. “We want you to be part of this growth.”
Department of Transportation and Development representative Wade Troth put the growth in perspective: “A mile of highway will take you a mile. A mile of runway will take you wherever you want to go.”
Following the speeches and a benediction from Pastor Nolan Albert, the crowd gathered near the runway for the actual ribbon cutting. A heart-pounding flyover by a military plane put the exclamation point on the event.
The runway extension project was started in November 2012 and completed in May. It cost a little less than $3 million and added 746 feet to the north side of the runway and 405 feet to the south side of the runway.