Easton Airport in first phases of modernization plan, officials see bright future ahead

EASTON, Md. – For about 20 years, the Easton Airport has been working to move its main runway. Airport officials said it’s too close to route 50 on the north end.

“To mitigate that, the county came up with a plan to basically relocate the runway, about 1,900 ft Southeast of the current location,” said airport manager, Micah Risher.

Risher said the runway shift is just one piece of the puzzle and only one of the first phases of the project.

“Although the primary driver was safety, we’re now modernizing the entire airfield, so an example would be, we’re pulling out the old wire, pulling out the old light bulbs, and everything’s going to be brand new and energy efficient,” Risher said.

Pilot Hunter H. Harris is a veteran in aviation. With all of the improvements coming to the Easton airport, he said it has a bright future ahead.

“I’ve been flying off the Easton airport since the 70s, so quite a few years,” Harris said. “The overall safety aspect is going to be wonderful, and you can’t’ have enough safety when it comes to aviation.”

The facelift will also have some significant environmental impacts. Risher said the vision is a cleaner and greener airport.

“We are remediating the soil [and] removing old oil tanks out of the ground,” Risher said.

“We’re going to be recycling that building. The concrete is going to be used on the airfield, so we’re basically taking an old industrial site, remediating it, cleaning it up, and recycling it,” Risher added.