By Andie Foley
andie.foley@salisburypost.com

Continued growth at the Mid-Carolina Regional Airport was celebrated Thursday with the snap of scissors along a red ribbon.

The mid-morning ceremonial ribbon cutting was held in recognition of the recently completed conference room at the airport.

According to airport director Kevin Davis, the room was completed in late March of this year. Furnishings, including video conferencing equipment, were finalized within the last few weeks.

“We’re very excited that this building and this conference room has some state-of-the-art technology in it for video conferencing,” Davis said. “The camera underneath the TV will allow companies to come in here and … have those meetings with people anywhere in the world. They’re not restricted to just this room or this airport.”

Davis said he hoped that the technology would increase the demand for the space.

President of the Chamber of Commerce Elaine Spalding said the chamber was already receiving a number of inquiries from businesses around the community looking for places to meet.

“Spaces like this are at a real premium in our community,” she said. “It’s great that you guys have invested in this conference room and the audiovisual capabilities.”

The ribbon cutting also gave airport staff, board members and elected officials a chance to celebrate recent and continued growth at the airport.

In recent years, the airport has added new hangars that have already been filled with tenants, said Board of Commissioners Chairman Greg Edds, and the crowning and grooving of the recently repaved runway is almost complete.

“We knew that if those things came in here, this airport would start growing,” said Edds. “This creates a tremendous amount of jobs for the community. It brings in a lot of tax revenue for the community.”

Edds credited the airport’s recent to growth to work done by fellow commissioner Craig Pierce.

“To be honest with you, nothing really began to happen around here until Craig Pierce had the vision of beginning to create an airport here that would be the asset that it is,” he said.

Pierce called the airport’s growth an eight-year project, saying that he’s always listened to the members of the Airport Advisory Board when petitioning for changes or upgrades.

“This is not something I could have done by myself and I will not take the credit for it. I’ll take the credit for the advisory board because they’re the ones that guided us to where we needed to be,” he said.

He said that the project was “like everything in government” in that it didn’t happen quickly.

“You have to dedicate yourself to it and stay with it and never deviate,” he said, “because if you do it will stop.”

According to Davis, the runway resurfacing project should be complete by late August. The repaving is complete, he said, and grooving and paint will begin on Aug. 13.

These two tasks should only take 14 days to complete, he said. In the interim, the runway remains functional during the day. It will close at night for the grooving and painting.

The conference room can be reserved by calling 704-216-7753.