Craig Field scores $3M in grants for takeoff of major projects

Craig Field is using $3.6 million in grants and matching funds to make improvements at the former Air Force base to help current and future businesses grow and get the airport soaring again. 

Last week, Craig officials found out they scored two separate grants for improvements at the airfield that will go toward renovating a dorm and classrooms for the new air traffic control academy and to remove aging buildings on the flight line to make room for more new companies. 

“It was a good week for Selma and Dallas County,” said Craig Field CEO Jim Corrigan. “The benefit is we get more jobs and bring prosperity to the economy where we can leverage what have here to bring in more jobs to Selma and Dallas County and move the ball forward to improve this place.” 

The largest of the two grants is $2.4 million from the Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration for the remote air traffic control academy that is estimated to bring 119 jobs and generate $7 million in private investment. The company running the academy, Advanced ATC, announced in June 2022 it selected Craig Field for its innovative school that trains air traffic controllers who can work at any airport after graduation. 

Craig Airport’s matching funds needed for the $2.4 million EDA grant is $609,420, which puts the air traffic control academy investment at $3 million, Corrigan said. 

The EDA grant will fund completion of a renovation project to a three-story dormitory that will have 76 rooms and adjacent bathrooms to house students attending the new Advanced Air Traffic Control academy that teaches in an operations center across the street from the dorms.  

The dormitory and operations building were built in the 1960s and was used by Alabama Law Enforcement Agency until about six or seven years ago, when they moved to Wallace Community College Selma, Corrigan said. 

Craig got state funding to get started on renovations of classroom space in the operations center, but funds ran out. The grant will fund finishing the center and then repair the dorm. The funds will also be used for a new state-of-the-art air conditioner needed to cool the onsite simulator, he said.  

Craig got the EDA grant with help from the Alabama-Tombigbee Regional Planning Commission and Wayne Vardaman at the Selma & Dallas County Economic Development Authority. 

Craig’s second grant is worth $681,750 from a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency brownfield cleanup grant. It is part of $315 million from President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda given to expedite the assessment and cleanup of brownfield sites across the country while advancing environmental justice. 

Craig is one of 262 communities receiving grants totaling more than $215 million in competitive EPA Brownfields funding through the Multipurpose, Assessment, Revolving Loan Fund, and Cleanup (MARC) Grant programs. It is from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and is the largest ever funding awarded in the history of the EPA’s Brownfields MARC Grant programs. 

Craig has been trying to get the brownfield grant for three years and finally succeeded this year, Corrigan said. 

The EPA grant will go toward removal of the four worst buildings on the flight line that are old and filled with asbestos, he said. 

“This allows us to make room for more expansion and more businesses down the road,” Corrigan said. “We can’t bring in businesses when we have bad looking buildings falling apart along flight line.” 

Craig’s other new tenant, Resicum International, has started renovating another dorm at the airport that faces Highway 80. Work to remove asbestos has begun at the six-story dorm that will house up to 100 students in their aviation academy that will teach pilots and airplane mechanics. 

Resicum came to Craig in January 2023 with plans to operate an aviation academy through their subsidiary Aeropro.