Dear Concerned Neighbours of Cortes Island,

As you may have heard, work has begun on the airstrip at the southern tip of the island . We wanted to reach out and be transparent as to the plans for this site to ease any anxieties and to combat any false rumours.

Our scope of work includes increasing the safety of the runway by grading the existing gravel surface and chipsealing the airstrip. This runway is currently used by smaller aircraft only as it is not long enough to accommodate jets or larger planes and there are no plans to lengthen or widen this surface so it will continue to only accommodate those types of aircraft that have landed here before. Jets will still not be able to land on Cortes. Additionally, all pilots will still be required to gain permission from the land owner to land on this private runway.

We are also contracted to build a small wooden 56' x 64' storage hangar at the north end of the runway, which will be used to house a small plane or helicopter if desired. There will not be any aircraft fuel storage onsite as has been speculated.

Hopefully, this answers some questions and our plan is to wrap up with this project by the end of summer '24. We are happy to say that we are using local labor, equipment and materials on this project when available and appreciate the community being understanding as we complete this work.

If you have any additional questions, please contact our project management team at 860-305-7374. Thank you.