If all goes as hoped by officials, the Falls International Airport could see terminal upgrades and improvements as early as next year.

Bob Anderson, Falls mayor and chairman of the local airport commission, announced Wednesday during a Koochiching Economic Development Authority Board meeting, that he submitted a letter to Gov. Mark Dayton requesting to be included in next year’s bonding legislation for $3 million towards terminal and administration improvements at the airport.

“We get Airport Improvement Project, or AIP, grants every year for $1 million,” Anderson said. “We can accumulate those for three years and going into the fourth year, we could have as much as $4 million available to us.”

Anderson said the terminal project is expected to cost about $9.6 million.

“The local share would be very significant because there is a portion of that project that would not be eligible for AIP, or state money,” he said.

Even with AIP and bonding money, Anderson said, the project would also require discretionary money from the Federal Aviation Administration.

“Every year, (the FAA) has a small pot of discretionary money that they put out,” he said. “In 1978, we were fortunate enough to secure some of those monies and expanded the runway and put in the terminal building that we have out there now.”

The airport, Anderson said, is one of the nine key airports in the Minnesota State Aviation System.

Reasons outlined in Anderson’s letter to be included in the 2014 state bonding legislation highlights what’s known as the terminal’s sterile area.

“The issue is since 9/11, the sterile area for passengers that have cleared screening is very small and most of the year, the number of passengers overwhelms the sterile area and crams the passengers into that small room,” the letter said. “Also, the sterile area has no bathrooms and after being cleared in the area, if a passenger has a need for the bathroom, they must leave the sterile and be re-screened before being allowed to board the aircraft.”

Anderson said there are times passengers wait up to an hour before going through screening.

“Its not a very convenient setup,” he said.

In addition, the terminal is in need of a larger area for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

“We have a large amount of international flights,” Anderson explained. “Right now, they’ve got a facility out there that is about two phone booths big.”

He said the number of people that can come in on an international-bound flight is limited to 16 or less passengers.

“For awhile, we had the Detroit Red Wings (hockey team) coming in here out of Calgary,” Anderson said. “They’ve been told not to come here anymore...we need a larger area for them and would share it with the sterile area. We would put a wall in there to open up.”

Anderson also noted the Rolling Stones were scheduled to come through the Falls International Airport, but because there were about 50 people on board the plane, the rock band was told to find a different airport.

“That is just economics for this county and this community,” he said.

Soren Olesen, KEDA member, noted the passengers on international flights spend money locally, not only on fuel for the aircraft, but for food to feed passengers.

“There is a lot of money to be made,” he said. “The food (they order) is not cheap.”

Anderson’s letter to Dayton mentioned that Boise Inc.’s announcement to eliminate 265 from the local paper mill “puts this city and county in a very challenging, if not difficult position.”

“Even with the bonding monies, the city and county would need to raise $1 million for the local share,” the letter said.

And, it continued, air service is vital to the remaining 580 jobs at the mill as well as the local tourism industry and other employers in the area.

Anderson stressed the No. 1 bonding request for the area remains the Island View Sewer project.

“We need to have that first,” he said of the sewer project. “We’ve got a challenge because...there’s $2.8 billion worth of bonding requests and they will probably do maybe close to $1 billion. Whether or not we’re included in that, I guess we’ll have to wait and see.”