Thanks to the initiative taken by Harold Anderson, Leonard Baker, Mike Hervey, and Bob McFadden, our long-needed taxi-way repairs were completed Saturday, March 7th. Harold brought his Martineer crew out earlier in the week, and with the help of Ron Hipp and Don Haines, rolled back the Petromat and exposed the erosion that had taken place under the fabric. Surprisingly it wasn’t as bad as many of us had feared, and the greater part of the dirt under the taxi-ways was still pretty flat, solid, and had held up pretty well.

Today’s first task was to fill in the eroded areas of the middle and north taxi-ways and pack them down, using a rented vibrating surface compacter. Mike Hervey supplied his tractor with a scoop and box blade, and Leonard hauled Mike’s tractor to the field on his trailer. He then demonstrated his skill and artistry in moving dirt where it needed to be.

Once the fill-dirt was down and compacted, Harold provided plastic sheeting to put under the Petromat to keep water from running under the fabric and carving new gullies and canyons in a downpour. The existing Petromat was pulled back over the plastic sheeting and everything was fastened down at the same time. Given the wind, that was not an easy task, as several of today’s photos attest. One small section of the pit area between the taxi-ways fell victim to a shortage of plastic sheeting which will need to be installed later.

Thanks to all who came out to help, but a special thanks to President Steve Bell for bringing three fine young men from Waurika, who also happened to be his grandsons. There’s a photo of the Bell family group in the pics. Had it not been for these three young men tackling the arduous task of stapling the plastic/Petromat covering down, we would not have been able to finish the task today. When you see Steve thank him for bringing these three guy–and invite them back any time!

— Larry