CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Visitors to a recent Marshalltown Municipal Airport-Niederhauser Field open house featuring planes, hangars and more is pictured.

The Marshalltown Municipal Airport (MMA)-Niederhauser Field lies five miles north of town, surrounded by farm fields and offers a wide variety of services ranging from mechanics to instructors to line services. A larger hangar could help increase services.

“In today’s business climate, air travel is becoming increasingly prevalent as companies become more regional and national in nature,” Marshall Economic Development President Tom Deimerly said recently. “It is critical for our local airport to have the necessary infrastructure to meet the ever-changing needs which is why it’s great to have a long-term plan for this critical economic development tool.”

Specifically, a new and larger airplane hanger — 100×125 feet with a 25-foot door is moving closer to reality.

Attached to the hangar would be a proposed new terminal building for airport operations.

The Marshalltown city council took the first step giving Nickel approval to prepare a cost estimate at a November 2018 council meeting.

However, before the first shovel of dirt is turned, project design must be completed followed by bid-letting. Finally all project costs must be approved by a majority of city councilors.

“The Federal Aviation Administration is the main funding source,,” Nickel said. “The project design has not started, but FAA has allocated funds to the city. I expect design to stretch into the winter of 219-20. Construction, if approved, would not start until spring or summer of 2020.

The city is required to match a certain percentage of expended FAA funds.

Marshalltown Aviation co-owner Steve Valbrecht, who oversees operations while the city owns airport land, is excited about the opportunity.

“We should see some construction work in the next few years,” he said.

Valbrecht and Ethan Nasalroad are business partners, with Nasalroad managing the Newton airport.

Over the years, Valbrecht and Marshalltown have enjoyed a productive relationship, which has seen numerous improvements made to the airport.

Valbrecht said new instrument approaches to both sides of the airport’s primary runway installed several years have paid huge dividends.

The approaches take advantage of newer GPS technology allowing pilots to navigate to the runway while also giving the pilot a vertical path to follow, he said. These approaches lower the height to which an aircraft can fly without first seeing the ground. Also, by providing an instrument-guided path on which to descend, the aircraft are in a better position to see the runway during poor weather. Also available is a weather computer, ground power unit and de-ice equipment. For more information, contact 641-7520012 or visit miwairport.com.

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Contact Mike Donahey at

641-753-6611 or

mdonahey@timesrepublican.com