By Sarah Fulton
Morning Call (Allentown, Pennsylvania)
Copyright 2006 The Morning Call, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
A medical helicopter for St. Luke’s Hospital has started service from Jake Arner Memorial Airport in Mahoning Township, making it the first such service based in Carbon County.
Officials plan to appear before Mahoning supervisors next week with plans to build an office for its crew.
An emergency PennSTAR flight crew on Sunday started working 12-hour days at the airport, temporarily from the lounge at the airport’s main hangar until the township issues a permit to use a trailer at the airport, Carbon County Airport Authority Chairman Paul Smith said.
In October, crew members will begin working 24-hour shifts, Smith said.
“This will be a big help,” he said. “It’s a great service for the county.”
The helicopter can be flown in bad weather, and crew members are equipped with night-vision goggles.
“It’s safer going in and out of the fields and roads where they have to land at some of these accidents,” Smith said.
St. Luke’s will pay the airport to use an office and a hangar to store the helicopter. Smith said the rent will help the facility, which has doubled its capacity for aircraft in the past five years.
The authority wants to build a 1,250-square-foot office that would have bathrooms, showers and a kitchen for the helicopter crew. The full-service facility would allow a crew to be on site 24 hours a day. The office would be inside the airport’s main hangar.
Smith plans to appear before township supervisors Sept. 27 for a conditional use hearing on the authority’s request to build the office. Under township zoning, the airport is considered a conditional use, so any major changes require supervisors’ approval.
In addition, the airport at that meeting will seek a permit for use of the trailer as the crew’s office until a permanent office is built.
“It’ll be a great boost for the area,” Smith said.
Also, Hazleton Parachute Club will offer plane jumps to the public for the next few weekends at the airport. The club asked to use the facility while its airport is repaved, Smith said.