Lights installed at Moosomin airport

Runway can now be used 24 hours a day

October 28, 2024, 9:54 am
Ryan Kiedrowski, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The lights lining the runway at the Moosomin airport.

“We’re now a 24-hour airport for Sask Air Ambulance,” confirmed Jeff St. Onge of the Airport Expansion Committee, recalling the moment when he watched the temporary lighting system illuminate the Moosomin Airport runway. “When the lights lit up, I had a tear in my eye!”

It’s a huge advancement for the Moosomin Airport to be accessible at night as the newly-paved runway could only be utilized during daylight hours previously, but a little ingenuity helped advance the ability for the local runway to be used at night.

“It is temporary winter lighting to get us through the winter,” St. Onge said. “An electrical tender is out, but for a variety of different reasons, it’s been extended so that by the time it closes, there’s no time to conduct the actual installation before winter.”

The committee researched several options before landing on an idea.

“What ended up happening was my daughter Carly—who is seven months pregnant—her husband Avi, my wife, myself, Dr. Van and his wife ended up installing them,” St. Onge said of the temporary lights. Using light gauge wire buried a few inches underground, the crew installed LED lights on posts spaced along the edges of the runway.

Dr. Schalk Van der Merwe and Henriette Van der Merwe installing the lights.

For now, the lights are powered by a generator, which requires someone to go to the airport and turn the lights on each time an aircraft wishes to land.

“SaskPower is bringing power in probably within the next month, and at that point we’ll be able to leave the lights on permanently, or on a dusk-to-dawn timer type of deal,” St. Onge said.

For the time being, a nighttime arrival will mean going to the airport, firing up the generator, and turning the lights on, but St. Onge doesn’t see that as an inconvenience in the least.

“In reality, if I get a phone call at two in the morning and it is minus whatever—the wind blowing—that is not much of a pain for me compared to whoever is getting onto that airplane,” he said. “They’re having a worse day than I am, so I’m happy to do it.”

The temporary setup was estimated to cost around $10,000, according to St, Onge, who also noted that the temporary system could be sold once a permanent lighting system is in place.

“If you save even one life, it’s not even a significant cost to put this through the next six months,” St. Onge said. “This is how we do stuff on the prairies. That’s how we built the place. People roll up their sleeves and come up with creative, cost-effective solutions that help us do what we want.