Frozen ground didn't stand a chance against jobs, Friday in St. Thomas.

Planting their shovels firmly into a pile of loose earth that was specially dug for the day, dignitaries turned sod for a $1.5 million jet hangar at St. Thomas Municipal Airport.

The building is funded through a job-creating, three-way infrastructure partnership of federal and provincial governments, and the city.
And it means employment now -- and, hopefully, in future, Ald. Bill Aarts, St. Thomas council's property chairman, said.
In addition to construction jobs, Aarts said, "This new hangar will certainly increase the region's competitiveness."

The new building will allow the airport to offer improved services for corporate jet traffic, including secure, indoor freight and passenger handling, as well as maintenance and repair.

"It gives us another tool to try and encourage investment and economic development in this area," Elgin-area Liberal MPP Steve Peters told a small crowd of local dignitaries who attended Friday's sod-turning.

The hangar was justified in a 2007 city study which found that while corporate jet traffic is generally on the rise, planes were bypassing St. Thomas's airport in Central Elgin because it lacked more than rudimentary facilities to accommodate them.

"We have to cater to, and answer the demands, of the corporate world," Mayor Cliff Barwick said.

The city views the airport, which records 29,000 takeoffs and landings annually, as a major tool for economic development for St. Thomas and surrounding Elgin.

The 10,000-square-foot hangar is to include a pilot lounge and offices.

The new building is to be completed by August, when the airport is a host to the 2010 International Plowing Match, and a construction start didn't wait for Friday's sod-turning. Earthmoving began with this week's warmer-than-normal temperatures.

"This is fantastic, to drive up today and see construction already started," Elgin Tory MP Joe Preston said.

He said the work makes him more hopeful of economic recovery in the battered region.

"When we see projects like this, we know it's going to happen."

Aarts stressed construction will create local jobs: Aveiro Construction, Dorchester, Ont., is builder, and the hangar building is being supplied by Steelway Building Systems, Aylmer.

There were about 10 workers on site Friday; that number could rise as high as 30 to 40 at the project's busiest, project manager Christian Donado said.