I hope this email finds you well. We had a little rain at the end of last week but since then it’s been sunny and pleasant (if not a touch windy) here on the coast.

Here’s an update on fundraising and more:

1. We are currently at about 23% of our fundraising goal. Donations have stalled for the most part, probably because we haven’t been featured in any aviation journals recently. I made sure to get coverage in: AOPA, CalPilots, and AvWeb previously. If you know of any other places I should contact, please let me know.

2. We are working very hard to organize an online crowdsource fundraising campaign, similar to Kickstarter. We’ll be using SmallKnot.com as a host since Kickstarter is limited to technology and arts projects only. Our goal is to launch it in the next couple of weeks, once we have our donated ‘rewards’ lined up. Our community has been very generous in donating a variety of goodies/discounts toward this campaign.

Hopefully this campaign will get us the remaining $46,000 that we need to get the slurry sealing done by the end of September. Yikes! It’s a lot of money…do you think we can do it?

3. The CalTrans inspector who issued the runway repairs has left the department. We are now under Patrick Miles’ jurisdiction. I will be contacting him as we organize a contractor for the slurry work to make sure that we are doing everything properly. I haven’t met him but I hear he’s great to work with.

4. The paint/markings on the runway will need to be redone after the slurry seal. We are working to determine the amount of paint we will need so we can ask paint vendors for donations or discounts. It sounds like we’ll use traffic paint and reflective glass beads.

5. In the next week we will be scheduling the initial prep work for the runway, including filling potholes and spraying weeds. If you’ve flown in recently, you probably noticed blue and white outlines around the damaged areas that need this type of work. There is also a lot of damage on the taxiway, tie down area, access road west of the runway, and the driveway/parking area near the pilot’s lounge (near the owner’s home–this is used by folks driving into the airport to get to their hangars and planes). However, since those areas are not a safety concern for aircraft and have no CalTrans deadline, they will not be repaired right now. We’ll wait until we’re past the current hurdle.

6. We have some fun things coming up soon: a possible campsite at the airport, a loaner car, an airport day (possibly in the fall with a pumpkin patch and apple picking), and a revamped pilots lounge with wifi and a mini fridge and free cold drinks.

And remember, all of this is to keep Ocean Ridge Airport open to the public as a safe, sunny runway on the Mendonoma Coast.

To everyone who has offered advice and/or donated money to ORA so far, THANK YOU so much! It’s never too late to donate: https://oceanridgeairport.org/donate/

Fly safe,
Julie