The Southwest Oregon Regional Airport has almost all the money it needs to finance construction of an airport traffic control tower. Managers are $624,000 away from their goal.

A legislative liaison for the Oregon Transportation Commission, Jack Evans, said he expects a grant application to finish the funding will be approved soon.

Out of 70 proposed transportation-related projects in the state vying for a portion of the $100 million available through the lottery funded Oregon Connect II program, the control tower is at No. 19, placing it in an almost guaranteed position, Evans said.

“Essentially, it’s the first 30 that get funded,” he said, following the Transportation Commission’s public hearing on Tuesday in Salem. “From that perspective, they’re in good shape.”

Even though funding is fairly secure, he said, “Others continue to prioritize in case funding becomes available. Projects sometimes drop out.”

The Transportation Commission will announce its final decision at a meeting June 19-20 in Enterprise. It helped that state Rep. Arnie Roblan, D-Coos Bay, endorsed the district’s application. He sent a letter to the Oregon Department of Transportation in support of the project.

“I will be closely monitoring the activities of the DOT as they look at the multitude of projects proposed,”  Roblan said in a press release. “Our local project was ranked No. 19 of all the projects considered. That means we have a very good chance for funding, but it is going to take concerted local efforts to make sure we remain on the priority list.”

Roblan said in the release he is working with local community leaders “to make sure transportation officials know how much we need this project.”

Airport Executive Director Gary LeTellier was ecstatic about the representative’s support.

“That’s wonderful. We appreciate Arnie’s support. (Sen.) Joanne (Verger) has been very much supportive too,” LeTellier said. “We very much appreciate it.”

The applications for the multi-modal transportation program were reviewed by modal advisory committees (air, rail, freight and public transit), regional committees (Area Commissions on Transportation) and a final review committee, consisting of representatives from both modal and regional committees. The final review committee prioritized projects and created a draft list of projects presented to the committee on April 29-30 in Portland.

Even though the final funding piece isn’t in place, tower preparations are under way. Workers finished pressure grouting, which forces concrete into the loose sandy soil, and engineers are testing for stability.

“Now they’re doing core samples to make sure its ready,” LeTellier said.

Then construction can start.