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Dozens of citizens and aviation leaders held a ceremony Monday morning at Bartlesville Municipal Airport to celebrate the completion of 1,700 feet of new taxiway and the groundbreaking of a new 20,000-square-foot hanger.

The two projects will combine to assist Bartlesville's plans to become a maintenance and repair operations hub for private airplanes and business jets.

Grayson Ardies, the executive director of the Oklahoma Aerospace and Aeronautics Commission, says this is a big day for not only Bartlesville, but the entire region.

The Oklahoma Aerospace and Aeronautics Commission approved a $2 million grant in July to assist in constructing a 120 foot by 130 foot box hanger at the airport. The total cost of the program is just over $5 million, with $3 million of the cost coming from the Bartlesville Development Authority.

The taxiway was completed in May. Funds for the $2 million project came from a $1.18 million grant from the Oklahoma Department of Aerospace and Aeronautics, a $737,000 grant from the Federal Aviation Administration, and $101,306 from the City’s Airport Fund.