PENDLETON — The Pendleton City Council unanimously approved a plan to spend more than $13 million at Eastern Oregon Regional Airport on Tuesday, paving the way for the airport to clear its debt and further expand its infrastructure.

It had only been a week since airport staff provided a rough list of what the city wanted to spend from a surprise $16.9 million in federal stimulus money for COVID-19 relief, and City Manager Robb Corbett admitted that some of the proposed projects still weren’t fully fleshed out.

“There’s a lot to do here without a lot of time to do it,” he said.

Besides paying off more than $2 million in longstanding debt, addressing deferred maintenance and buying new airport equipment, Corbett said time was of the essence to begin development on a new $2.5 million flex hangar.

The Pendleton airport ended up benefiting greatly from the stimulus formula, but it may have been unintentional.

Politico reported that since the stimulus formula privileged airports with relatively little debt and more cash-on-hand rather than passenger traffic, the funding favored small airports over larger ones.

The FAA responded by capping grant awards to four years worth of operating expenses, but Airport Manager Steve Chrisman said the FAA hasn’t told them that there will be any changes to Pendleton’s grant.

The city is hoping to continue its run of luck in getting federal funding as it applies for a BUILD grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The council unanimously approved a $2 million match for the $25 million grant, which the city has unsuccessfully applied for twice.

If approved by DOT, the city would begin making improvements to the north side of the Interstate 84 Exit 209 interchange to relieve traffic congestion in the area.