LA GRANDE — The La Grande/Union County Airport now has an additional 40 acres.

The Union County Board of Commissioners voted Wednesday, Nov. 2, to approve the airport’s purchase of 40 acres of land owned by the Oregon Military Department.

The land, which was bought for $60,000, is now part of the northeast corner of the airport’s 640-acre property.

No plans have yet been made for the use of the land, according to Union County Public Works Director Doug Wright.

“It will be assembled into existing property for future development,” he said.

A portion of the land has been rented for years to the Amalgamated Sugar Company, which uses it to store sugar beets grown by local farmers. Amalgamated Sugar transports sugar beets stored there to its plant in Nampa, Idaho, for processing.

Wright said the airport will continue renting the land to the Amalgamated Sugar Company.

“It is vital to our local sugar beet farmers,” he said.

Wright said one reason he wanted the airport to purchase the land is to allow the property to continue to be available for sugar beet storage. Wright said he feared that if the land were sold to someone else years down the road it might be lost to local farmers.

The land became available for purchase after the Oregon Military Department declared it surplus property, Wright said.

Union County Commissioner Donna Beverage said the purchase of the property is a positive step forward because it will generate revenue and will make it easier for the airport to grow.

“It will be handy to have this land in the future if we want to expand the airport as part of the airport master plan,” she said.

In another action item at the meeting the board of commissioners voted to approve having Union County enter into a grant agreement with the state of Oregon so that it could receive $32,475 in State Homeland Security Program grant funds. The money will be used to install a radio repeater on Mount Harris. The repeater will help the Union County Sheriff’s Office receive better radio coverage in Elgin and in other portions of northern Union County, according to Union County Emergency Manager Nick Vora.