Last year, two other club members and I began negotiating for a piece of property located on a closed landfill site in northern Alabama. A close personal relationship with the manager of the landfill and one of our members became instrumental in our endeavor. After four or five months of attending council meetings, answering questions and getting information we were granted a 25 year lease for our club, allowing us to govern the site, make improvements, etc. I worte a proposal to the AMA field improvement program and obtained money from the AMA to start our project. First off, the site cost for 25 years was nothing. They were happy to allow us to use it. Of course there are things that have to be done in regards to the landfill, and rules that we have to follow.

Two months ago, the work crew at the landfill bgan moving dirt for us, and creating a bed for the runway. We put down 400 feet x 30 feet of asphalt. Purchased a 24x24 foot metal building, and accepted some donated gravel and rock. Our project is progressing nicely and I have to say THANK YOU to the AMA for the money we got to get started. THANK YOU to the crew and leadership at the landfill, and for all the donations we have recieved. Here is a pic of our field, and as you can see it is coming along nicely.
Tommy

http://www.qcrcc.com/photos/detail.a...pe=29&iPic=213

Looking good! How much did the AMA give you? Is it based on membership? How do you go about writing a letter to them?

Very nice!

I discovered the program while searching around the AMA website. Our D-V VP did not even know about it. You can ask for as much as you want, but you only qualify for 10% of your total cost (estimated) and you have to show your work and present a report to the AMA during the field improvement. The application is a couple of pages long and has to be submitted to your DVP who OK's it and forwards it to the AMA. It is due in MArch and the moeny is sent out in April. Our estimated cost, which includes the work done by the landfill for us, will be around $30,000. We were about to get $3000 from the AMA which gave us a good start on our runway. The asphalt was disounted for us, since the paving company is on the edge of the property, how lucky can you get. They laid it for us for $3400. The club took the money in the treasury and bought the building (cost us $4000), and we have all chipped in our resources for concrete and labor to get it up to this point. We are flying off of the asphalt right now, and could not be happier.
Tommy