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CENTRE — A formal dedication of the Centre-Piedmont-Cherokee County Regional Airport will be held on Thursday, Oct. 14 at the airport, located at 8850 Highway 9 South.

The new regional airport will serve the cities of Centre and Piedmont, and all of Cherokee County. The Centre-Piedmont-Cherokee County Regional Airport Authority was incorporated in 2000 to provide representation of the three separate jurisdictions involved.

Site preparation and construction for the airport was begun in 2003. This is the first airport constructed in Alabama in over 15 years.

The airport sits on 308 acres of land purchased from the Ellis family. A groundbreaking ceremony was held in December 2003.

Located between Centre and Piedmont, the airport has a 5,500-foot runway, the optimum length recommended by the Federal Aviation Administration for regional general aviation airports. Both Runway 7 and 25 have RNAV GPS approaches.

A recently completed operations building will also be dedicated at the ceremony. The building is named for the late Harley McGatha, who served on the Board of Directors for the Authority prior to his death in an airplane crash in April 2009.

The dedication will begin at 10 a.m. and is open to the public.