MARTINSBURG — One of the biggest complaints the Altoona-Blair County Airport receives will be addressed with a remodeling project this summer, according to airport manager Tracy Plessinger.

According to Plessinger, passengers frequently bemoan the lack of a restroom in the airport’s Transportation Security Administration secure area.

Currently, once passengers go through TSA screening, they must leave the secure area to use the restroom and then go back to be rescreened, Plessinger said.

On Wednesday, the airport authority approved an architectural design for the airport’s first-floor restroom remodeling project, which involves remodeling and updating the restrooms to enable access from the TSA secure area.

The project involves walling off one end of the men’s restroom so that restrooms will be accessible from the secure area and the main terminal area, Plessinger said.

“We’re basically splitting the men’s restroom and one end of it will be accessible from the secure area,” he said. “But there will be a wall there. It will be two separate rooms completely.”

The project will be put out for bid this spring, with about eight weeks of construction taking place this summer, according to the airport’s engineer, Nick Barber of McFarland Johnson.

Airport officials said the total cost estimate is a couple hundred thousand dollars.

Plessinger said the restroom remodel is phase one of a complete terminal remodel.

While officials don’t have exact plans yet, Plessinger said the vision is to update and modernize the whole terminal with new finishes.

As part of the work planned for this summer, water fountains and water bottle filling stations will be added to the TSA secure area, Plessinger said.

Passengers can’t take full water bottles through TSA security, and while they are permitted to take an empty water bottle, there isn’t a place in the secure area for them to fill it, he said.

“There will be water bottle filling stations so that once you get into the secure area, you can fill your water bottle and take it on the plane with you,” Plessinger said.

The only other matter that was voted on during Wednesday’s meeting involved approving the airport’s monthly payments — $47,758.04 from the airport’s general fund account; $5,937.50 from the Federal Aviation Administration project fund; $20,965.75 from the state project fund; and $156.25 from the local project fund.

Mirror Staff Writer Matt Churella is at 814-946-7520.