Google will pay the City of Winnemucca $500 per month to use a site at the Winnemucca Municpal Airport to launch their stratospheric balloons. Olivia Hatalsky and Paul Acosta, representatives of Google's Project Loon, discussed the license agreement with city council members at their meeting on Aug. 5.
Hatalsky said Google had petitioned the airport board and received their approval for use of a site at the airport but because it is city-owned, the license agreement also required the council's approval.
Two locations at the airport, both on Jays Road, were considered, and Hatalsky said it was their preference to use a site formerly occupied by the National Weather Service to launch their weather balloons. The NWS site was preferred because it had already been used for the specific purpose of launching balloons, had some grading, and an existing structure was in place. She said minor improvements would be made in order to optimize the site for their launching purposes.
The other site considered was a vacant lot.
Acosta said they would not continually occupy the space, but would only use the site when weather conditions permitted their balloon launching activities.
The license agreement was approved by the council, and Mayor Di An Putnam welcomed the Google team to Winnemucca.
Google's Project Loon balloons are used to provide Internet service to people in remote locations. The balloons form a network in the stratosphere and people with a special antenna connect to the Internet through the balloons. The balloons have been launched from the Winnemucca airport since January of this year.
Contact Stephanie Morton at s.morton@winnemuccapublishing.net.[[In-content Ad]]
