The Kearns Group is making great strides at South Alabama Regional Airport.

Billy Mitchell, vice president of operations for Kearns Aerospace Maintenance, a division of the Kearns Group, spoke to the SARA board on Tuesday.

Mitchell said they have made improvements to the nose dock hangar at the airport including new lighting, 110 outlets and painting the floor.

Mitchell said looking to the future they have plans to install new exhaust fans, offices and potentially a C-130 wash rack.

Mitchell said they have a contract in place for storage of the HH-60A, which are old Blackhawk helicopters. Mitchell said they are working with a company owned by former aviators.

What the project will encompass is maintaining readiness of the helicopters.

Additionally, they will be used to entertain customers.

Mitchell said they hope to put together a package such as one you would get if you were purchasing a car. Among the options would be avionics packages and potentially glass cockpits.

Currently they employ 10 people.

Once they complete the C-130 project, Mitchell said some of those employees will go about.

“We will still maintain two technicians for Blackhawks, and we will bring in others as we need them,” he said.

Another scenario thrown around was the possibility of teaming up with DRS and AECOM on some projects.