RANGELEY – The Steven A. Bean Municipal Airport and the Sugarloaf Regional Airport in Carrabassett Valley will receive a combined $760,000 in grants from the Federal Aviation Administration.

Rangeley will receive $460,000 and Sugarloaf Regional $300,000 from the more than $8 million in grants awarded to improve 19 Maine airports.

Rangeley must contribute $11,500 and Carrabassett Valley $7,500 toward their respective improvement projects, officials said, as part of receiving the funds.

“The grant for Rangeley,” Town Manager Perry Ellsworth said, “will clean up 95 percent of the safety issues for approaches and landing areas at the airport. The money will be used to remove t-hangars and another hangar, reposition the fuel farm and set up placement for 10 new hangars to be built as determined at a later date.”

A conventional hangar and a cluster of five t-hangars are slated to be removed, he said, adding that for some time the location of the hangars has created safety issues as determined by the FAA.

Improvements will also include a new taxiway, he said.

The grant comes on top of last year’s grant for $330,000 for an access road, he said. This will be phase two of what was started last year. Although the town hasn’t signed the paperwork yet, he said they hope to start the project in mid- to late July.

“We appreciate that the FFA and MDOT has worked with us to remove these safety obstacles for our future activities. We’re definitely heading in the right direction for success,” Ellsworth said.

The airport safety project at Sugarloaf Regional, Town Manager David Cota said Thursday, will be used for tree and general clearing and some grading work on the south runway. The grading will be done to reconstruct that area in order to obtain a less-than-3-percent grade in compliance with FAA regulations.

The small, general aviation airport, Cota said, has a 2,100-foot runway and is used by a small, but growing base of pilots.

“The town has been planning for this for two years,” Cota said. “It was approved at the March 2006 town meeting.”

The town has hired the engineering firm of Howe, Tanner and Associates, Inc., from Manchester, N.H., and has put the project specs out to bid, but has not awarded a contract yet, he said.

“We’re delighted to get the grant. There’s some minor wetland permitting anticipated but our engineers are working on it. If all goes on schedule, we’ll award the contract and and the work will be done in July,” Cota said.