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Hastings girl leads effort to improve landscaping at airport entrance
The landscaping around the Phantom F-4 displayed at the entrance to the Hastings Municipal Airport terminal has an improved look now thanks to the work of one Hastings girl and her fellow scouts.
The Hastings Municipal Airport terminal is at 3300 W. 12th St.
With the assistance of her family and friends on Friday, July 17, Ella Williams cleaned out about 1,400 pounds of mulch and replaced it with 8 yards of river rock. She also sprayed the weeds along the brick sidewalk surrounding the F-4.
Ella, who will be a freshman at Hastings High School this fall, coordinated the landscaping rehabilitation as her Eagle Scout project. Many of the volunteers helping Ella were also scouts.
In addition to the rocks, the landscaping also includes lilies and ornamental grasses.
Ella selected landscaping around the F-4 to be her Eagle Scout project because of a family connection to the airport.
Her grandparents, Gary and Claire Williams, donated the original monument displayed with the F-4. Gary served on the Hastings Airport Authority in the 1990s.
The fresh landscaping around the F-4 comes two years after the plane itself was repainted and rededicated. The improvements also come a year before the Hastings Municipal Airport will once again host the Nebraska State Airshow: June 18-19, 2027.
“With the F-4 repainted, we wanted to get the landscaping done too,” Airport Manager Matt Kuhr said. “The landscaping completes it and it looks really nice. Ella and her friends worked hard and did a great job.”
Published Date: 07/30/2026