REDMOND, OR -- The Redmond Airport suddenly finds itself with an overflowing of rental cars. Acting Airport Director Fred Lelacheur blames last week's massive snow storm that knocked out a critical piece of equipment, closing the airport for two days, "People couldn’t fly so, to get home, they rented a car and brought them here to Redmond. And so, we had an over-abundance of rental cars here, for a while." He tells KBND News that led to a unique parking problem at Roberts Field even when no flights were arriving or departing,  "It was a little bit of an ‘oh my gosh, we have an overabundance of cars.’ We had some spots we could put them; our vendor parking lot- we had that cleared so we put a bunch in those. We actually had some parked along Airport Way, as you come in; that was just a very short period of time and we got those out of there. Our Operations staff went and plowed out a remote lot for them."

Lelacheur says plans are in the works for a "Quick Turnaround" facility for rental companies, that would also provide overflow parking for rental cars, "It’s going to be off-site, down the road, not too far from the airport. The rental cars will be able to go in and do what they call a ‘turnaround’ – they bring the car that just came back from a rental, they’ll drive it over there. There will be a fuel station over there, they can fuel it up, they’ll be able to wash it, detail it and get it all prepped for the next rental." He adds, "Say we had another snow event like this and we had that facility available, they would be able to store cars there."