It sat empty for most of the summer, but now there are people working inside Georgetown's $2 million air traffic control tower. The 85 foot tower is now the tallest occupied structure in the City of Georgetown.

Greg White and Charles Cornwell were among the first pilots who got some much needed help from the people perched high in a tan and blue tower. They flew in Tuesday morning from Dallas.

"That was nice, a really nice safety net to have coming in here, not expecting it, that they'd be operational when we came down here," said Cornwell.

Greg White says the low cloud cover made the approach a little difficult, but it would have been even tougher to land without the air traffic controllers.

"It was real nice, it was a good hand off," said White.

Seven air traffic controllers are now assigned to the Georgetown Municipal Airport. They are certified by the Federal Aviation Administration and are employees of RVA Robinson Aviation. They are in Georgetown after winning a contract with the FAA.

The tower is currently open everyday, from 9 in the morning until 5 in the evening. Those hours are expected to be expanded by next week. The first plane to use the tower took off at 9:09 Tuesday morning.

The air traffic controllers have spent a lot of time getting ready, for the past several weeks, they've been training in the tower. When everything was turned on Tuesday morning, there were a few communications glitches, according to Air Traffic Manager Shannon Thomas.

"We just sort of worked it out as we went through it, and yeah, it ironed itself out in no time," said Thomas.

The airport opened 62 years ago. Over the past 10 years, there have been several close calls and at least one mid-air collision. The City of Georgetown built the tower to make the airway safer with help from a state grant. According to a news release by City Spokesperson Keith Hutchinson, the city’s airport fund also provided $521,391 for construction. The fund comes from revenues generated at the Airport. An additional $50,000 was donation by the organizers of the Central Texas Air-Show. It is all money well spent according to pilots like Jim White.

"It's just a comfort to know where everybody is especially on a long trip," said White.

When White takes off from the airport, and heads back to Houston, he will be tracked from the tower by eyesight and by radio. Eventually air traffic control radar from Killeen will be feed into the tower. A date for that to go on line has not yet been set.

A dedication ceremony will be held on Tuesday, October 23 at 10 a.m.