Vinland — that small southern Douglas County farming community that is home to the Vinland Fair, old timey tractor pulls and chicken noodle dinners that leave me wringing out my tie for days — is again proving it also is a growing high-tech hub.

Vinland-based McFarlane Aviation Products has filed plans with county officials to build a $1.2 million expansion of its facilities that design, manufacture and distribute specialty aircraft parts. The plans are the latest signs of growth for the longtime family-owned business. Back in 2011, we reported on the company’s last significant expansion. In 2011, we reported the company had 38 employees. Company owner Dave McFarlane told me the business now has 63 employees. McFarlane said the expansion will allow for additional employee growth in the coming years.

“We’re continuously adding a few people at a time,” McFarlane said. “That’s our plan — slow and steady growth.”

McFarlane estimated that the expansion would allow the company to grow to 90 employees over the next five to seven years, although history suggests the timeline could change. McFarlane said the company is growing rapidly enough that this expansion is happening about 1.5 years ahead of schedule.

McFarlane said the company’s business has remained steady, even as the aviation industry as a whole has suffered through some downturns. McFarlane said that is because the company focuses on making parts for existing aircraft. As times tighten, aircraft owners look to keep their existing aircraft operational rather than buying new aircraft. That means buying more parts.

“Our part of the market is saving people money by improving the replacement parts so they last longer,” McFarlane said. “We’re a much more stable market because customers have planes that they have to keep in the air, and we can help them do that.”

The company has about 3,000 different parts it sells, with most focusing on smaller general aviation and business class aircraft, although some of the parts are for larger jetliners, too.

The company has ended up being a nice boost to the county’s economic development efforts. McFarlane said about half the business is related to the manufacturing process, but he said the other half is related to distribution, administration and engineering. The company employs its own engineers to design products, and it also has several technical people to deal with issues such as FAA approvals and communication with the approximately 20 international distributors that the McFarlane has contracts with.

As for the proposed expansion, plans filed with the Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Department call for a new 24,000 square-foot building at the business’ current location at 696 E. 700 Road. That will be the third building on the site for the company. McFarlane said the company will move a portion of its manufacturing lines to the new building and also will run its shipping operations out of the new facility.

The site plan filed with the county also shows the location for another 17,000 square-foot building to be constructed in the future. McFarlane said he expects the company’s next expansion will be needed in five to seven years.

The current project already has the necessary zoning approvals and is just awaiting some technical approvals related to the layout of the site. McFarlane said he hopes to break ground before winter and to be operating in the new facility before summer.

In other news and notes from around town:

• Move over basketball. Lawrence may become a track and field town, or at least spend some money in an effort to become one.

City commissioners on Tuesday will consider spending about $215,000 in transient guest tax money to either attract or support a trio of track and field events that are either considering coming to Lawrence or already have announced they will host an event in the community.

The biggest one is the 2017 USA Track and Field Junior Olympic Championship. As we’ve previously reported, the city would like to host that weeklong event at Rock Chalk Park, but the Junior Olympic folks haven’t yet selected a site for the competition.

City officials are now saying they want to apply for the event, but it will take some money to do so. The nonprofit Lawrence Sports Corp. is seeking $150,000 over three years to apply and support the event. But the group also is touting that the event could bring more than 40,000 athletes and families to the city over a multiday period. Recent host cities — Jacksonville, Houston and Greensboro — have reported estimated economic spending ranging from $14 million to $20 million. All three of those cities have significantly more hotel rooms to sell than Lawrence does, which is a big part of the economic equitation, but the event would no doubt create significant spending in Lawrence. For planning purposes, the city is estimating $11 million in direct spending would be created by the event.

Commissioners will have to decide whether they want to use transient guest tax money — which comes from a special sales tax charged on hotel rooms — to try to lure the event. The sports corporation is asking for $40,000 this year, which includes a $25,000 application fee that has to be paid to be considered as a host city. If the city were awarded the event, the sports corporation would seek $55,000 in transient guest tax money in 2016 and $55,000 in 2017 to help cover a portion of the $460,000 of expenses that are expected to be part of hosting the event.

The city also is being asked to partially fund two other events that already have announced they are coming to the area. As we previously reported, the NCAA Division I track and field Midwest regional is set for May 28-30 at Rock Chalk Park. Local organizers are requesting nearly $57,000 in transient guest tax money to help pay about a third of the expenses expected as part of that event. The city is expecting about 3,200 athletes, coaches and spectators will attend that multiday event. The city is planning for the event to create about $1 million in direct spending.

The other event is the NCAA Midwest cross country regionals on Nov. 13. The event will be at Rim Rock Farms, which is in Jefferson County just a few miles north of Lawrence. In case you haven’t noticed, Jefferson County doesn’t have much in the way of hotel rooms, so Lawrence will be the big beneficiary of that event. Organizers are asking for about $8,300 of transient guest tax money to help pay for roughly a third of the event’s budget.

Commissioners will discuss the requests at their 5:45 p.m. meeting on Tuesday. The city has used tax dollars before to support or lure events to town, but usually you don’t see such requests come in threes. It is likely though that such requests will become more frequent in the future. When the city decided to be a partner in constructing the Rock Chalk Park sports complex, it was envisioned that the facilities would be used to attract regional and national events. Local communities often have to bear some of the costs to host those events.