Oct. 29—The Portage Municipal Airport is finally going to receive state and federal funding after waiting for its airport layout plan to be approved by the Federal Aviation Administration and Wisconsin Department of Transportation's Bureau of Aeronautics for about the last three years, city officials said.
"We are at the starting line now, which is great," said Phil Livingston, city director of Public Works, who is running the airport after manager Paul Phelps abruptly resigned June 1 after just seven months in the position amid turmoil between the city, the Airport Commission and a former commissioner accused of bullying behavior.
"We can now start looking at doing improvements for the betterment of the airport," Livingston said. "This is obviously going to benefit the community and it's definitely going to benefit the people using the airport day in and day out, because some of the projects we will complete in the short-term are ones that show a direct improvement right away and address safety concerns."
The city submitted an airport layout plan to the Bureau of Aeronautics (BOA) in 2021 and petitioned the state's secretary of transportation last year for state and federal work improvement aid to help it complete a number of short-, mid- and long-term projects at the airport.
While the city has received confirmation from the bureau that it was approved for entitlement funding, specific plans are not yet set, Livingston said, because though the city has its own airport layout plan, the bureau works with the city to create a capital improvement plan based on what the most pressing needs are.
"We are working with the BOA and FAA, but in the grand scheme of things, we are taking information from them and they are the ones driving the schedule for projects, as they have short-, mid- and long-terms projects they are planning for," Livingston said.
The first projects the BOA intends to begin, pending Common Council approval, are sealing and filling pavement cracks, and relocating the fuel facility, he said.
Some crack filling could begin this year, but it's likely planning will start before the end of the year, with implementation taking place next year, Livingston said. Relocating the fuel facility will almost certainly take place next year, he said.
Federal entitlement funds will cover 90% of project costs at the airport, while the city and the state will each pay for 5% of specific project costs.
According to the BOA's Capital Improvement Plan for the Portage Municipal Airport, the crack filling and sealing, which are needed to maintain basic airport pavement infrastructure and to meet FAA and state airport design standards, is estimated to cost about $230,000.
Federal funding will cover about $211,000, and the the city and state will each need to pay about $9,000 each for the project.
The crack filling and sealing is a state project that the BOA works with various engineering firms to complete, Livingston said. The BOA will analyze which areas of the airport need to be addressed first and bid out those projects.
Reconstructing and relocating the fuel facility, including two 1,000-gallon above-ground storage tanks, is needed to make more room for airplanes to maneuver on the runway, improving safety, Livingston said. It is estimated to cost about $120,000. Federal funds will cover $108,000 of the project, and the city and state will need to pay about $6,000 each.
The city won't have to borrow and get reimbursed for the projects, as the BOA works closely with municipalities and will hold the entitlement funds until they need to be dispersed, Livingston said. The city will then be billed at a later date for its portion of the projects.
Future airport development plans, including extending and relocating runways and taxiways and building more hangar buildings, will be based on the BOA's evaluation of facility needs for the specific planning periods, and its alternatives analysis of the airport's master plan, which compiles complex elements of the planning process in order to identify alternatives that meet the needs of airport users.
Airport turbulence
The funding for improvements is being welcomed after a turbulent year for the airport.
In September 2023, the Common Council voted to keep the airport open following weeks of uncertainty about its future after two council members introduced a resolution that could have directed city staff to inquire with federal and state agencies about what it would take to shut down an airport and abolish its airport commission.
Following the commitment to keep the airport open, the council passed a new airport operations ordinance that added 14 items, including giving the Airport Commission jurisdiction for the construction, improvement, equipment, maintenance and operation of the airport, and adopting regulations and establishing fees for the use of the airport, which require council approval, in an attempt to give the commission more authority and to clearly delineate its authorities.
Under a prior ordinance, the commission's role only included organizing affairs and operations and reporting them to the council, making recommendations to the council regarding all affairs pertaining to aeronautics, preparing and presenting budgets to the council, and authorizing expenditures within the budget, which were set up by the council.
Mayor Mitchel Craig has said the new ordinance didn't work because commission members tried to do things in their best interest and not in the best interest of the community as a whole.
Commission member William Kutzke has said the new airport operations ordinance was patterned after many other airport commissions around the state and the language in the ordinance is recommended by the Federal Aviation Administration and Bureau of Aeronautics.
In February, then-airport commission member Adam Gazapian asked the commission to allow his company, Tailwinds, to operate at the airport as a second fixed-base operator, or FBO, offering services such as aircraft leasing, rentals, charters, freights, sales and maintenance. But his request met with pushback from the aviation community at an Airport Commission meeting on Feb. 27, where airport users and Phelps accused him of a "pattern of behavior that includes bullying and intimidation."
Following the accusations, Craig ordered Gazapian be removed from the Airport Commission on March 13. The city is attempting to evict Gazapian from the airport's main hangar, saying he had promised to terminate his lease there upon Phelps' hiring as the new airport manager but never did.
Gazpaian is seeking a temporary restraining order to prevent the city from evicting him. That case has been open since March 21.
Amid the turmoil, Phelps, owner of Sun Sport Aviation, resigned as the airport's manager and fixed base operator.
The Airport Commission has not met since its Feb. 27 meeting and won't be able to meet again until its remaining commission members' terms expire next spring and a new commission is appointed by the city, Craig has said. The city has not replaced members whose terms have expired, and the commission does not have enough members for a quorum.
Craig also has said the airport manager's position will likely remain unfilled for the foreseeable future.
Current conditions
Livingston, who has taken on many of the manager's duties, said in his view it has been "business as usual" at the airport for the most part.
"With anything you are going to have some growing pains, but it hasn't been anything detrimental to the airport's success," Livingston said. "And other than not having some out here full time, everything has still operated."
Along with Livingston, various city workers have been taking care of some of the maintenance needs, which the airport community has been great in bringing to the city's attention, Livingston said.
Chuck Haig, a hangar tenant and member of Portage's Experimental Aircraft Association Chapter 371, lives in Black Earth and goes to the airport to fly solo about twice a week. He said airport operations seem to have had a seamless transition following Phelps' departure.
He said the former airport manager's departure hasn't effected him too much, aside from Phelps being his flight instructor, so its been harder for him to schedule flight times to work toward obtaining his private pilot's license, Haig said.
Haig said since Phelps' departure, only a small planning room on the backside of the airport building has been open, and all other areas are locked, which makes the airport less inviting to visiting pilots.
Leif Gregerson, president of Portage's EAA chapter, has been a member of the chapter for about the last 30 years and said this is the most proposed action he has seen at the airport in 30 years.
"Now that we hear and feel something is going to happen out there, and money is going to be taken and spent on the airport, it's a really good thing," Gregerson said. "It means people who work at the city are less likely to say they don't want an airport anymore."
Gregerson said while the airport may be running smoothly, the atmosphere is very different because the people who usually would hangout there when Phelps' was manager don't anymore because the main area of the airport building is inaccessible.
And while Gregerson said he is hopeful the airport will obtain the funding for projects for years to come, he believes it's kind of secondary to the airport establishing and maintaining a strong and positive aviation community.
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