May 7—GRAND FORKS — Mayor Brandon Bochenski said considering a merger of Grand Forks International Airport into the city is a good way to explore potential budget savings.
"Whether we move forward with this re-merger or not, I think it's an exercise that's important," he said. "We do that in a lot of departments. We have never been afraid to change things."
The city and the airport, operated by the Grand Forks Regional Airport Authority, have been separate entities since 1987. Before that, it was a city department and airport employees were city employees. Bochenski first brought up the idea of bringing the airport back as a city department during a council meeting April 7.
Over the past year, he has been leading an effort to expand commercial passenger flight options at the airport.
"There are two things that I'm looking at," he said. "Is there cost savings? ... And the second side would be just the support you'd have being in a larger organization."
Cost savings would likely come out of staffing redundancies in human resources, finance and marketing activities, Bochenski said. They may also come out of agreements and contracts that both the city and the airport have with consultants.
Bochenski thinks there's assistance the city could give, with it having more resources than the airport. If a merger happens, the airport would be approximately the fifth-largest city department.
Among major cities in North Dakota, Grand Forks is alone in having a regional airport authority. Bismarck and Minot have theirs as city departments, and Hector International Airport in Fargo is governed by a municipal airport authority.
The regional airport authority in Grand Forks was created as a partnership between the city and Grand Forks County. The authority owns and operates the airport, but the city and county levy property taxes on its behalf and also have representatives on its board. Fargo's municipal authority works much the same way, but doesn't include other entities.
Dissolving the authority is a fairly simple process, only requiring resolutions from both the Grand Forks City Council and the Grand Forks County Commission, along with a plan detailing who would assume the assets of the airport.
"As we talk with the Meehan Aviation Group (the city-hired consultant for air service expansion), it's very rare for an airport, extremely rare for an airport of our size, to be a separate entity," Bochenski said. "We're all about creating efficiencies and making something more efficient and better at the same time. To me, that's a no-brainer."
When the proposal was first brought up, airport Executive Director Ryan Riesinger said he will be of assistance where he can.
"I respect the City Council and County (Commission) and ultimately the Airport Authority on the best way to advance the airport forward,"
he said April 7.
"Certainly, there are challenges, but ultimately, we want to continue to work collaboratively."
Bochenski said it's potentially a way to improve service at the airport.
One concern is commercial flight numbers. At present, Grand Forks has three daily flights to Minneapolis, along with regular, but non-daily, service to warm-weather destinations.
"Clearly, I've been unhappy with the direction commercial flights have gone," Bochenski said. "I don't think anyone in town is happy in the direction it's gone, and if it continues to go in a poor direction, like I've said before, the costs are only going to end up falling on UND."
UND's John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Science is one of the largest users of the airport and causes it to regularly be one of the busiest airports in the United States with its volume of takeoffs and landings.
Following a successful grant application with the United States Department of Transportation, the city and airport will get
$1 million to support bringing additional routes to the airport.
At this time, that will likely be a flight from Grand Forks to Denver through SkyWest, partnering with United Airlines. SkyWest gave the letter of support for the grant application, and with the Grand Forks Airport Authority confirming acceptance of the grant
on April 24, negotiations are ongoing.
Most likely, if a merger proposal does move forward, it would happen when the city is in the process of finalizing its budget for 2026. The city and county both need to have preliminary budgets passed by Aug. 10.
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