By Ryan Whisner
To keep up with projects and investments at the Fort Atkinson Municipal Airport the city must put together a list of projects it intends to accomplish in coming years.
At its meeting Tuesday, the Fort Atkinson City Council held a public hearing and approved a resolution demonstrating the commitment of the city resources toward the airport projects to the federal government. Funding for nearly all projects at the airport comes through the federal government administered by the state.
As unanimously approved by the council, the city is petitioning the state for funds to implement a series of maintenance and capital improvement projects and develop a master plan in hopes of increasing aircraft operations and potentially making it more attractive to regional corporate aviation.
Proposed projects include the acquisition of new snow removal equipment, reconstruction of taxiways/taxi lanes, replacement of rotating beacon, land acquisition for airport development, construction of a city-owned hangar, and construction of a terminal building.
As proposed, the maintenance and capital improvement projects and airport master plan would cost approximately $2.8 million. Most projects require anywhere from a 3% to 10% local match, leaving the city responsible for approximately $143,000. Primary funding and final approval for most projects come through the Federal Aviation Administration.
“The biggest project that we need to undertake is the airport master plan,” Public Works Director Andy Selle said. “The master plan is intended to lay out several decades worth of not only projects but uses and expectations for the airport.”
In this instance, due to the city’s receipt of $75,000 in COVID-era federal reimbursements related to airport operations that can be applied as local matching funds, the net impact for the city on the proposed projects is reduced to $68,000.
“It is very rare that as a city or as a municipality, we get the opportunity to do that kind of lift at that price tag,” council president Chris Scherer said.
Before the unanimous vote by the council, Selle described the airport as one of the greatest pieces of infrastructure within the city. He noted that projects at the airport generally fall into one of two categories, maintenance, and capital improvements.
“We’re not committed to any of these types of projects, but if they’re not included in our wish list, if you will, then we cannot pursue them,” he said
Initially constructed in 1948, the Fort Atkinson Municipal airport is a general aviation facility that has an average of 30 aircraft operations per day or approximately 10,900 operations in 12 months. The airport has a non-staffed self-service credit card-based refueling facility providing aviation gasoline and jet fuels. As of November, 2022, there are 24 aircraft based at the airport.
Selle noted that while it has been maintained and upgraded throughout its lifetime, the airport needs additional upgrades.
The last substantial upgrade was the installation of the credit card-based fuel system. He noted use has increased since the installation and is a dramatic improvement over an honor-based fuel charge.
While it is a source of revenue for the airport, Selle noted that the city is not really in it to make a profit and more just trying to ensure fuel is available to the pilots. Like gas stations, gas prices at airports are going to be different and fluctuate based on use.
“We don’t buy enough gas so the gas that’s in the tanks right now, I think I bought in August when gas was a heck of a lot more expensive than it is right now,” the public works director said. “Our price doesn’t fluctuate as much because we don’t sell the same volume as a regular gas station. That’s $4 (per) gallon gas in there right now that I must sell it at $4 (per) gallon while we’re all paying $2 (per) gallon at the pump.”
He also stressed that it is important to note that any airport revenue is going to be utilized for airport projects.
“That’s always something that we’ve endeavored to maintain here in the city, that the airport revenue which is composed largely of airport fuel tax and hangar rentals is used to pay for those matches when we do large projects,” Selle said.
Conversely, revenue received from the federal government generally has very strict uses associated with it. For example, he is still awaiting further details on requirements and timelines related to the bipartisan infrastructure bill funding for projects being mapped out over the next four years.
Other available money includes discretionary funding which is for larger projects.
“We have not tapped into this in the past but a project that might fall into this category should we choose to take it on would be extending the runways so that we can get jet traffic out there.” Runway expansion would likely require the purchase of property and significant investment. Selle said there have been some conversations with some regional corporations that expressed interest in such use.
In the event a project comes in over budget, Selle anticipated the state would ensure funding comes through in some fashion.
“They do a very good job of moving the funding around to the various airports,” he said. “We don’t do a $500,000 project every year and they recognize that. They have money that has various requirements on it in terms of matches, to be able to support those situations.”
An earlier story about projects as presented to the city’s Plan Commission is here: https://fortatkinsononline.com/plan-panel-advances-airport-aid-petition/.
Fort Atkinson Municipal Building, file photo/Kim McDarison.
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