Airport Board Still Working on Funding

HARRISON – For some time now, the Clare County Airport Advisory Board has been struggling with the age-old dilemma of the chicken and the egg – funding is needed in order to match potential grant funding. The runway is in serious need of repair, and the sod has grown into clumps that make for what could at best be called a rough ride.

In order to move the airport to a class that can sell flight fuel and become more self-sustaining, it must undergo some basic improvements. One of those is the completion of a pilots’ lounge, along with lighting and runway upgrades. Some work has been done over the past six years or so, still funding the remaining projects will cost a pretty penny: well, lots of pretty pennies.

The Advisory Board has been plugging away at the problem, and various grants have been investigated. It turned out that the airport was not eligible for one promising grant, and all the other potential grants require matching funds. Thus, the focus shifts to how to raise those matching dollars. With only three members present and five members absent, no quorum meant no official business got done at the Oct. 12 CCA Advisory Board meeting. However, discussion was robust around fundraising ideas.

Gale Bensinger, airport manager, said there had been inquiry about doing drag races/burnout at the airport, but that the reflective beads embedded in the runway striping would be damaged, and that would leave any profits going back into repairing the runway. He also said the substantial cracks in the runway would pose a safety hazard – and then there’s the liability cost.

Bensinger was very clear that, while some crack sealing had been done previously, the cracks have continued to widen and that small cracks will weather into ever larger gaps. He even suggested that runway replacement could be wiser than further runway repair.

Lots of other ideas were proposed, particularly by Carl Lounsbury who is an afficionado of experimental aircraft. He said doing an experimental aircraft show at the airport could be a huge draw and offered to reach out to some of the folks he knows who were involved with a recent, highly successful Roscommon air show.

Commissioner Sandra Bristol was her usual energetic self, proposing multiple ideas, as did Tracy Byard, county administrator. As a whole, the group came up with a plethora of possibilities, including using the facility to host:

Craft shows; hot air balloon fly-in/rides; a fly-in or drive-in pancake breakfast; mini golf; disc golf; helicopter fly-in/rides; and lawnmower races (yup, Tim Allen: “More power!”).

Any of the ideas posited would seem certain to appeal to the public, whether flying or afoot. Yet, as Bensinger noted, when these airport improvement efforts do ring up some funding, a sizeable amount of money will have to go to for the professional engineering which would be required to meet grant requirements.

The Clare County Airport Advisory Board will meet next at 5 p.m. Monday, Feb. 14 in the Board of Commissioners Room in the Clare County Building.