ANTIGO — The county board’s highway and airport committee is considering whether to fund eight additional aircraft hangars at the Langlade County Airport.
Alan Horzewski, the assistant manager of the Langlade County Airport who manages day-to-day operations there, introduced the potential project at the committee’s monthly meeting last Tuesday, saying that pilots with larger aircraft would likely rent out the hangars.
“The ability to expand the hangars at the airport would be crucial,” Horzewski said. “We do have a wait list currently. We’ve trained new pilots locally. We’ve got some business owners that are becoming pilots that want to have aircraft for themselves to use for business travel. We need to be able to accommodate those folks.”
He said the investment would further the county’s goal of increasing local tourism.
“Right now, it’s probably going to be mostly the business owners that are going to be utilizing that, and then the hope is that we continue to bring in more outside people for tourism — that’s our end goal,” Horzewski said. “We have this county of trails and we’re trying to advertise that and build up the airport as that funnel to get people here. So if we’ve got hangars, even if let’s say we’ve got one T-hangar that’s big that we keep open that we rent as the FBO (fixed base operator), we can say, ‘Hey, if you’ve got a Cirrus or a bigger airplane to spend the week, we’ve got a spot for you.’”
The original cost of the hangar project would be approximately $2 million. The combined $1.03 million in grants the airport received from the FAA’s Airport Improvement Program (AIP) and the bipartisan infrastructure bill is being reserved to essentially cut the project’s cost in half.
County Administrator Jason Hilger, likewise, said the project would require $1,017,500 from the 2025 budget, but that outside funding sources would defray the cost of the potential construction job over time.
“We would receive a federal grant in 2025 and 2026 of $440,000,” Hilger said. “Then the idea is that we would rent these eight bays out at approximately $200 per month. At 20 years, that’s a minimum of $384,000, and that price for renting them will increase. It will certainly lend some positive impact to Langlade County in the form of fuel surcharge tax, because we get tax paid when those planes land. So we get fuel surcharge tax and then sales tax when they spend money locally.”
Horzewski added that future AIP funds the airport receives could further defray the upfront cost.
If the committee approves the hangar project, it would likely be passed on to the administrative committee for further consideration, and eventually to the entire county board when it finalizes its budget in the fall.
Hilger said that whether the plan is approved or not, he was appreciative of officials like Horzewski bringing “opportunities for progress for the county.”
“I love the fact that we’re providing opportunity, even if it’s for a small number of people,” Hilger said. “But it’s important, because those people make investments in our community, and if they can make this home, whether they need a plane to get here or not, maybe build a business someday, buy two, three houses, help other people who are trying to build a business, I think it’s key to accommodate those people, even if it’s a small section, no different from the economy. People can complain about the rich and the business owners and everything else, but those are the people that bring economy, they bring people, they bring jobs.”
Most Popular
Comments / 0