Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
The Gogebic-Iron County Airport stands in Ironwood on Monday. The airport was awarded grant money through the bipartisan infrastructure bill and will go to one of the airport improvement projects, airport manager Michael Harma said.
By ZACHARY MARANO
Ironwood - Gogebic-Iron County Airport manager Michael Harma said the airport was recently awarded $159,000 through the new bipartisan infrastructure bill. He said that there's not many details about the grant other than the news release, which talks about runways, taxiways and airport improvement projects. He thinks the money will be poured into one of their projects - either the midfield taxiway, building expansion or new general aviation facility.
Harma said that the money is coming from the federal government, but he needs to meet with state officials to see what their opinion is. He said that Michigan manages federal money through a block grant program, which matches some of the shares from grant funding.
Because of the construction projects planned this summer, Harma said it would be difficult to have an airport day this year. He said that they could have another airport day in 2023 after the projects are completed.
The Gogebic-Iron County Airport Board selected a chairperson, vice chairperson and recording secretary at their regular meeting on Monday. The one-year terms went to Iron County Supervisor Patrick Hanson, Gogebic County Commissioner Dan Siirila and Iron County Supervisor Brandon Snyder, respectively.
The airport has received nothing but positive feedback about their airline and surpassed the number of boardings and de-boardings in the last four years in 2021, said Siirila. He said the only concern was that the airport building was overcrowded on Christmas Eve. Some passengers were had to wait in their cars because the airport was not set up to accommodate that many people. He said that he reassured them that they are working on expanding the building.
