Airport still searching for manager

By MEGAN HUGHES

news@yourdailyglobe.com

Ironwood — The Gogebic-Iron County Airport Board is looking to revisit its job posting for a new airport manager in an upcoming special meeting, the board decided at it regular meeting Monday.

Board member Jim Lorensen recommended the board take a look at the current posting, and compare the pay they’re offer to other managerial and public official positions in both Gogebic and Iron counties, as well as to other airports.

“Everyone got a copy of the department heads’ salaries. … and everyone needs to take a look at these comparables,” said Lorensen. “We need to take a look and see where all of these other airports are at.”

He said it’s important that they know what they’re offering before they schedule additional interviews.

Following a brief discussion, the board has opted to plan for a special meeting to address the topic on Monday, Aug. 21.

The board awarded the annual propane bid to Krist for $1.45 per gallon. A lower bid was also presented, however it had not been entered as a sealed bid, as the board had requested, and was thus omitted from the options.

Interim manager Todd Richter gave the board an update regarding the current status of the midway refinishing project.

“The midfield construction project switched today from phase 1 to phase 2. The west connector for the terminal ramp is now replaced, and the electrician is here today to connect the lighting,” said Richter. “Jake’s will be here again tomorrow to break ground for the second phases of the project, and it should take around four weeks to complete.”

He said the runway paint job has been completed, something that needed to be done to meet compliance standards. The airport has also trimmed brush that was brought up as something they needed to address at this year’s inspection.

Richter asked for the board’s permission to begin searching for someone to replace a couple of doors at the airport office, including one of the sliding doors that has a broken pane, and two steel doors which have frames that have begun to rot. The board agreed and said he would only require approval if the total cost of the replacement was more than $5,000.

Visit from the airline

Jon Coleman, director of business development for Denver Air Connection, paid a visit to the board last week. He and board discussed future plans for the airline, including the potential of having early morning flights out of the airport.

“We have gone four years now, and off and on we have talked about different things, one being flight times. This could change the things that you are working on,” said Lorensen. “We talked at one point about building, for the lack of better term, a garage for your equipment. Then came the issue of how long of a contract we have, and the possibility of changing the flights and overnighting an aircraft, rather than building a garage, we would build a hangar.”

Coleman said the airline is not in favor of overnighting the airplane in Ironwood in the winter due to the cold.

“We could consider something for the summer season,” he said, adding perhaps they could have a summer season schedule and a winter season schedule.

“There are challenges here that don’t exist everywhere and it’s tricky,” said Coleman.

Lorensen said he was concerned about whether building a hangar would strongly influence the business and be beneficial.

Coleman and the board also discussed that the numbers had dropped slightly from years prior, but that it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

“Even though this past year has dropped, we are still vastly better than we were before,” said Lorensen.

Coleman explained that advertisement is a huge part of engaging the community, and that if they airport takes out advertisements as well, that working together is important.

Coleman told the board that he had a number of plans in the works, but as they are not finalized yet, he could not share the details. He said he is quite excited about the opportunities, though.