 Welcome to Sheboygan County Government, working for you. My name's Adam Payne, Sheboygan County Administrator and co-host of this program with Chairman Mike Vanderstien. And today, as you know, we're pleased to bring yet another department or department head to be a guest and talk about roles and responsibilities. Every month we focus on a different department and many of them you're probably pretty familiar with, the Sheriff's Department, Health and Human Services, but some of you may not be aware that actually that beautiful Sheboygan County Memorial Airport in this community is Sheboygan County. It's part of our county family. And today, Chuck Mayer, our airport director is with us to talk about it. How you doing, Chuck? I mean, thanks, Adam. It's great to have you with us. I know you brought a photo along that you'll touch on a little later, but please begin by sharing with your viewers a little background on yourself and when you first started with the county. Thank you. Well, I was born and raised in Sheboygan. Still live in this area. And my background in aviation started, my gosh, way back in 1964, at the age of 16, I began sport parachuting, believe it or not. And that just kind of evolved into flying and, you know, here we are. I never dreamed back then that 16 that I'd be managing Sheboygan County Memorial Airport, but it's really been a wonderful experience. I've been with Sheboygan County government for 41 years now. The past 24 have been managing the Sheboygan County Airport and that's really been quite a treat. And it's remarkable, 41 years. I'm hoping that you're gonna double that. I know I won't keep my fingers crossed with Dell. We really enjoy working with Chuck in the excellent job you've done managing this airport. And how long has Sheboygan County owned and operated an airport? Sheboygan County Memorial Airport was built. Construction on the airport started in 1958. The airport was completed in 1960. Officially dedicated in 1962. And from 1960 through 1987, it operated under the part-time management of Chaplain Aviation, which was also the airport's fixed-base operator. So many of our viewers might be thinking, I haven't been out to the airport. If they envision an airport, they envision probably a very busy place. Just how large is our airport and what's the primary role and responsibilities of you and your staff? The airport today has grown to about 1,040 acres in size. That's land acres and navigation, air rights and whatnot. The County Airport Department was created in 1987 when Chaplain Aviation, Harry Chaplain, had retired as manager. So management of that facility went back to Sheboygan County Government basically. And the County Airport Department is charged with the responsibility of overseeing that 1,000 acre holding that Sheboygan County owns. We have to make sure that that facility is operational 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And basically, just keeping it safe for aircraft and passengers and my tenor and folks coming in and out of that public transportation facility. And how busy of an airport is if someone has never been out there before and doesn't get a chance in the future, how many flights come and go every year about how busy is it in comparison to other airports in the state? Okay, basically we've got 98 public airports in the state of Wisconsin. And it's interesting the way the airports are categorized. There are eight large air carrier facilities. There's an example in Milwaukee, Mitchell International, you know, Green Bay, Appleton, Austin, Strable. And then there are 14 corporate transport category airports. And Sheboygan County is one of those 14 and then all the rest are basically the small general aviation facilities. Sheboygan County ranks seven out of those 14 as far as its importance of economic benefit. You know, the population area it serves, the number of aircraft that are based at the facility, flight operations per year, which because of, you know, the economic downturn and whatnot, we've noticed that on our numbers probably somewhere in the, you know, 40 to 50,000 ops per year right now compared to considerably more, you know, back in 19, or excuse me in 2007, 2008, you know, before the economy took a downturn. So 40 to 50,000 takeoffs and landings? Landings, touch and goals. And what helps is, you know, we have so many small general aviation aircraft out there. And those are the folks really that push our numbers up because they're constantly out there, you know, flying and perfecting, staying current, you know, doing touch and goals and whatnot. So that along with the mix of the corporate and transport charter aircraft that come in and out, the business jets and whatnot, that's how we arrive at that number. And over 1,000 acres, 40 to 50,000 flights coming and going, a lot of activity out there. I imagine you have a tremendously large department to oversee all this. Touch on your staff size and who is associated for taking care of this airport. Be happy to. The county airport department is definitely one of the smallest departments in the 24 or so departments that make up Sheboyne County government. My TO basically lists three people, full-time airport manager and two full-time airport maintenance technicians. When things really get tough out there, especially in the winter, snow removal or whatnot, then we'll bring on a limited-term employee to help out with plowing. Just case in point, this winter, again, with all the snowfall, it was, you know, miserable. From the first snowfall, I think it was December 2nd through, I think, early April. Our three plow trucks logged 5,400 miles of plowing on the airport. So, yeah, it's quite a challenge, you know? So three individuals and then an LTE, a fourth person in the winter, I know you are not afraid to jump in that snowplow when necessary and often that's necessary. In addition to your staff, you have a fixed-space operator at the airport. What's their role then and what's your working relationship? The fixed-space operator, basically, it's private sector business that provides aeronautical support services for the aircraft, you know, the transients and whatnot that come through Sheboyne County Airport. Burroughs Aviation is the present fixed-space operator. They provide fueling services and they coordinate, you know, with the aircraft that come in as far as any ground transportation, accommodations, you know, kind of a full service. And they have a nice restaurant right there at the airport, too. That's right, that's also owned and operated by Burroughs Aviation, which is really nice. That facility came on board, I think, in about 2007. Before that, you know, we never really had, you know, a restaurant, a banquet hall facilities like we do now at the airport. So if any of our viewers haven't been out to the airport, though I know it's, we've been getting a lot of rain and it hasn't been the most pleasant spring summer thus far, get out and enjoy the beauty of this county and swing by the airport and take a look because it's so impressive, the improvements that have been made. And if you have time, stop in for a cup of coffee or a lunch or maybe a mixed drink in the evening. So a lot to see out there. Last question before I turn it over to Mike. All these flight operations coming and going, the work that you have to do to maintain this airport, the coordination with the fixed-base operator, tremendous amount of activity. There's also a lot of tenants at the airport. How many tenants do we have and could you give some examples of what types of tenants are out there? It's kind of a small city within itself. And again, the tenants, besides our fixed-base operator, we do have other commercial tenants space there, airworthy aviation. The mechanics on the field, they fix the airplanes or do annuals on the airplanes. Front-line aviation also is based at Sheboygan. They're home offices in Green Bay. They've got a satellite here at Sheboygan. They provide flight instruction. They just merged with Lakeland College for they're gonna be providing a four-year degree program in aeronautics through Lakeland that starts this fall. So we're hoping that the student numbers will definitely increase and that helps the number of aircraft operations on the field. We also have SBM Corp. They provide the large T-hanger and they rent out T-hanger stalls for people to house their airplanes in. Other tenants out there, Hertz rental cars. We have the final approach restaurant, Aviation Heritage Center, which is just an incredible facility showing the Wisconsin and Sheboygan County aviation history. They have banquet facilities and whatnot in that building. It's just a really, really neat place to be. Then we have our private sector businesses. They're about 12 corporate flight departments based at the Sheboygan Airport. Some of them would be like Collar Company, Richardson Industries, Windway Capital Corp, Plastics Engineering, Bemis Company, Bray and Associates. We've got other businesses that actually are based at Sheboygan that have home offices in Manitowoc and we go as far down as West Bend that are based at Sheboygan. A lot of economic development, a lot of dollars going in and out of that airport. Definitely and with all of the hangers that the general public sees at the airport, it's important to note that those hangers are built by private sector, not by county government. They're owned by the private sector. The private sector pays taxes, pays rent to Sheboygan County to have those buildings there. I think to look at my notes, as far as the worth of those hangers, I think it's about $5.6 million in counting yet as far as the hangers built out there. Aircraft that are based at Sheboygan last count was about $115 and those aircraft are worth in the millions and millions of dollars. Outstanding, very nice, Mike. Chuck, in addition to the upkeep and maintenance tasks that you have out at the airport, you're also involved in capital projects. Could you tell us a little bit about the capital project planning process that you go through? That has been a real important part of the 24 years I've been at the airport. We started with the airport master plan update and that took about five years. We completed that around 1996 from the master plan update. Then we went into environmental and economic assessments on what airport expansions were gonna impact the immediate area and economically, if it was justified in spending that kind of money to do these expansions and whatnot. And everything really passed with flying colors. Once we completed that master plan study from there, we basically laid out the projects. And as you know, in the county finance department knows the airport has had capital improvement projects in the county five year capital plan again for the past 24 years. Every year there's something, some major type of capital improvement occurring at the county airport. Even though you have that master plan, where do you get or who gives you guidance on these other projects that come up and things that maybe weren't in the master plan as you go forward with the daily business? We've got a pretty good check and balance system in place. It's not just me as the airport manager wanting to do these things at the airport. I answer to the Sheboygan County Transportation Committee and that's a five member committee made up of the county board supervisors. We also have a nine member airport advisory committee which is made up of a cross section of not only airport tenants, but community leaders in the area. And then I also answer to our county administrator keeping him in the loop as far as these projects that are up and coming. Sounds great. And what are some of the most recent improvements that you've made out at the airport through these capital projects? Just touching on some of the larger projects that have occurred just in the last number of years. The relocation of County Trunk Oal, the relocation of Metalark Road in two different locations. Oh, this is Highland, excuse me. And then Metalark is over on the other side of the airport that also we had to do some relocation to make room for runway extensions. The primary runway, which is this lighter colored runway, started out back in 1960 at 3,600 feet long. It is now 6,800 feet. It was upgraded to a bearing capacity of 98,000 pounds. The secondary runway, which was just finished, rebuilt last year, reconstructed, is now, again, started out at 3,600 feet long. Now we've extended out to 5,000 feet with a bearing capability of 72,000 pounds. So that was the second project. Infrastructure, creating more additional areas for private sector to build corporate hangers, restaurant, FBO facility, things like that. We are really poised very comfortably for the future. Once the economy starts coming back and it may take a few years, typically then we'll see business industry wanting to build hangers at the airport. We've got the future building sites available. Not only in the South Central Quadrant, but also in the North Central Quadrant. That's good to know. And what projects are you working on currently this year? What's going on out there right now? Okay, in less than a month, we will be breaking ground on the reconstruction of this taxiway that parallels our main runway. To have a main runway capable of 98,000 pound aircraft, and then to put those aircraft on a taxiway that is only capable of a 30,000 pound capacity, we've got some problems. And when this airport was built back in 1960, I don't think anyone ever thought that we would be accommodating aircraft that have range capability of what's based at Sheboygan right now. The Gulf Streams, the Global Express that's at Sheboygan will go from Sheboygan nonstop to Moscow. It's just global with the type of aircraft that are there, they're large, they're heavy. They need to take on a lot of fuel, and hopefully that fuel is being purchased here at the Sheboygan County Airport for those long transcontinental trans-oceanic flights. So that's what we're gonna be working on this summer. Okay, and then as we look to the future, what other things are in that long range plan that we're looking to do in the years coming up? Okay, next year we're planning on the rebuild of the main public apron, and that's this little area shown here in black. The area to the north, this white or colored apron is concrete. This section of apron is, again, 50 years old. Structurally, the bearing capacity, it's pretty much failed. And so we need to rebuild that in concrete. That's a project on the books then for either 2012 or 2013. And beyond that, 2014, then we'll be going back, focusing on rebuilding the taxiways that parallel the secondary runway. Okay, and when we look at these projects, how do you set up the funding for these and where does the money come from? Okay, that is really the wonderful thing about the improvements that we've been able to make at the airport. Because of the master planning that's in place, the economic studies, environmental assessments, we have all of our ducks in a row. When we go to the Wisconsin Bureau of Aeronautics petitioning for project funding. Basically, they will put us in their programming cycle and when they receive their block grant from the FAA, basically, Sheboygan County is usually right up on top. They're ready to go with these projects. The funding is awarded to us. The FAA funding currently pays for 95% of these project costs. Two and a half percent comes from the Wisconsin Bureau of Aeronautics and then the remaining two and a half percent comes from the Sheboygan County taxpayers. It's a pretty good deal for the taxpayer. Thanks for working everything to their benefits. When we look at the airport, what kind of economic benefits do you record or attribute to the activity out here? Again, in order to qualify for funding, especially that percentage ratios, the FAA and Bureau of Aeronautics requires us to do economic impact studies. We usually like to do those about every five years. The latest study was done in 2007 and just kind of a high-end overview on the numbers of that. The study determined that because of the airport serving the Sheboygan County area, it generated roughly about $28 million in sales to the local Sheboygan County area and also throughout the state of Wisconsin by having the airport here. It supported about 291 jobs, again, local and throughout the state and contributed about $10 and a half million in wage income. That's great and I appreciate everything that you do, Chuck, and with that, we'll turn it back over to Adam to wrap up. Nice overview and I hope that our viewers are able to kind of pick out, as you're pointing at the runways and the layout of the airport there. Again, if you haven't been out to the airport, I strongly encourage you to get out there and check it out. It's just incredible, the improvements that Chuck has led over the years and Chuck, with all the recent attention, well, it hasn't been so recent anymore since 9-11, but there certainly has been more attention about security, whether it's at airports or other public facilities. What has been done at the airport over time to enhance our security measures and just make sure that we're taking appropriate steps? Well, since 9-11, Homeland Security has definitely been a funding source that I've been very close with to help bolster the security at Sheboygan County Airport because of the tenants that we do have in place and they're traveling around the world with their jets and whatnot. We needed to protect our infrastructure here. So we started out, I think probably about 10 years now that we've had a perimeter fence in place at the airport. The fence was put up initially as a wildlife deterrent to keep the deer out, as we've had a few incidences with the aircraft and deer on the runway. Since 9-11, then we've enhanced that perimeter fence with barbed wire topping. Basically, there are 17 outer gates that go with that 6.3 miles of perimeter fence and then in the terminal area, the south central quadrant of the airport where all the hangers and whatnot are, there are another 18 gates and we transition those gates from just an automatic type that you just pull up to the gate that opens automatically. Since 9-11, that's been transitioned to key fob access so we know who's coming and going. Our county electrician has done a marvelous job on providing that infrastructure and we also have video surveillance at all of those gate locations. It's a pretty tight operation at this point. What I've been impressed with, I know I started here 12 years ago and at that time, you didn't certainly see the fence and I don't think we had the video surveillance, then you've taken just tremendous steps to improve the security, yet when you go to the airport, you don't feel like you've really entered a high maximum security facility. It has a nice layout, it's inviting and certainly it's safer for those using it and gives everyone peace of mind. Again, if you haven't been out there, you gotta check it out for yourself. Again, that's always, I think, one of the things that we try to remember is that people coming to Sheboygan County for the first time, getting off that airplane, Sheboygan County Airport is the first impression that they see of this area and we want it to be the right impression. And Adam, as you're inviting people to come out there, we should maybe just mention that there's gonna be an event out there prior to the EA fly-in with the T-28 pilots coming back again. When is that scheduled, Chuck? Okay, the T-28s will be coming into the Sheboygan Airport and those folks are from all over the United States. July 21st through the 25th. This is the third year now that I've been working with that group. I get the stress point of that whole operation as far as being the air boss for them while they're here. They do their flight formation flying, they practice that. And then on Saturday afternoon and Sunday afternoon, we've already acquired a airspace waiver from the FAA and I will close the airspace over the airport so that the T-28s can practice their aerobatic routine so that they're sharp and ready to go. Because from Sheboygan, they go immediately to Oshkosh for the National Air Convention and perform there. Yeah, it's a great preview and another excuse for somebody who wants to check out the airport. They get that plus all the entertainment of watching these really neat airplanes perform there. You don't have to go to Oshkosh, right? You can just... Excellent, excellent points. Again, that was July. July 21st through the 26th. 21st through the 26th, so good time to get out there and as Chuck mentioned earlier with the museum there as well, you can get a wonderful view of the airport. Of course, depending on their hours of operation, but more often than not, they're open and certainly encourage people to come out and see the good work they've done. Finally, kind of a transition, obviously, with all the aircraft flying in and flying out and what was just discussed, we've got to have some air traffic control mechanisms in place, particularly when it's really busy, but how does that work out there? Okay, 99% of the time, Sheboygan County Airport is non-towered and basically non-towered airports across the United States, they have standard procedures as far as how pilots operate. When they come within our airspace, they get on their Unicom radio and they identify what their intentions are. They let everybody know, as far as if they're intending to land, what runway they're gonna land on. The EFAA basically specifies what the pattern altitude is and how they fly their downwind base and final, so it's all standardized procedures when they're in the airspace over Sheboygan County. Days when the weather is really inclement, then they fly under instrument flight rules and it's kind of interesting, a lot of people didn't realize it. We could have airplanes that are holding at the end of the runway, waiting to take off, talking to Milwaukee or Chicago Center to get a clearance to depart from Sheboygan and then those centers will identify altitude, speed, heading and everything. It's really, really high tech stuff. When we really get busy during events like PGA or NASCAR, if that keeps growing the way it is, then we'll ask the Bureau of Aeronautics to bring in a temporary control tower. Very good. Well, we only have less than a minute remaining and I wanted to spend a little bit more time on it, but I know you just completed another wonderful Father's Day with the Wings and Wheels event. The weather didn't cooperate, but this was what the 21st Wings and Wheels at the airport. So I imagine a lot of folks probably have come out for that and if you haven't in the past, again, every year it's on Father's Day. I don't know if it'll be there forever, but we've got 21 years running and it's a great time to showcase things out there. It sure is, yeah. Well Chuck, thank you so much for your excellent overview. 41 years of dedicated service to Sheboygan County. What did you say, 24 at the airport? And the airport, I think, reflects well on you and you on it and certainly on Sheboygan County. Beautiful facility, it's your facility. If you haven't seen it of late, get out there and enjoy it. Thank you for joining us. Next month, Sheriff Todd Preby, new sheriff in town is gonna be joining us. So until then, thanks for joining us. Thank you.