 Welcome to Sheboyin County government working for you. I'm Dan Lemieux, County Board Chairman, co-host of our monthly TV show with Adam Payne, our administrative coordinator. And we try to bring the viewers, the residents of Sheboyin County, the services that we as Sheboyin County, as a county provide our residents. This month we have with us Chuck Mayer, our airport manager. Most of the departments that we've been highlighting over the past months and years have been highway department, health and human services, sheriff's department. A lot of the departments that our residents are more familiar with, but many of them probably aren't aware that Sheboyin County operates the airport. And so Chuck is with us today as our airport manager and he's going to tell us a little bit about the airport operation out there and his involvement with it. But Chuck, maybe you could just start by telling our viewers a little bit of background about yourself and how long you've been working at the airport. Thank you, Dan. Adam, for inviting me to today's session, really appreciate it. I've been with Sheboyin County as far as the airport manager for the last 15 years. Prior to that, I had been with the county's planning and resource department. And very fortunate 15 years ago to have the opportunity to step into that position at the airport and was able to utilize kind of the diverse background I have in aviation and the planning skills and whatnot and put that focused all of that energy towards the airport development and improvements and things like that. You've been with the airport 15 years how long have we had a Sheboyin County airport? The airport has been operated by Sheboyin County since 1962. That's when it was officially dedicated. And interesting history on the airport going back into the 40s and 50s all the public debate that had taken place as far as the need for a municipal airport. Back in the 40s and 50s there were a number of privately owned airstrips around the county. There was one south of Sheboyin, another one in the Plymouth area. And again, a lot of debate between the city, the common council, county board as to the viability of a publicly owned airport. And that issue finally came to a head and was put to the public in a referendum vote in November of 1956. And the vote came out, you know, very positive as far as the taxpayers wanting an airport. So the county board, I believe in early January of 1957, established I think what was called a Parks Property Aviation Committee. And funds were allocated, you know, for airport development. The airport construction began in about 1958. I think it was completed in 1960. And the airport officially dedicated in 1962. So there's a snapshot history of where the airport originated from. So prior to 62 there was nothing out at the site that we now call the Sheboyin County Airport. Back then that basically was just farmland, swampland, and woods. That's all that was there. What is the size of the airport, how large is the airport compared to other airports, and what is the responsibility of your department in regards to the airport? The county holdings, the present airport property right now is about 654 land acres that we own. We also have an additional 200 acres of navigation easement and error rights that are located above the ground off the runway approaches and things like that. So, you know, we're at 900 acres later in the program as we get into discussions on, you know, the airport expansion plans and whatnot. We'll be increasing our holdings probably by another 200 acres as we get into these runway extensions and road relocations. So it's a, you know, a fairly good holding that the county has out there as far as land ownership. And the responsibility of seeing that property operations, operation-wise, run 24 hours a day, seven days a week is under the responsibility of the county airport department. And it's one of the smallest departments that make up, you know, county government. There are three of us, you know, in the airport department. Besides myself as a full-time airport manager, I have two full-time airport maintenance technicians. And as a workload demands, we also take on a limited-term employee. And basically, you know, we do everything from A to Z on that facility. The snow removal, maintain the visual aids, navigational aids, keep basically the entire transportation facility in safe, you know, operating condition. You say you're in operation 24 hours a day, seven days a week. That's correct. You're not out there. Your staff isn't, your small staff that you have isn't out there 24 hours a day. We're typically out there, you know, we'll start at seven in the morning and usually five o'clock. We're finished Monday through Friday. As incidences occur, systems, you know, that may break down, whatever, then we're called back, you know, for immediate service. So of the three of us, someone always has to be available 24 seven. But as far as landing and takeoffs and things like that, you're not involved with that as far as having to be there. That's why you say it's an operation 24 hours a day. That's correct. Most of the systems on the field are pilot controlled. It's a radio controlled type of system that when a pilot wants to take off or land at the airport by using his onboard radio, he can manipulate some of the visual aids that we have on the field, the runway lighting, the approach slope indicators, things like that. So it's as automated as we can make it. Other than your, you and your department, there's also a fixed based operator are paying out of the airport. Could you explain that situation and who the fixed based operator is? Right. Fixed based operator is, I guess we could refer them to them as almost the service station of the aviation industry. As an example, if you owned an airplane and you needed service performed on that airplane, you take it to the fixed based operator. And they provide mechanics for the engine overhauls, inspections, airframe inspections, things like that. If you need any other type of aviation type support services, flight instruction, your charter is just the full, full gamut of aviation services are provided by the fixed based operator. And again, that is a private sector business that leases property from the county on the airport. You know, they've made improvements on the property and that is how they operate. Most of us, when we think of an airport, if we haven't made out to explain coming up, we're used to going to Mitchell Field or O'Hare up to being there to fly on a commercial flight. What type of flights are coming in and out of, out of Spain County airport and how busy is, is our airport compared to some of the other airports around the state? Well, I think for any, any of the public who's had the opportunity to drive through the airport stop, you know, from time to time and then just watch the amount of activity that we have. It's, it's really impressive. And every year, the number of flight operations continue to increase. Out of over 100 public airports in the state of Wisconsin, Sheboygan County Airport is ranked as the seventh largest as far as based aircraft. We have over 115 aircraft at that facility. And we're the 10th busiest as far as yearly aircraft operations. We experience over 80,000 aircraft operations per year. So it gives you a little perspective just where Sheboygan County Airport is, you know, overall with other airports in the state. You mentioned a number of planes that were based at Sheboygan County Airport. Right. What type of individuals or corporations are these? Who are these tenants that are based in Sheboygan County Airport? The structure of tenants at Sheboygan County Airport is something that we're, we are so fortunate. And I know there are a lot of smaller airports around the state that wish we had, wish they had the type of tenant base that we have. We are, our backbone basically is the industrial and corporate flight departments that are located at Sheboygan County Airport. And you know, with the diversified business and industry that we have throughout Sheboygan County, you know, those businesses have chose to establish their own flight departments so that they can move their people when they want and to where they want without having to rely on commercial airline schedules and limited, you know, destinations and things like that. So that is something that we've seen, at least in my experience at the airport the last 15 years, that has progressively increased. The type of aircraft that these businesses use typically are anything from a single engine four place, you know, Cessna or Piper type aircraft, all the way up to the twin engine turboprop, the King Air type aircraft to small to medium class business jets. And just in the last, I would say seven years, I've seen many of the corporates transition from the twin engine turboprop to the small corporate jet. Are there quite a few individuals also that have planes that that they have hangar space out there? Right. On the airport, we have basically three different areas of land use on the west side of the field where we have the large industrial corporate hangars. Center field terminal areas are fixed space operator and there's another commercial operator out there that has a tea hanger storage. And then on the east side of the field, we have 37 private hangars. And that's for basic general aviation, smaller business type people, you know, coming into aviation. Interesting to note on the east side of the field with our small private hangars, we have maxed out our real estate area presently as far as available lots for future building. And when we discuss, you know, some of the long range plans of the airport road relocations and things like that, we found that to be necessary in order to allow us to, you know, be able to continue, you know, future building. Are these hangars hangars that we have put up and released to to individuals or are these on directed by these individuals and corporations? It was the decision of county board years ago. I think right right from the get go when the airport was constructed that the county would retain the basic real estate hanger lots, so to speak, and any improvements on the lots would come from the private sector. So the county does not build hangars for private or business sector. And all these hangars are on property tax rolls? That's correct. The airport itself is owned by the county. So it's not on the tax rolls, but the improvements for the hangars that would be taxable property. Right. There's about the last I checked with the town of Sheboygan Falls assessor. I think we have over $4 million worth of hangars on that that field that are on the tax roll as far as assessment. Damments and earlier, we have 23 department heads and I always enjoy interacting with Chuck because he has such a calm, cool demeanor and our viewers might be thinking well, after 15 years at the airport with all the upkeep, the maintenance, what's been happening out there and if you haven't taken a trip out to the airport, you have got to check it out. Chuck and his staff have done a tremendous job. And one of the things that we wanted to talk about this morning was the ongoing planning that you're involved with and all the capital improvements. Tell us a little bit about what you've got planned for the future. Okay. Well, the the planning has been long time in the works to say the least. When I started 15 years ago, that facility was in dire need of help. The infrastructure, you know, was really falling apart, so to speak. And it took us many years of just getting in there, cleaning things up, getting improvements made, changing ordinances, making that whole facility more user friendly. While that was taking place, we also initiated the airport master plan update and quite a few studies to help support that master plan as far as our capacity and demand projections, environmental assessment studies for future expansions, economic assessment studies, you know, are these long range plans and expansions, are they viable? Is it something that the FAA will look positively on Sheboygan County and cost share these projects with us? So we really had a lot of studies, you know, that had to be done and we had to prove not only to the county board, you know, to the Wisconsin Bureau of Aeronautics and the FAA that, you know, these these were credible projects. Otherwise, the funding just would not be there nor would with the support. And with the planning and we'll get into some of the specifics, but with the planning that you're doing, who's involved with that? I know that you have a liaison committee, you work with an advisory committee, give our viewers a flavor of who's involved with that planning process. Over the over the past 15 years, it was interesting, the as far as liaison committees that I answered to when we initially took over the airport, it was the property committee from there, the airport was transferred to the county resources committee. And then most recently this year as of April, due to county board consolidation effort in committees and meetings and things like that, as far as taxpayer savings, the airport now answers to a transportation committee. And that transportation committee also oversees the county highway department and the county airport department. It makes sense, you know, total transportation. So what are some of the projects that you've been working on of late? Okay, the most recent project that we've completed was the extension of our secondary runway. We refer to that as runway 1331. That runway had been 4000 feet in length. We had just completed a 1000 foot addition to that runway now. And in addition to the runway extension, we had land that had to be acquired, navigation easements, air rides. We had to relocate at town road on the west side of the airport, the metal arc road. And it was a decision of the committee. Seven years ago, when we started this planning process to get as many people involved as possible, as far as, you know, the besides liaison committee, the town board, our neighbors around the airport. And, you know, as as the plan evolved, everybody, you know, was pretty much on board and supported, you know, the concepts that that we're initiating now. Now you mentioned some of the extensions, the road, moving the road over so you can extend one of the runway as you're working on another runway. What are some of the projects that you're looking at completing in the next five years? On the county five year master plan, which dovetails with the Wisconsin Bureau of aeronautics six year airport improvement plan, we're looking at the relocation of county trunk highway all. And matter of fact, what might help the viewers, we do have a visual aid here. Simply help the viewers out a little bit. As I had just mentioned before, Adam, this summer we had completed the 1000 foot extension to this runway 1331. This is the runway that that kind of runs east and west same direction as county trunk all runs east and west direction. That was completed. This matter of fact, it was just about a month ago that we officially opened that that new runway. We also relocated Metal Arc Road really gave it a quite a curve out here and ultimately can see as we get into our expansions, the roads surrounding the airport are going to probably resemble the racetrack at Road America. Everything is really going kind of serpentine in design. But again, it was a decision that was made seven years ago rather than close town roads and make things inconvenience for inconvenience for the residents of the town of Sheboygan Falls and our farming neighbors that surround the airport, those roads would remain open. Now projects like this take a great deal of money and that's where I get back to your demeanor. Not only do you have a very nice on confrontational demeanor, you have to get out there and you really have to pound the pavement to get dollars to fund these projects. You've been tremendously successful. Give our viewers a flavor of what dollars you've brought in and how you've gone about doing that. I think the first seven years on board at the airport, just infrastructure improvements, we've been able to capture 7,000, excuse me, back up, that was close to 7 million in state and federal funds for these infrastructure improvements. What we're proposing coming up in the future with the relocation of County Trunk Oal, the extension of our primary runway ultimately somewhere out in 2006, 2007, we also have industrial and general aviation taxi lanes that need to be expanded. That's probably 11 million dollars that we've got programmed out there. I've found that by having these plans completed and having everyone on board with them, as an example, the county board, typically we would run the expansion concept plan to the board under resolution form and have them see if they would adopt that concept. This is just all in that planning process. From there, I can take this packet to the Wisconsin Bureau of Aeronautics and the FAA and say here, all of our ducks are in a roll. Initial, the preliminary plans and designs are in the works. We have our 20% of the airport owner funding in place. We're looking for 80% matching funds from the Wisconsin Bureau of Aeronautics, which gets their money from the Federal Aviation Trust. I think your match may be as attractive as any in the county. Again, 20% funded by Sheboygan County taxpayers. 80% coming from state and federal dollars, which to a certain extent we're paying for as well, but so is the rest of the state or the rest of the country and we're being able to bring that back for our airport. The last question. We have this airport in place. It's providing a benefit to the community. Just how positive of an economic benefit is it providing? Why are we in the business of operating a public airport? Okay, and that question was put to us many times as far as, you know, as we introduce these runway extensions and other infrastructure improvements and the large dollar amounts that are associated with these improvements. Are we justified in putting that type of money into the airport? I've had three economic impact studies conducted over the years. I think we did one in 1993, 97 and just recently again year 2000. What the economic impacts have defined is that boiling it down as simply as possible. The economic benefit to cost ratio is about 24 to 1. And this was from a study, you know, just a few years out. And we know that number is getting better. So it is a definite, very positive economic influence on Sheboygan County to have a viable airport there that are industrial and commercial, commercial sector can utilize, you know, getting out and accessing that global marketplace because that's what it's all about right now with the industrialists that we have in Sheboygan County. I mean, they're working, you know, beyond the United States. They have plants in Europe. We're looking at, you know, Pacific Rim areas and whatnot. These folks have to be able to move their people, you know, in a very timely fashion. So for every dollar that Sheboygan County puts toward maintaining, operating our county airport, $24 are getting pumped into the local economy. Exactly. Right. That would be the cost to benefit ratio. Very good. Thank you, Chuck. Thank you. Chuck, a little over a year ago, 9-11 changed many people's lives, it changed how many businesses operate and probably none more than the airline industry and how they operate and how they function and their viability even. And we hear a lot about airport security and things like that. We don't have a lot of time left, but could you just tell us a little bit about how that affected Sheboygan County Airport? Right. As of September 11th last year, airport was hurting, no doubt about it, just like any other airport, 4,000 airports from coast to coast, United States. Everyone was shut down. It was devastating to say the least. Since that time, I guess one of the positive things that has come out of 9-11 is the fact that we have seen a marked increase in flex jet type operations where the corporate community now is buying blocks of time for business aircraft travel, rather than relying as heavily as they had done previously in the commercial airlines. So that portion of the aviation industry is really bouncing back quite strong and just trying to keep up with the demand. We see that at Sheboygan County Airport every day. The corporate jet turbo prop aircraft operations that are coming into Sheboygan County besides our own tenants that are based at Sheboygan that are leaving with their aircraft. So it's been a very positive increase in that respect. Security-wise, are we doing anything different now than we did a year ago? Definitely. We are working on a security system for our perimeter gates in the terminal area, going to a security card, key fob type access for our tenants and suppliers, things like that. We're one of the first general aviation airports in state of Wisconsin actually to take the lead and to initiate that type of security. The FAA really hasn't come down with any firm regulations yet, governing general aviation airports. Air carrier airports such as Mitchell International, Green Bay, Appleton, that have set airlines and they're under TSA regulations and whatnot, but general aviation like Sheboygan, nothing has really come down on us yet, but we know it's coming and in an effort to protect the integrity of what we have at that airport, the investment that we have out there with the business and corporate community, you know, we went ahead and on our own to initiate this. The Bureau of Aeronautics looked very keenly on the security program that we brought up that we're bringing on board and has chose to cost share that with us, again, that 80-20. So it's, you know, it's, I think it's going to be a win-win situation. One of the last things we wanted to talk about, and you have all of about 30 seconds to talk about this, is we host a Wings and Wheels event every year. Could you just tell us when it is and what it's about? Okay, we just finished the 12th annual Wings and Wheels this past Father's Day. Hopefully we'll be doing it again next year. A local EAA Chapter 766 is, you know, providing that, that they sponsor that activity for us. It's something that Sheboygan County doesn't sponsor. You know, we just, we've got the airport and they want to do the activity on the airport. So I wish we had more time to talk about the spin off from that chapter, the Sheboygan County Aviation Corporation that is in the process of putting up a, probably I think it's going to be about a 1.3 million dollar aviation museum at the airport. We'll have to get John, have to get John in a few months and then talk about Wings and Wheels again next month. We're going to have Tim Finch, our finance directors, our guest and we'll be talking about a budget that will hopefully be passing in about two weeks. Thank you.