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This newspaper has brought you exclusive investigations and coverage of Butler County’s regional airport. Count on us for continued coverage of this issue as it unfolds.
Butler County officials have received mixed reviews in their quest to have the county’s largest jurisdictions help finance future growth at the regional airport.
The county invited officials from the cities of Fairfield and Hamilton as well as West Chester, Liberty and Fairfield townships and local chambers of commerce to tour the airport on Wednesday, hoping to cull support for a “Cooperative Economic Development Funding Agreement.” Middletown has its own airport so they weren’t invited to attend.
Airport Administrator Ron Davis has given the county commissioners a 10-year, $9.85 million “wish list” of projects that need to be done at the airport, including land acquisition and obstruction removal, among other items. The county pared down the wish list to include things such as revamping ramps, the taxiway and the runway in its proposal to the local jurisdictions. Economic Development Director David Fehr said they only wanted to ask other jurisdictions to chip in for a local match of $360,721 — the federal Aviation Administration would fund $3.2 million — over a five-year period.
“We said look, if we can have some contributions over the next five years to get these things done, we’re in pretty good shape,” he said. “Then that way people aren’t on the hook forever. And then after five years, if everyone is happy we can look at another five years.”
West Chester Twp. Administrator Judy Boyko seemed the most enthusiastic about the proposal, saying the township is very interested in making sure the airport remains a viable asset.
“Over the next few months, West Chester hopes to work with the county commissioners to better understand its plan and commitment level to ensure general operations remain,” she said. “With confidence in the county’s operational plan and measurements for performance, the township trustees will strongly consider financial participation at that time.”
Hamilton’s Economic Director Jody Gunderson was very supportive of expanding the city’s cooperation with the county using this vehicle. Mayor Pat Moeller was a little bit more reserved in his enthusiasm. He said the city is in the throes of the budgeting process so talk of dollar contributions are a bit premature.
“Anything can be considered but what amount is a fair amount,” he said. “It is too soon this week to commit and say we’re paying X dollars. There are things that have to be considered by council. There’s a lot of moving targets right now.”
Officials from Fairfield declined comment on the airport issue, but back when the issue cropped up last month, Tim Bachman, the development services director, said there are only a handful of businesses in his city that consider the airport critical.
Fehr said his interpretation of the feedback he has received is that West Chester is obviously interested, Fairfield and Hamilton are being cautious and Liberty Twp. is likely a no-go.
“I don’t know that they feel there is a return on investment,” he said. “I don’t see that they’ve connected the dots to see a direct impact. Obviously they like having the airport there if they don’t have to pay for it, but to go that extra step, I’m not sure they are there yet.”
Liberty Twp. Board President Christine Matacic said she went on the tour and picked up information about the proposal, but it is too early to offer an opinion on the township’s interest. What’s more, she said only about 2 percent of the township has commercial development and they have been concentrating their cash on preparing for future growth.
Steiner + Associates, the group who is building the mega mixed use development in Liberty uses the county airport, according to Fehr, as do other major corporations such as Procter & Gamble, Duke Energy, General Electric, Kroger and Walmart. AK Steel, Brands Insurance, Great American Jet, Inc. and others also call the airport home for their aircraft. In 2013, the airport had 61,687 takeoffs or landings and averaged 169 “operations” a day.
“There is a lot of analysis that we still have to do,” she said. “It’s just like anything else, we don’t go into things just because somebody wants us to do something. We take our time, we do the analysis, we check things out.”
Fred Hogan, whose family developed the airport, has had a long and often contentious relationship with the county over the airport — he recently lost a federal lawsuit he filed against the county over a lease agreement — and he said he hopes the other jurisdictions will join the county in this endeavor. He said there need to be changes at the airport and if the cities and townships have a stake, they might be able to effect improvements. He also has a beef with airport Administrator Ron Davis.
“My brother Tom and I, we don’t oppose the cities and townships from funding the airport, in fact we encourage it,” he said. “Any business that’s located at the airport depends on good maintenance at the airport and the maintenance out there has been an ongoing issue with the potholes for at least four or five years.”
The county commissioners have expressed concern that the airport hasn’t been able to turn a profit and they have said changes are needed. It cost and estimated $251,783 to run the airport this year and revenues are projected at $257,401. As for Hogan’s complaints, County Administrator Charlie Young said there are always naysayers, some people sing the airport’s praises and there are also detractors. However, he said pot holes are always fixed and any issue raised is addressed.
“We’ve heard many of these statements in the past, we’ve investigated those statements, we do a tremendous job at the airport. I think the results at the airport have demonstrated that,” he said. “We have doubled the number of fixed aircraft there since the county has taken over operations, essentially with Ron Davis. We’ve tripled the amount of hangar space and we’ve spent millions of dollars taking care of the facilities.”
Fehr said he plans to circle around with his counterparts at the other jurisdictions in the next few weeks so see where they stand.
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