ESCANABA, Mich. (WZMQ) – The Delta County Airport is approaching an “administrative crisis,” according to its manager.
Robert Ranstadler took over as manager in October. Since then, he says he has uncovered a pattern of the airport “nearing” being “out of compliance” with Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations.
“There are numerous issues from administrative standpoints as far as records, training, finances, and other things are concerned,” he told the Delta County Board of Commissioners at their meeting Tuesday evening. “I would say that if not in a state of crisis, we are about to enter a state of crisis.”
Ranstadler says former airport manager Andrea Nummilien—who resigned in June—failed to turn in documents to FAA inspectors. In July, the Delta County Airport received a letter of investigation, which Ranstadler says serves as a warning.
“It is years of promises unkept to the FAA inspectors, who have lost their patience with the airport,” he told the board. “Understandably, the inspector was very frustrated, had serious concerns about the administrative condition of the airport… I believe he went and dug as deep as he could and found a laundry list of issues.”
Ranstadler also says “numerous” airport records are missing.
“Half of my existence and time spent at the airport in the past two months has really been in an investigative capacity, trying to uncover old records, trying to connect the dots, trying to figure out what we can do to solve these problems,” he said.
The Federal Aviation Administration wants the airport to resolve its compliance issues by the end of the year.
“Right now, with myself and one assistant manager at the airport, we simply do not have enough hands,” he said. “There is not enough time in the day to correct all these issues by the end of this calendar year.”
According to Ranstadler, it is possible that the airport could face fines or have its operating certificate revoked if the compliance issues are not corrected. However, he says those possibilities are far down the line.
“The FAA does not want to shut airports down,” said Ranstadler. “This is something that neither party benefits from. The next step from here is if we cannot comply with all these issues in the time allotted… there are informal proceedings that can be held, litigation.”
Ranstadler suggested “getting a few extra hands” to help solve the ongoing problems. He would also like to restructure the airport staff, including adding a salaried manager to the operations department.
