ESCANABA, Mich. (WZMQ) – The Delta County Airport is taking steps forward on a project that has been in the works since 2013.
The airport recently purchased a new snow removal vehicle with Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) grant money. The new vehicle is much larger than the airport’s old equipment.
“The other half of the grant was to expand our operations building so we would have the sufficient indoor space to store that vehicle,” Delta County Airport Manager Robert Ranstadler said in an Airport Advisory Board meeting on Monday.
When Ranstadler took over in the fall, he consulted with operations staff about the project. He says according to them, the current plan for the building is not optimal. It calls for the expansion of the door to an operating width of about 26 feet, and the widest part of the snow removal vehicle measures in at 24 feet.
“Although on paper it’s wide enough to accommodate the plow, because there’s only one door and you have to back the plow in and drive it out as opposed to pulling it through, it’s going to make it very difficult,” Ranstadler explained.
The design would also force operations staff to move all of the existing heavy equipment to the maintenance bay.
“If we stack that bay with the heavy equipment, then that’s going to greatly complicate their daily routine,” Ranstadler said. “The bottom line is, with the design as it sits right now, there’s potential for bad things to happen.”
Ranstadler proposed a few ideas for a redesign, including moving the current sand storage building to add onto that side of the operations building. He says a feasibility study on the redesign would come with a cost of $2,200.
“If we were to say, for instance, we don’t want to do anything with the building, we hit the button, and we stop, it would actually cost the airport almost as much money or possibly more money because the airport would then have to reimburse the FAA for the planning and design cost,” he told the board. “We would essentially be paying for nothing.”
The Airport Advisory Board voted unanimously to move forward with the study, with several noting that it would be a worthwhile investment for the airport.
“We could spend the money, we could do our due diligence, and in return, we could get nothing back for it,” Ranstadler said. “On the other hand, if we don’t explore the possibility, three years from now, if we have someone that smashes a snowplow blade into the building, then it’s our fault because we didn’t do anything to at least try and meet them halfway.”
Ranstadler also said that as of February 7, the Delta County Airport is in full compliance with the FAA. Click here for WZMQ 19’s most recent update on that story.
