Gary Airport votes for public-private partnership plan

The Airport Authority at its Monday meeting voted 6-1, with Porter County-appointed Board member Nikki Thorn casting the lone dissenting, voted to accept the P3 Ad Hoc Committee’s recommendations. It also voted 7-0 to move forward with crafting an interlocal agreement between the City of Gary and the airport.

One of the P3’s cornerstones will be for the Airport Authority to retains ownership of the airport, said Lake County-appointed board member and Ad Hoc Committee member David Bochnowski, in order to continue to be eligible for federal grants and other subsidies. But Bochnowski also advised that the businesses brought to the airport through the P3 should be left to the investors.

“For us to tell the investors what we want it counterproductive,” he said. “They need to tell us what they think works.

“These are investors who’ve done this in many places, and they have the experience while we have the asset. At the end, we do not want them to have the asset and we have the experience.”

The P3’s minimum expectations include a five-year management plan with operating measures; a five-to-10-year investment plan to include aviation and non-aviation development; and demonstrated financial capacity, in either equity or debt, at a minimum of $100 million, Bochnowski said. The Ad Hoc Committee will also continue to play a role in its development.

With regard to the airport’s air-traffic control tower, Interim Airport Director Steve Landry told the board he and staff are currently looking for funding to keep it opened after June 15th, the slated day that 149 towers across the country will close because of the sequester. The Federal Aviaition Adminstration extended the closure date to June from April 21st Friday.

Among the factors the airport needs to consider, Landry said, is cutting the tower’s hours of operation to 12 hours seven days a week vs. the 17 hours, 7 days a week it’s currently in service. If kept open, the airport would be allowed to use the FAA telephone lines it currently uses, though it would have to lease equipment and schedule and perform maintenance itself.

Gary Jet Center Owner Wil Davis told the board that he’d spoken to Regional Development Authority Executive Director Bill Hanna about coming up with a plan to keep it open.

“We’ve heard that there won’t be a safety issue by not having the tower, but there will be huge safety and marketing issue,” Davis said. “Bill seemed very receptive to the idea.”

Davis said he’d be willing to go to other tenants to see if they would help defray the cost of keeping the tower open.