Harrison Area Pilots Association - Fly Harrison

Airport Improvements, Plans, Funding Catch-22 Noted

Also addressing the Board was Commissioner Gabe Ambrozaitis, who provided an update on the recent Committee of the Whole meeting, as well as goings on at the Clare County Airport. He noted the May 17 Fly-In and Dawn Patrol event, for which he had put in a request for an Army National Guard helicopter and a Coast Guard helicopter, plus a visit by Civil Air Patrol. He also provided an improvements report, including work done to the 1980s paved runway; tree cutting to meet MDOT state approach plan clearance requirements; the elimination of the 23/5 runway; installation of gates that could accommodate large machinery and ambulance access to the Medivac helicopter landing area; tetrahedron repair; establishment of first-ever Airport 80D operating rules; new lease agreement that will protect both the tenant and the county; re-established lease with the restaurant, which had expired in 2014; and organization of the Harrison Area Pilots Association.

Ambrozaitis then informed of the Economic Benefits Analysis by MDOT, saying he had multiple meetings in the week prior with the people who actually do that analysis.

“So, we have an initial number which is as is,” he said. “And when I say as is – eight tenants, no manager, and the restaurant – that provides about $1.1 million in economic benefit to the Hayes Township/Harrison area. So, to run a scenario, to add businesses, add the manager, add contractors to do maintenance, etc., bumps it up significantly.”

He then moved into the airport manager’s status, noting that a bill was received Feb. 27 from MDOT Aeronautic: an invoice for crack sealing for a contract signed in 2022 for work done in 2023. Ambrozaitis noted that while the work was deemed to have been done, meaning the contractor is believed to have showed up although no one was notified of their presence (airport manager was unaware) and left.

“We don’t know if it got done or not, but the contractor said he did it, and they billed the state,” Ambrozaitis said. “The state paid the entire bill. Our portion somehow never got invoiced: $8,741 and that came in the mail Feb. 27, 2025.”

He reminded that last fall the airport was defunded by the Board of Commissioners, declining to appropriate the requested $20,000 to the Airport Fund. With the $10,000 remaining in the Airport Fund, paying that MDOT invoice, combined with a repair for the airport tractor, has left no funds to pay for the airport manager.

“We have to pay the invoice, because – good news – we received the $250,000 grant to put new airport lighting in,” he said. “You cannot receive a grant if you’re in arrears with the state. And if you don’t have an airport manager, you technically cannot be licensed – you can’t get grants for unlicensed airports. We’re in a Catch-22.”

Ambrozaitis noted that as of the previous Friday, the airport manager was laid off. Also noted was that as of the end of November, the county had a reported $800,000 surplus. “Yet, we laid off the airport manager because we don’t have enough money.” He also noted the airport manager earns a bit more than $6,800.

“So, this is the dilemma we face as we go into the meeting next Wednesday,” Ambrozaitis said. “How do we solve this Catch-22? Because I do not want to lose the $254,806 grant.”

He informed that there is money in the Contingency Fund, but that he did not believe the BOC would use that fund to pay the invoice and maintain the airport manager/bring him back on.

Ambrozaitis also spoke of the intent to re-energize the former agreement between the township, city and county for funding the airport with the intent to first save the airport, then to develop it.

“The numbers I’ve seen for the scenarios for the Economic Development Analysis are off the charts,” Ambrozaitis said. “If we can develop this.”