The Plymouth Municipal Airport’s spending is drawing concerns from the city’s clerk-treasurer, but airport officials expect the facility to be revenue-positive within a few years.
During the city council’s budget discussion last week, Clerk-Treasurer Jeanine Xaver said the airport has been spending down its cash reserves, and a huge jump in the airport tax rate is proposed in next year’s budget. She suggested taking a look at hangar fees.
But Airport Manager Bill Sheley told council members that a lot of the spending has been due to remodeling work, which is wrapping up. “Come out to the airport now, it’s a different place than it was three years ago,” he said. “The difference in the place in the last three years, from 15,000 square foot of office space that we have renovated, to go from office space that was literally unusable to now having tenants renting all of that space, with a now second-year high school program. We went from, three years ago, having two or three people at the airport a day to now having over 50 a day.”
Sheley said the airport is slated for some major revenue increases in the coming years, “There’s several things that are happening with the flight school right now that aren’t public yet, that are going to help make that happen, along with things happening with the high school program and Ivy Tech.”
He said he hopes to make the airport revenue-positive in the next three to five years.
