Sawyer County airport manager: airport layout plan contracting still pending, funding approved but contract not executed

A Sawyer County resident asked the Public Works Committee on March 18 about the status of state funding for engineering tied to the airport master plan, and the county's airport manager said the Airport Layout Plan (ALP) funding has been approved but the state has not finished contracting, so work has not started.

The question came during public comment from Ron Olmer of Hayward, who said an engineering firm had told the public in a prior meeting it would seek funding for an initial engineering phase that could include closing Airport Road, buying the former Hayward Wood Products site (referred to in the meeting as “MRS”) and building hangars. “If they've requested it, we'd like to know what the status of that request is,” Olmer said.

Mr. Leslie, reporting for the airport, said that while he believes funding for the ALP has been approved by the state, the state has not completed contracting. “We’re still waiting for BOA to finish up contracting for the ALP,” Leslie said. He added that the ALP and the master plan are separate documents and that the master plan is not complete.

Leslie outlined near-term operational and procurement items: a preconstruction meeting is scheduled for April 2 at the terminal building (with a Teams option) for an upcoming pavement project; snow removal equipment bids were received with an apparent low bidder but the state has advised the county not to publicize the award yet; and the equipment package is in the roughly $500,000 range with an estimated county match of about $12,000. “So once a bid [is] signed and awarded, they have a year for delivery,” Leslie said.

Board and staff discussion noted delays in the Bureau of Aeronautics (BOA) contracting process. A county speaker urged colleagues to press the BOA for timely action, citing staff turnover and slow responses. “That ALP update is supposed to move essentially in step now with the master plan,” one county staff member said, urging follow-up with BOA staff, including the county’s new BOA contact, Colin Davidson.

Leslie also described operational impacts and outreach: increased winter traffic during recent snow events, outreach about frost-tube monitoring (needed before paving), and planned attendance at a state airport conference in Stevens Point. He said airport stakeholders will be invited to the April 2 preconstruction meeting to hear how the grass runway and operations will be affected during construction.

The committee did not take formal action on airport funding or the ALP at the meeting; members directed staff to continue providing status updates when new information from the state is available.