An Airport for Wisonsin's Walworth County?

In the last 15 years, Walworth County in Wisconsin has built a sheriff's department headquarters, a jail and a Huber dorm, a judicial center, a nursing home, and additions to the health and human services department.

Its government center is undergoing massive renovations, and the county board recently approved building a new school for children with special needs.

So is an airport next?

One supervisor suggests the board look at the prospect.

Larry Hilbelink told the public works committee Monday that he heard from a pilot friend that "airports can be built for nothing through federal grants. That puts us in a position to build for virtually nothing."

Hilbelink suggested building an airport on 400-plus acres of county land off County NN near the new nursing home.

The tract of agricultural land is large enough for a smaller airport, Hilbelink said. He was unsure how long a runway could be and how big of planes it could accommodate.

If federal grants were available to construct an airport, the county could make money from gas sales and hanger rentals, Hilbelink said.

"It's nothing more than a possibility that the county could conceivably make good money off a county project, rather than spend money," Hilbelink said.

An airport could help lure larger companies to Walworth County, Hilbelink said. He noted that the Walworth County Economic Development Alliance is trying to persuade American Honda Motor Co. to build a car manufacturing plant in the area.

A county-run airport would compete with the East Troy Municipal Airport, said Jeff Parnau, president of the airport's fixed based operations center.

"I would be kind of surprised if they built something the same size and scope as what we have because they already have it in Walworth County," Parnau said. "The village has done an aggressive expansion plan (here), with 17 more proposed hangers and a runway expansion approved in the late 1990s.

"This is the first I've heard of (the proposal). It would make a lot more sense for them to acquire the operation from the village."

The village of East Troy owns the airport land and rents space to individuals and companies for plane storage and aviation-related businesses, Parnau said. Other airstrips in Walworth County are privately owned.

East Troy budgets about $98,000 annually for expenditures at the airport, mostly for employee wages to maintain the facility. The village also has material costs to maintain hangars that it owns.

The village receives about $100,000 in airport revenues, but $15,600 of that is from village tax support, according to village records. Non-tax revenues are about $84,000 from fuel sales, land leases, hanger rentals and a few other sources.

"Airports are rarely revenue makers," said village Trustee John Alexander, who sits on the East Troy Airport advisory committee. "They strive to break even. But it's tough when you have a tax base our size. Having a tax base the size of a county would make a lot more sense."

The city of Burlington also operates an airport just outside the county line.

"It's just an idea. I'm trying to throw something out there," Hilbelink said after the meeting. "Every time we come to taxpayers, it's for something we have to buy. Look at parks. Every time we look at parks we ask how much is it going to cost us?

"This is nothing more than an idea where the county may be able to make money off it; money that might support something else it has going on."

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