Nearly $2 Million Award to Aid Airport Expansion
Project Will be Completed in Phases

By Joe Potente
Kenosha News

A $1.94 million award, largely from the federal government, will fund the first phase of east side expansion at Kenosha Regional Airport, state and airport officials said this week.

Airport Director Wayde Buck said the funds will go toward running new roads, taxiways and utility hookups to an area where seven hangars will be built later this year. Buck said the hangars will be built and owned by private operators who will lease the sites from the city.

Buck said that mirrors the current arrangement of how hangars are managed at the airport. He expects all of the new sites to be leased out to corporate aviation operators by the time the infrastructure is in place, likely by mid-summer.

"We haven't had a (vacant) hangar site for two years at least, and we constantly get inquiries about building hangars," Buck said.

Of the $1.94 million allocation, the Federal Aviation Administration provided $1,845,132 while the city and state kicked in $48,557 each, a spokeswoman for the governor said.

Buck said he anticipates the entire east side development - comprised of more hangars - will be completed in four or five phases, as financing allows. Funding applications already have been filed for the second phase; Buck hopes those funds will become available next year.

Once fully developed, the expansion will bring airport operations east all the way to Highway H (88th Avenue). The current runway confi guration will not change, however.

Buck said the Phase I funds were appropriated about a year and a half ago but were not available until now, when environmental studies and other reports were completed.

"This is a project we've been working on for about four years, and finally the funds came through," Buck said.

Assembly Minority Leader Jim Kreuser, D-Kenosha, said the $1.94 million award is the latest example of the city's success in obtaining federal funds for local projects.

"I didn't realize how big it would be and that they'd be able to get it for the hangar(s), but I'm pleased that they were able to move it along," Kreuser said. "The mayor deserves a lot of kudos for this."