Marshall Mitchell: Mitchell Municipal Airport could expand with new hangars
Feb. 28—MITCHELL — The Mitchell City Council is considering adding four hangars to the Mitchell Municipal Airport, but will the rent from the hangars outweigh the expense of building them?
The city's airport revenue includes hangar rent, fuel, and gate card fees. The city's 2025 budgeted airport revenue is $163,742. However, current airport expenses exceed airport revenue and the city plans to subsidize 2025 airport operating costs in the amount of $241,704.
Projected rent from the four proposed new hangars is $12,000 per year. It would take eight years for the city to start making money on the new hangars, according to Mitchell Public Works Director Joe Schroeder. The current hangars at the airport are full, and the city believes the proposed hangars will be filled and not sit vacant.
"We've had quite a few inquiries about them already," Mitchell Airport Manager Dan London said.
The city owns one hangar at the airport and leases land for the other 23 hangars. Most fit one plane.
During its regular meeting on Feb. 18, the Mitchell City Council rejected all bids for a revenue producing hangar construction project at the Mitchell Municipal Airport. Staff recommended the bids be rejected because the two lowest bids did not meet the criteria of the bidding process, which is managed by Helms and Associates. The project will go through the bidding process again and then be presented to the council.
The city has contracted for professional services in the amount of $202,251, with a projected budget of $1,621,129 for the hangar project. The engineer's estimate for the project is $1.188 million. The city has $1,383,800 in grant support toward the hangar, so the city will be responsible for any amount over the grant once a bid is awarded.
Schroeder requested an additional $100,000 to bring the project from three hangars to four in hopes to meet the demand.
The city has Federal Aviation Administration grants under the Airport Improvement Program. Airport aid includes a grant for airport hangar design, and $209,375 towards reconstruction of the airport runway, and $190,000 for pavement maintenance at the airport. The last two figures are annual grants based on the population of Mitchell.
During peak hunting season, there can be anywhere from 15 to 20 planes parked outside at the airport. Most of them are Gulfstreams.
"During pheasant season, we have quite a few planes, and they just tie them down outside," said London, who has been airport manager since August 2024.
SPN Helms engineer Brooke Edgar considers the Mitchell Municipal Airport to be up for the task of handling cargo traffic.
"It's very stout, well designed, well maintained. They've got two runways that any type of cargo aircraft could use," Edgar said.
The Mitchell Area Development Corporation (MADC) would like to see more cargo planes utilize the airport, and for the Mitchell Municipal Airport to be a regional distribution point.
"Mitchell has an airport that can take big planes, and (carriers) don't have to compete with commercial passenger flight times to fly in and out," MADC CEO Mike Lauritsen told the Mitchell Republic.
Along the airport's secondary runway, there is room for cargo carriers to lease land from the city to build their own hangars or distribution buildings.
"And our leases are cheap, which is how airports operate. It's an industry standard that they're relatively inexpensive," Schroeder said.
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