"Director's spending plans for Wisconsin airport face headwind"

Saturday, October 21, 2006

Director's spending plans for airport face headwind 
Hoeft says new investment vital to facility's future 
By Ed Lowe 
The Appleton (WI) Post-Crescent


The director of Outagamie County Regional Airport maintains that investment
will ensure the airport's future growth. 

However, not everyone on the County Board shares the vision of Airport
Director Don Hoeft, whose $7.2 million plan to add 1,370 airport parking
spaces fell to defeat Sept. 26. 

Hoeft's bid to add five new staff to the airport payroll also was "shot
down" in January, he said. Both plans to tap into the airport's cash
reserves are now part of the airport's 2007 departmental budget request the
board will review next month. 

Supv. Jayson Nelson, a member of the county's advisory Airport Oversight
Committee, said he remains unconvinced of the need for such a generous
parking lot expansion, given the airport's recent passenger volume decline.

"Right now, the airline industry is the most fickle industry out there,"
said Nelson, also a member of the County Board's airport and property
committee. "With all the bankruptcies and restructuring that's going on, it
doesn't seem like the optimal time to be committing large sums of money for
parking."

"We want the airport to have whatever it needs to be successful," he said.
"But I don't think people choose what airport to fly out of based on whether
there's a parking spot or not."

Hoeft said the expansion plan will reduce the costs and havoc of continuing
a pattern of incremental parking additions. Moreover, he said, it signifies
to airlines a commitment to the airport's long-term growth - and its ability
to compete.

"If you don't stimulate growth, you start falling behind," Hoeft said. "It's
a downward spiral after that and you don't want to be there."

The growth-focused philosophy sounds better than the alternative to Appleton
resident Dennis Braun, witness to how the dynamic rise of the Fox Cities
airport accompanied the collapse of passenger service at Wittman Regional
Airport in Oshkosh.

"I don't like the idea of depleting our (airport) cash reserves, but can we
afford not to use some of them?" said Braun, a banker in downtown Appleton
for more than 40 years. "Business is economic competition, and I feel we
must be aggressive to attract greater revenue sources. 

"To sit on our hands and accept the status quo will only lead to further
decline."

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