Issue of the Month—Airport Board and Future Airport Operation

The County Commission recently approved three recommendations from the Aeronautics Board Governance Subcommittee. This subcommittee had been appointed by Chair Parrish in January 2011 to review the governance structure of the airport and make recommendations regarding the composition of the airport Board and it’s future operations. The committee reviewed national and other state airport data as well as reviewing current state statutes dealing with governance structure for airport boards.

After spending nine months looking at the data and conducting interviews and visits to other airports, the committee made recommendations as follows: (1) Change the name of the Board from Kent County Aeronautics Board to Gerald R. Ford International Airport Board. This will make it consistent with the name of the airport. (2) In order to reflect the regional nature of passengers and freight using the Gerald Ford airport increase the size of the airport Board from its current six members to seven members. This seventh member will be someone from other counties within the West Michigan Statistical Area—Allegan, Barry, Ionia, Montcalm, Muskegon, Newaygo, and Ottawa. (3) In order to strengthen the regional nature of its services, the Board is directed to work with the WMSA counties to develop a plan to grow the regional nature of the Airport, and to coordinate the development of complementary services with airports in the surrounding WMSA cities.