By the numbers
$1.3 million: City and grant money spent on keeping the tower open since 2011.
$18,000: Cost to study affect of closing Springfield air traffic control tower.
9,634: Number of flights in 2013 during the hours the Springfield tower was operational.
Staying with the story
The Springfield News-Sun has reported extensively on the city’s efforts to maintain the air traffic control tower since the Ohio Air National Guard flying mission left in 2011.
The city of Springfield will close its air traffic control tower at the Springfield-Beckley Municipal Airport by the end of the year to save money.
The city has spent about $1.3 million operating the tower since the Ohio Air National Guard F-16 training mission ended in 2011, hoping to land another military flying mission at the airport.
But a study finished this month found that economic development won’t be affected by closing the tower.
City commissioners and staff members will discuss the study and the airport’s future Tuesday night.
By ending tower operations, the city will surrender its current operating certificate with the Federal Aviation Administration, meaning certain passenger flights won’t be able to fly into the airport and the city won’t have to provide fire services.
“Ultimately, we think this is the best course of action to help save money out there and invest in the things that will have an immediate return on investment,” said Tom Franzen, the assistant city manager and director of economic development.
The tower is operated by Dynamic Services Inc., which has two employees at the 1,800-acre airport, 1251 W. Blee Road. City commissioners will likely extend the contract until the end of the year to phase out operations and create a safety plan for the future.
The city spent $275,000 last year to keep the tower running through next month. During last year’s budget process, the subsidy for the airport was reduced to $175,000, with no money allotted to renew the tower’s contract.
“There was nothing in the report that showed that would be a bad decision, based on the economic development goals we have for the airport or the public services we offer,” Franzen said.
The airport saw more than 9,500 flights in 2012 during the hours the air traffic control tower was operational, and more than 9,600 last year, including military, general aviation, passenger airline, corporate jets and unmanned aircraft, according to airport records.
This year the airport has seen nearly 6,300 flights through June.
City commissioners would like to keep the tower open, but there’s not enough revenue tied to it to do so, Mayor Warren Copeland said.
“It’s not a choice we would like to make, but it’s a choice we may have to,” Copeland said.
Local business leaders aren’t concerned about the closure.
“You still have the infrastructure there,” said John Landess, chairman of the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce Executive Board. “If for some reason a company would need that, I think it can be resurrected in relatively short order.”
The $1.3 million spent on the tower since 2011 includes about $758,000 in city money and $545,000 in grant money. Previously the military operated and paid for the tower.
Springfield’s current certificate allows passenger aircraft containing between nine and 30 passengers to fly into the airport. The city believed it was appropriate to keep the certificate after the F-16 mission ended, but Franzen said it’s rarely been used.
Without the certificate, the city won’t need yearly inspections from the FAA, but it will continue to maintain high internal standards that will allow its certificate to be reactivated easily.
If a business opportunity arises in the future, the tower could resume operations in about 30 to 60 days, according to the report.
“It’s a safe way to operate the airport,” Franzen said.
The city’s funding from the Ohio Department of Transportation Aviation Division and the FAA won’t be affected by closing the tower.
The city will also update the airport’s master plan, as recommended in the $18,000 study performed by StanTec, a national aerospace consulting firm.
It’s better to have an air traffic control tower than not to have one, said Mike Catherwood, co-owner of Spectra Jet Inc., a business at the airport that specializes in repairing Lear and Challenger jets.
However, someone has to pay for it, Catherwood said.
The tower’s closure won’t hurt the repair business, he said.
“When an airplane comes to us, it’s usually for two to six weeks,” Catherwood said. “He flies in, then flies out.”
The company also serves as the fixed-base operator at the airport, providing services such as re-fueling and hangaring for general aviation. Without a tower, it could affect that business, but Catherwood said he doesn’t expect it to be a big impact.
“A lot of people like to go cross country,” he said. “It’s kind of nice to have a tower there to help them find their way, especially if they’ve never been there before.”
The tower is a nice amenity, but it’s not essential to operations, said Frank Beafore of SelecTech Geospatial, which specializes in manufacturing unmanned aerial systems. He understands the need for Springfield to conserve its budget.
“It’s kind of a 50/50 thing,” Beafore said. “I’m glad we have it. Could we operate without it? Yes. Would it be a little more difficult? Yes.”
Shuttering the tower won’t hurt the use of unmanned aircraft at the airport, Beafore said, because the geography and amenities are in place to support that growth.
Beafore is in discussions with drone developers in Israel and other parts of the United States about investing at the airport. The geography and the availability of air space is key in those discussions, he said.
Without FAA rules for drone activity, Franzen said it was a challenge for the consultant who did the airport study to estimate the effect on UAS activity without a tower at the airport.
Organizations with active certificate of authorizations for flying unmanned aircraft at the airport — including Sinclair Community College and the University of Dayton Research Institute — will need to be resubmitted to the FAA because of the tower closure. The FAA has approved certificates at other airports without an air traffic control tower, Franzen said.
“That was the big concern: Can we continue to do what we want to do?” Franzen said.
Springfield was part of the Ohio/Indiana proposal to be one of six sites nationally to test unmanned aircraft in local airspace, but the region wasn’t chosen by the FAA. The airport will still be used as part of the Ohio/Indiana UAS Center and Test Complex, headquartered in Springfield at Next Edge Applied Research and Technology Park.
The city believed an operational tower would be critical to securing a new training mission for the 445th Airlift Wing Air Force Reserve, based at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. The 445th Airlift flies C-17 cargo transport planes, and the unit currently trains for assault landings at out-of-state sites.
However, the federal government has reduced spending on these types of missions in recent years.
The city recently received $500,000 in the state capital budget money to build an unmanned aerial vehicle hangar at the airport, which could begin construction this spring, Franzen said. The hangar project consists of 10 new hangers, including six new T-hangars and four larger box hangars.
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