Wednesday, December 12, 2001 Oshkosh Northwestern
By Alex Hummel
Winnebago County will try some creative fund raising to put together a loan "package" for a jet airplane charter company proposing to locate at Wittman Regional Airport.
Officials might even go to the dump.
The county's finance and airport directors, corporation counsel and Industrial Development Board coordinator will turn to a landfill industrial development fund in ad-dition to an IDB coffer to pool a $1.9 million loan.
No new taxpayer funds will be tapped.
The loan package would benefit Orion Flight Services, a Sturgeon Bay-based company proposing a $1.9 million hangar and office building next to Wittman's 20th Ave-nue terminal in Oshkosh.
The fixed-base operation, or FBO, would provide an in-tegral fueling and aircraft maintenance service at the air-port, said Mark Nielsen,chairman of the county's Avia-tion Committee.
"Right now, our tenants are asking for these services and they are not being provided," Nielsen said. "I guess if Oshkosh is going to be the 'Mecca' of general aviation, we want to have a state-of-the-art facility."
The IDB yanked two action items from its agenda Tuesday, seeking to modify rules allowing a loan to Chamco Inc., the city of Oshkosh's industrial development agency.
Chamco was planning on building the FBO facility for Orion and overseeing payback of the loan.
However, the IDB, which typically gives money to communities like Omro or Winneconne for marketing campaigns for industrial development park projects, can't give money to any non-taxing authorities.
Nielsen said the county instead will turn to its solid waste management board and the IDB for the loan and, itself, construct Orion's building.
The county would be the guarantor of the loan and would take over Orion's facility should the company default. Orion has yet to consider the particulars of the new deal.
A "lease-to-own" structure still is being worked out, Nielsen said. The county also would get income from the leasing of the airport land to Orion.
Aside from aircraft charters, the company proposes to establish an air ambulance, aerial sight-seeing and possibly flight school service at Wittman.
The airport long has looked for another FBO. Basler Flight Service currently operates at the airport.