{"id":104587,"date":"2018-07-10T07:51:56","date_gmt":"2018-07-10T12:51:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=104587"},"modified":"2018-07-10T07:52:19","modified_gmt":"2018-07-10T12:52:19","slug":"airport-raising-funds-for-capital-projects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2018\/07\/10\/airport-raising-funds-for-capital-projects\/","title":{"rendered":"Airport raising funds for capital projects"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>VW independent\/submitted information<\/em><\/p>\n<p>For the past few months a quiet, but effective, regionwide fundraising campaign has been underway to pay for a new state-of-the-art terminal and additional improvements at the Van Wert County Airport, including extension of the current runway to 5,000 feet.<\/p>\n<p>Leaders of the \u201cFlight Plan for the Future\u201d campaign, Chuck Koch of Koch Law Offices, Mike Keysor of Custom Assembly, Andy Czajkowski of Statewide Ford, and Bill Rager of Store and Haul, have been busy presenting the case for the airport\u2019s improvement to area businesses and others with a goal of raising $1.25 million in multi-year commitments.<\/p>\n<p>According to Mike Keysor, who also serves as chair of the Airport Authority, every dollar raised in the campaign will generate $19 from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in matching funds.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_104588\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-104588\" style=\"width: 545px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-104588\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/First-Federal-donates-to-airport-projects-7-2018.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"545\" height=\"354\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-104588\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>First Federal of Van Wert made one of the important early commitments to the $1.25 million funding campaign to improve the Van Wert Regional Airport. Shown presenting a pledge card for their $50,000 commitment are First Federal representatives Diana Cearns, Randy Myers, and Lisa Lawson, Airport Manager Steve Bailey, First Federal President Brian Renner, First Federal\u2019s Adam Reis, and Andy Czajkowski of Statewide Ford and a co-chair of the campaign.<\/strong> <em>photo submitted<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cHowever, the FAA\u2019s dollars can only be used to pay for \u2018air side\u2019 improvements, such as the runway, lighting, and aircraft parking,\u201d Keysor noted. \u201cLocal funding is for the FAA match and construction of the new terminal, which is long past the need for replacement.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The terminal building was constructed in 1939 and was last renovated in 1974.<\/p>\n<p>Campaign leaders cite the importance of a modern municipal airport as critical to attracting and retaining employers who increasingly depend on corporate aircraft in conducting business.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur mega site will be far more competitive with the addition of a runway that will accommodate corporate aircraft requiring a minimum 5,000 feet of runway,\u201d said Czajkowski, who is also president of the Van Wert Business Development Corporation. \u201cOur current runway is only 4,000 feet and is unsafe for business jets of any significant size.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is one of the community amenities that\u2019s been overlooked for a long time,\u201d Koch said, \u201cand it\u2019s a credit to our business community and area foundations that they recognize the importance of this aviation asset to the economic progress of our region.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>VW independent\/submitted information For the past few months a quiet, but effective, regionwide fundraising campaign has been underway to pay for a new state-of-the-art terminal and additional improvements at the Van Wert County Airport, including extension of the current runway to 5,000 feet. Leaders of the \u201cFlight Plan for the Future\u201d campaign, Chuck Koch of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-01 16:47:38","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104587\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}