Published: November 17, 2008 10:53 pm         

Enid airport set to get facelift, has new leader

As a way to position Enid Woodring Regional Airport for future economic development, the city has hired an interim director, but that position will have to become permanent through competition next year.

Airport Manager Dan Ohnesorge is listed as interim manager and will have to compete with other qualified applicants for the full-time position after about 180 days.

The job will be open to competition then due to internal city hiring regulations. City Manager Eric Benson said he feels fortunate to have Ohnesorge willing to take on the job on a temporary basis. Ohnesorge rece-ives significantly more in salary than the former airport manager, but city officials said he receives no benefits. Counting the previous manager’s salary and benefits, city officials said the costs are about the same as what Ohnesorge is receiving.

Ohnesorge, a retired Air Force colonel and former program manager for CSC Applied Technologies, the primary civilian contractor at Vance Air Force Base, was named interim airport manager in October. He is paid $83,000 annually but receives no city benefits. He is listed as an independent contractor. Former Airport Manager Don Cornell was transferred to manager of the Enid landfill, but is making the same salary, $55,214, plus the city benefits package.

“The airport manager’s salary did not go up. He is straight-salaried,” said Benson. “The value of that job is going up because of what the airport board and the commission plan to do with it. The airport is a bird’s nest on the ground. It represents a tremendous opportunity for endeavors and it has lain fallow, economically, too long.”

Benson said the type of people he wants to attract have to be well paid. He said the city is fortunate Ohnesorge came under the circumstances of his hiring.

“To get people these days you have to pay them,” Benson said.

Ward 3 Commissioner Larry Dillon oversees the city commission’s airport development committee. Dillon said the city wants to move forward with the airport and felt the change in management would help establish a new focus.

“I think Dan Ohnesorge will be a fabulous manager. He has the drive and the experience. The airport is the crown jewel in the city’s economic development,” Dillon said.

Dillon said the commission wants to tie in its airport economic development with the city, county and Greater Enid Chamber of Commerce economic development plans.

Mayor John Criner said he went with a business group to Ardmore recently and toured that city’s airport. Ardmore has an industrial tract at the airport and has developed a Dollar General Warehouse and a manufacturing business.

“Those are things I’d like to see us look for,” Criner said.

He believes with Advance Food in Enid there could be opportunities at the airport because it would be close to some Advance facilities. In the meantime, the city needs to upgrade the airport, build new hangars and begin using it as an industrial park.

He also believes Ohnesorge has the ability to be a leader in that area. The airport project is an ambitious one for the city, and Criner said the airport board is filled with talented people who are developing ideas to bring to the city commission.

Jim Stallings, president of the Airport Authority, said the desires to improve the site fall in two categories. First is updating existing structures, hangars and aviation-related businesses, whether they are mechanics or aviation shops.

“We want to grow that business. That will be the easiest short-term possibility,” he said.

The second category concerns longer-term goals. With an industrial park at the airport, the city would be looking for more manufacturing-type businesses, Stallings said. The idea is to update airport facilities to place them in the Enid spotlight.

City officials say Enid is competing with other peer communities in industrial airport development.

In Ponca City, Airport Manager Don Nuzum said the airport once had land it used as economic development property, but that has been turned over to Ponca City Economic Development Authority. Land west of the airport once was scheduled to have a Woolco store come in, he said but the store did not come, and the land was given to the airport. Land east of the airport has been developed by the airport, he said.

“They are looking for new manufacturing or whatever,” Nuzum said.

The property west of the airport now is home to a call center, a maintenance facility and a Tyson Processing plant, among other businesses. Nuzum said he has no economic development background and had to learn “on the job training.”

Ponca City began moving its industrial recruitment to a professional organization and established a city a sales tax to help support the work, he said, in addition to other assistance the city gives new business.

It is not unusual for airports to be a central location for economic development. Nuzum said many communities do that, especially larger ones. He is personally familiar with El Paso, Texas, which has established a large economic development area near its airport. Recently, a new golf course also went into the area, he said.

In Stillwater, Josh McKim, economic development director, said using the airport as part of an economic development strategy is not new or innovative, and a number of communities do it, especially in Oklahoma.

“I think that makes sense for Enid with their proximity to Oklahoma City, Tulsa and Wichita,” he said.

Stillwater also has focused somewhat on its airport for use in economic development, but he said communities do it in different ways. In one southeastern Oklahoma community, he said, the airport authority is the economic development board.

“We work in tandem with the airport authority. Aerospace is one of the focal industries in Oklahoma and everyone is trying to grab hold of some of that,” he said.

Gary Johnson, airport director at Stillwater, said city officials are looking for people who need airport access and need to be close to the airport, whether they are aerospace, manufacturing or other types of industries.

That is what industries like Mercury Cruiser and Armstrong like about Stillwater, Johnson said. Neither is based there, but both use the airport. Johnson said it is critical to have an airport that will accommodate their flying needs.

Stillwater also has a large parcel of land, as Enid does, that can be developed. As long as a business is compatible with airport regulations and fits within FAA regulations, Johnson said, it will work. FAA guidelines say airports must be reasonably financially self-sufficient and sets standards for property development.