OSHKOSH – A controversial plan to replace an aging Oshkosh airport building crumbled in a budget meeting last week when the Winnebago County Board passed a no-frills alternative to demolish much of the building.
For more than four years, the county board has been debating what to do with Wittman Regional Airport's dilapidated terminal building, which houses airport offices and a car rental service, but has stood largely empty since commercial flight service fled Oshkosh years ago.
By a 26-2 vote, the county board voted Nov. 7 to budget $1.1 million toward tearing down much of the terminal and repairing its leaky roof. Three members abstained and five were absent. The vote likely discards a $5.5 million plan to replace the old terminal with a new one, a proposal that the county board has been debating for years.
It's an issue that dredged up conflict on the county board and led to the resignation of board member Kenn Olson and Airport Director Peter Moll. Winnebago County Executive Mark Harris said details of the plan need to be addressed, but the board was clear in rejecting the initial plan to build a new terminal.
"I think maybe it’s a starting point," Harris said of the new terminal plan. "This is not something I want to fight the board on."
Wittman's terminal has deteriorated in the years since commercial flights stopped running from Oshkosh. It is plagued by a roof that leaks and rising heating and cooling costs.
During budget hearings last week, the county board set aside $1.1 million in the 2018 budget to tear down and fix up part of the terminal. The move drew praise as a prudent alternative to the costlier plan to build a new terminal, while supporters of the new building cautioned it
"Let’s show what fiscal responsibility really means," Supervisor Bill Wingren said. "Let’s support building a terminal for $1.1 million instead of $5.5 million."
Dispute leads to resignations
While some supervisors praised last week's decision, the bitter fight forced two officials out of county government in the process.
In early October, Kenn Olson, an aviation committee member, stepped down, blaming infighting and a long-running vendetta against the airport director as factors that contributed to his resignation.
Olson said suspicion of Moll led board members to stonewall the pricier terminal plan, then caused the facilities committee to meddle in the planning process.
"They claim that (Moll) lies, that he cheated the county out of money," Olson said ahead of Moll's resignation. "They were just holding things up. This has never been done for any other county building project. It tells you they are not going to be happy until the airport manager is gone."
Moll announced his resignation in an email to the county board just before he was due to field questions from board members about the airport's 2018 budget. He will remain in his post until February, and will help search for his successor.
Moll did not immediately return a message seeking comment Wednesday, and declined to elaborate on his decision to resign in an email to a USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin reporter Nov. 7.
"Some members of the board have been very critical of Peter (Moll)," Harris said. "I think that probably had an impact of board’s support for the airport."
Path to terminal plan
The county's initial solution for Wittman's terminal was to tear it down and build a new, smaller one suited to corporate travelers and private planes. It would have cost about $1 million to demolish the existing building and some $4.5 million to build a new one, which would leave land open for development nearby.
But the plan hit a series of roadblocks at meetings last winter. Some criticized the plan for failing to detail how much the county would charge the terminal's tenants during a meeting in December.
Then, at a meeting in February, emails surfaced that showed Moll had failed to seek state aid for the new terminal.
That revelation caused the county board to put the project on hold indefinitely. Supervisor Guy Hegg moved to require that the board revisit the plan only after a new airport director had been named. But the county's attorney blocked that measure; the board doesn't have the power to hire and fire officials.
In the months after, the county's Facilities Committee, led by Supervisor Bill Roh, began working on an alternative plan. It's a move that Bob Warnke, chairman of the county's Aviation Committee, said felt like an overreach.
"To me it was a very unethical way of doing things," Warnke said. "I wish they could have gone ahead with the whole plan and got it over with."
The new plan consolidates airport staff into the west end of the airport terminal with tenant Basler Flight Service and tears down the east end. Supporters expect demolition to cost about $900,000, and repairing a leaky roof to cost some $200,000.
Though the county's vote last week allocates money for the plan, there are unresolved details. The county board must decide how the project affects parking, who will demolish the building and other particulars. There's no outlined plan, either, for what to do with Hertz, which would be displaced by the plan.
Roh said it's up to the county's aviation committee and airport staff to figure that out.
"That’s micro-managing," Roh said. "We don’t care what they do with parking spaces. That’s up to them. Those are minor details."
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