County to become partner in Manti-Ephraim airport

MANTI—Big changes, including a name change, are on the horizon for the Manti-Ephraim Municipal Airport if it wants to keep new annual funding committed by Sanpete County commissioners.

A unanimous vote of the Sanpete County Commission on Tuesday, Feb. 4, made available $12,500 to the airport each year beginning in 2025, and signaled commissioners’ willingness to be more generous.

“And then in the future, if this continues to grow, which we hope it will, … more money will be forthcoming from the county,” Commissioner Scott Collard said in the formal motion he made approving the funds.

Both cities also provide $12,500 each year to the airport. The cities also provide extensive in-kind services, including keeping the runway clear of snow and weeds and the time city administrators spend on airport administrative tasks.

So the county’s contribution is a welcome 50% percent boost in dollars strictly speaking.

But that support comes with strings attached, which Collard included in his motion, and which Commission Chair Scott Bartholomew outlined later in a letter to the Manti and Ephraim mayors and city councils.

“This financial commitment is contingent upon the establishment of an independent
Airport Authority Board, as proposed,” Bartholomew wrote. “…Additionally, we suggest renaming the airport the Sanpete Regional Airport to reflect its regional importance and better represent its role as a critical asset for the entire valley.”

Neither of those ideas should come as a surprise to city leaders, since in recent weeks, commissioners met with mayors and city councils of the two cities in recent weeks to discuss Manti Mayor Chuck Bigelow’s and Ephraim Mayor John Scott’s ‘ request for a county financial contribution to the airport on a regular basis.

The idea of an “airport authority” to govern the airport has been floated for several months, first by Tom Herbert, chair of the current airport board.
As presently formulated, the board is advisory in nature. It studies and discusses issues pertinent to the airport and makes recommendations to the combined Ephraim and Manti city councils. The councils have governmental authority and decision-making power over the airport.

It’s a situation that has proved awkward and slow, requiring the correspondence, agreement and votes of two different entities.

“It makes it a very slow process,” Herbert said during a meeting last year (which was reported in the Messenger last December), “and if it’s something that’s rather urgent in time, then we’re kind of up against a problem.”

An airport authority board would be vested with all the decision-making, oversight and governance of the airport, but would function at the will of the two city councils and, assumedly, the county commission.

The other condition — renaming the airport to Sanpete Regional Airport — was the commissioners’ idea, according to Kevin Christensen who is Sanpete County’s Travel and Tourism director and, by virtue of that role, also sits on the Airport Advisory Board. And while Bartholomew in his letter described the name-change as a “suggestion,” the wording of Collard’s formal motion made it sound like a requirement.
But that idea isn’t new either, Christensen said.

“If it’s going to be a countywide regional airport, maybe it ought to reflect that. I’ve heard other people mention that before in years past,” he said.
Christensen said both changes could happen quickly, though he thought the move to an airport authority took priority.

“I would hope that at least the airport authority would take place fairly soon,” he told the Messenger on Monday, noting also that a draft document creating an airport authority had already been created. “It’s something that could happen in the next couple of months if they want it to.”
That’s a different tune than was sounded in December by Manti City Administrator Kent Barton.

At that time, asked about the eventuality of an airport authority, Barton indicated it could be some time before “we get to a point financially and organizationally that we feel that makes sense,” he told the Messenger at that time.

First, he said, both cities would have to be in agreement to make the move, and second, the airport would have to be on a firmer financial footing—”self-supporting,” he said.

In either case, though, “I think it’s kind of in the cities’ court now,” Christensen said, as they now have to decide whether to accept the county’s money on the county’s terms.

As for Christensen, putting his tourism and economic-development hat on, “I truly see this as an invaluable opportunity to enhance the airport’s capabilities and, in turn, elevate our local economy. I believe this decision is a significant step forward in strengthening our airport’s role in the region’s development.”