At the beginning of the Starke County Council’s meeting on Monday, the council was given a presentation by Lee Smith. Smith has been part of the Starke County Airport Board nine years.
Smith started by addressing the situation of nepotism that had been brought up during the prior council meeting. “That situation was resolved that night. That person was suspended, later that week they were let go.”
He then introduced to the council the Starke County Airport Board. Anthony Novak is the legal representative for the board, Tammy Bailey is the treasurer, and Airport Manager Pam Beharry.
“Starke County Aviation Authority Board is appointed by the County Commissioners. The president is Jim Long, Lionel Smead is right here, Carl Goodrich,” Smith said. Smith serves as the assistant secretary. There is also an individual named Mark Shillington. “He’s out of Indianapolis. His job is involved in federal grant money that we have for the projects that take place at the airport.”
The history of the airport came next with Lee explaining that the airport used to be located behind the Five Star. In 1973, that location was closed and was moved to the present location at 1795 N 200 E in Knox.
“That airport brings in a lot of revenue into this county. We have people who fly into the airport and go to the restaurants in town here. We have people fly in and go to Mark Bailey’s. We just had a few weeks ago six old warbirds that came in and they rented houses at the Bass Lake B&B, and they were doing some formation flying there.”
He told the council that there was a customer that came up from Winamac that was flown out of Starke County Airport on a corporate jet. “That jet came to Starke County because the runway in Winamac is too short as well as the runway in Plymouth.”
There are 36 airplanes that are based at the airport. There are six businesses located at the airport.
“The Starke County Airport gets audited by the federal government on any project over $175,000. The state audits the airport every four years. The FAA comes in on a routine basis to check the airport to make sure that it meets all the aviation requirements,” said Smith.
Smith said that the federal government will pay up to 95 percent of any project at the airport with the state paying 2.5 percent and the airport authority pays 2.5 percent.
A few years ago, the airport had its runway increased by 601 feet to a total of 5,001 feet. That increased cost $1.4 million. Smith said that the airport has a Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) which is a five-year plan which includes an AWOS, a taxiway to the grass runway, a bigger ramp, and also another set of T-hangers.
Funding for the Starke County Airport is done through a tax levy. The money that was received from the levy, last year, totaled $383,000. That is a tax rate of 0.0263 percent for 2024. “Out of the airport, county, library, school and township, we have the lowest at 0.0263,” said Lee.
Smith invited everyone in the community to come out and see the airport. “We’d be glad to show you around the improvements, explain to you what’s going on, so that you have a good thorough understanding.”
The Starke County Airport holds board meetings every third Tuesday of the month at 5 p.m. and they are public meetings.
“For 37 years we’ve had no problem with the budget. It has changed very little bit in the last five years,” he said.
“This airport is really a beacon as far as a well-run managed airport and it’s able to take good sized corporate jets, but it’s there for safety. We never know when we might have to have government c-130 coming in here with supplies for this town or whatever,” said Smith.
The council approved the budget for the airport.
