The chair of Huron County's Economic Development Board says a presentation at last night's meeting made a very strong case for investing in the airports at Goderich and Wingham.
John Marshall says it was made clear that operating the Goderich and Wingham airports as one operation is not an option because they are two different entities. He adds that the employees at the Goderich Airport are employees of the town.
However, Marshall says what he got out of the presentation was there was a hierarchy of spending and even spending a little money on promotion would improve things at the airports and bring people into the county.
Marshall adds if they decide to go beyond a little promotional dollars to the next stage, or the whole package, which he admits is substantial, the result could be not just a recreational airport but a commercial facility.
Marshall says the next step is to get input from the individual municipalities and then form a committee with representation from the municipalities as well as the county's economic development team to decide how to proceed.
Marshall stated, "These airports are there. We've got money in them. We haven't promoted them effectively. There is different levels of opportunity. Just with some promotional dollars we can improve our lot in life and bring more people into the area, which we wanna do. They are very much economic development asset, again under-utilized."
John Marshall, Huron County's Economic Development Board Chair (photo by Bob Montgomery)