The city of Battle Creek will contract with a private air controller organization to keep the control tower open at W.K. Kellogg Airport, reports the Battle Creek Enquirer. The tower will be open five hours a day instead of 12 hours as it has been.
Larry Bowron, the city’s transportation director said City Manager Ken Tsuchiyama will use emergency authority to hire Midwest Air Traffic Control — which currently runs the tower under a federal contract. It will come before the Tax Increment Finance Authority at its next meeting. The contract would last for six months, until the federal government’s next fiscal year, when there is a possibility the control tower’s funding could be reinstated "in one form or another," Bowron said.
The FAA eliminated air traffic control at the airport as part of automatic federal budget cuts dictated by the sequester.
Source: Battle Creek Enquirer
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