Hangar rates lowered at Sawyer

The Marquette County Board of Commissioners discussed a number of items at their meeting Tuesday night.

The board approved lowering the winter hangar rate at Sawyer International Airport.  The new rate is aimed at attracting new users of the airport to store their planes at the hangar over the winter.  The rates would not apply to current users, only new users of the hangar.

“We do have hangar space,” Sawyer Airport Manager Duane DuRay said.  “We have Hangar 662 that is 28,000 square feet and we feel that this would be a good marketing tool to entice new users of Sawyer to come up here and possibly winter their aircraft here and then maybe see fit that they would want to make this a permanent base.”

There was also discussion on actuary rates for the county’s health insurance and retirement plans.  Some employees are under an older plan, and the county is running out of funds for those employees.

“What I see for the amount that we have designated for people who are actually retired seems good, and that’s well funded,” Commissioner Greg Seppanen said.  “It’s when they cut out the people that were investing for now, they’re still working, they’re still under the old plan…that it seems like we’re falling short.”

The board wants to discuss further the actuary rates.

They are also planning on having a representative from Blue Cross Blue Shield discuss implications to the county due to the Affordable Care Act at a later date.