Airplanes are once again taking off and landing at the Plymouth Municipal Airport, but skydivers are absent. Troy Church, owner of Plymouth Skysports appeared before the Plymouth Aviation Board Tuesday night to ask that he be released from his lease at the airport. Church moved his skydiving operation to Michigan City during the resurfacing of the Plymouth airport but a number of factors have combined to hurt his business. The weather this spring was not conducive to skydiving, a number of employees left him with the move, and finally the customers who had come mostly from the Fort Wayne area were unwilling to drive to Michigan City. His draw now is from Gary and the South Side of Chicago and it has been like starting the business all over. The operation will stay in Michigan City this year and is unlikely to come back. The airport board authorized the city attorney to negotiate a end of the contract with the airport.
Plymouth mayor, Mark Senter came to the meeting to congratulate the board on the project and to thank Dave Lattimer for his work in rejuvenating the facilities.
The project which widened and resurfaced was mostly completed last weekend. Work on the lighting and painting are still being done. The lights should be installed within the next two weeks while the final painting will wait until after the blueberry festival. The FAA required that the asphalt cure for 30 days before final paint is applied, instead the runway was marked with temporary paint which will not affect the curing asphalt.
The final project was completed almost a quarter million dollars under budget although there may be some more work done on the drainage at the airport.
The board was informed about three weeks ago, that a new FAA inspector had found a problem with the land near the airport which may cause the revocation of their instrument approach. A hill must be lowered within the next 180 days to retain the instrument approach.
