COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – The chairman of the Branch County Airport Board told the Branch County Board of Commissioners during their work session last Thursday the airport has had to clear a number of trees following a 2015 inspection.
The trees are encroaching the runways and Board Chair Joseph Best says the airport has been downgraded from their General Utility Rating, thus they lost state and federal funds.
$80,000 has already been spent the last couple of years on removing the trees and Best says they have requested a re-inspection so that the government funding can be reinstated.
Best told commissioners there has to be cooperation with the Road Commission and Parks Department.
He said annual inspections of airports got tougher on the tree issue after a plane approaching an airport in New England crashed into a tree and killed everyone on board.
