September 2026      AirportImprovement.com
6
PUBLISHER’S COLUMN
WE GET IT... YOU’RE BUSY!
Contract # 110122-NCH
The bidding process 
is a pain - but with 
NASi’s Sourcewell 
contract, the runway 
de-icer qualification 
process has already 
been done for you!
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SCAN TO LEARN MORE
All Politics is Local
Tip O’Neill, a former Speaker of the U.S. House of 
Representatives, was right about politics being local in nature. 
Voters care most about issues that affect their daily lives right 
where they live, rather than state and national matters.
Would/should this principle also apply to airports? It absolutely 
should! But it appears that control over some airports has been 
at play recently.
In July, Austin Straubel Airport (GRB) in Green Bay, WI, 
moved from a county-managed structure to having a private 
management company oversee operations, planning and 
development. Brown County, the airport owner, initiated 
discussions about the change behind closed doors while the 
public and staff were unaware of what was taking place. While 
most airport employees will remain at GRB, the new five-year 
contract included the dismissal of three airport leaders: the 
airport director, assistant director and communications director.  
A related news item involves a new Tennessee law that hands 
the state power to make airport board appointments to the state. 
Essentially, the law dissolved local governing 
bodies and granted state leaders majority 
control over major metropolitan and regional 
airport boards in Nashville, Memphis, 
Chattanooga and Knoxville.  
This is just what we don’t need. In 
Tennessee, the airport authorities and 
boards provide local talent and experience to 
do what’s best for their own airports. And they’ve demonstrated 
vision and competence over the years. Having one state board 
for all of the state’s major airports is cheating locals of their voice.
And, as a famous airport saying has it, “When you’ve seen one 
airport, you’ve seen one airport.”
Cheers!
PAUL BOWERS, PUBLISHER

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