MARQUETTE — The Marquette County Board of Commissioners approved a lease for the U.S. Army Winter Testing Ice Group to rent a hangar at Sawyer International Airport for the winter season at its Tuesday meeting.

The Army’s impact on the county economy throughout the duration of the testing is upwards of $2 million, said Airport Manager Duane DuRay.

DuRay explained the icing test process at the meeting. The U.S. Army equipped a Chinook helicopter with a water container that acts as a sprinkler system. When flying, water is pumped into the air and atomizes due to cold air temperatures instantly creating an ice cloud. An aircraft follows behind the helicopter to fly through the cloud.

“The advantage of this is they can fly into that icing cloud and they can record where the ice accumulates and how the aircraft handles in the conditions, and if there are by chance issues with the Chase Aircraft, they can easily turn out of the icing cloud back into clean air and they can shed the ice and recover back into the ice,” DuRay said. “It’s creating a manmade ice to mimic a natural icing condition.”

The lease, which allows the testing of Leonardo Helicopters at the facility, is set to begin Sept. 9 and tentatively run through May 31, 2020, depending on ice conditions.

The short-term lease agreement outlines a daily rental fee of $250 and a monthly fee of $7,500. DuRay noted that because the extent of the lease is contingent on the weather, a daily rate was included so that a monthly fee would not have to be paid for all of May, if icing conditions cease.

Additional fees will be charged for the support services the airport will provide throughout the lease such as office equipment, stoves, refrigerators, janitorial services, snow removal costs and other miscellaneous services they may need.

“We mark those fees up 10% to cover our administrative fees, so any fee they acquire while leasing the building, we’ll charge them that actual cost plus 10% to cover our costs,” DuRay added.

This will be the fourth year the U.S. Army has used the Sawyer International Airport facilities, “these operations provide substantial spin off revenue for supporting businesses throughout Marquette County,” a letter from Duane DuRay to county officials states.

During a previous lease agreement, the airport charged the Army a total of $144,000 which resulted in a $57,424 profit margin for roughly a six-to-seven month lease.

If the 2019-2020 lease is completed to the end of term, DuRay estimates there will be $89,000 in revenue, $79,000 of it just in hangar fees, not including rates for additional services.

“That’s a big deal when you look at the impact for the whole county with all the different vendors and places of business, so that’s good stuff to have happening at the airport or anywhere else in the county, to have visitors who are spending that kind of money,” Chairman Gerry Corkin said of the estimated impact on local economy.

DuRay stated that previous lease agreements brought around 75 technicians into the area, all of whom rent cars, eat at local restaurants and stay in hotels.

Another benefit of the lease agreement is that it puts Marquette on the map. Entities such as Korean Airspace, Sikorsky Aircraft and AgustaWestland have all operated out of Sawyer International, he said.

“These are all globally recognized industry leaders that when they go back to their company settings and they network with other manufacturers, Marquette County and Sawyer International Airport are going to be on the page when other companies are asking, where are you getting your data, who are you working with so that you can certify your aircraft to operate in icing conditions, and it puts us in a spotlight as a premium winter weather operation test site,” DuRay said.

Trinity Carey can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 243. Her email address is photos@miningjournal.net.