Leelanau Township unanimously approved a grant writer contract agreement for Woolsey Memorial Airport at its regular meeting Tuesday evening. The contract cost between the township and Wendy Rose Bice of WRB Consulting is $6,000 for her work from March through June, and will be covered completely with funds recently awarded from the Leelanau Township Community Foundation (LTCF).
The $6,000 grant award from LTCF to the township was specifically to hire a researcher/grant writer to assist in applying for funding opportunities to restore the airport.
“I don’t think we could do it absent a grant writer that’s dedicated to tracking down appropriate funders and then applying to them. We don’t have the manpower to do that,” said Barbara Conley, Leelanau Township supervisor. “I have to give a shoutout to parks and rec (board) and the SWAT! team for working on this issue because if people weren’t working on it, the building would just fall into disrepair and eventually collapse. It is an important part of our history and it’s charming… so it’s very good to have a group who’s helping out with fundraising for this.”
Within the contract agreement, it states that WRB Consulting will launch a grants database search which would include federal, state, county, private, and corporate grant opportunities. The consulting agency expects there will be several grant opportunities with application deadlines between February and April/May.
“The initial search is likely to identify 300 to 400 opportunities about half of which will be eliminated easily,” the contract states. “The balance will be reviewed with the resulting goal to have a list of 12 to 18 viable opportunities for the 2025 calendar year.”
The Save Woolsey Airport Terminal (SWAT!) group officially formed in October 2023 to help raise needed funds for the building originally built in 1874 by Byron Woolsey as a creamery for his Golden Rod Dairy Farm. With the now-terminal building being almost 150-years-old, Lynn Contos, the great-niece of Clinton Woolsey of which the airport is named after and dedicated to, helped to form the SWAT! group to tackle raising funds and preserving the historic landmark.
Since SWAT! formed, the group started a fund at the Leelanau Township Community Foundation to raise money for airport repairs and to be used for preservation efforts of the terminal during the rehabilitation phase.
As the owner of the park/airport, the township is also starting the process of creating a separate fund to collect donations to go towards airport repairs. Early last year, the township board unanimously voted to support the Woolsey Memorial Airport Restoration project, approving a maximum of $100,000 to be taken out of existing facility funds. The overall total cost estimate ranges between $350,000 to $600,000. Once sufficient funds have been raised, a bid package will be presented to the board for approval.
