The Leelanau Township board of trustees unanimously voted to support the Woolsey Memorial Airport Restoration project Tuesday with a maximum of $100,000 to be taken out of existing facility funds.
Township Supervisor Mike McMillan said at this week’s regular board meeting that discussion of the airport’s urgent needs and current state goes back more than four years, noting how previous board trustees invested funds for an architecture firm to assess the building to find a way forward. The township’s monetary support will act as “seed money” so that private donors can start considering contributing to the project in the months ahead.
“I have received a number of emails and a number of letters, and right now they’re numbering 23-1 in favor of doing it,” said McMillan. “I mean just the experiences that they’ve had and the families have had being part of Woolsey over the years, it’s pretty moving… I think what we’re at fault for is not acting faster and failing Woolsey and the public and addressing this when we’ve spent a lot of money and a lot of time on this. To say we need a longer process or more public input — I fail to understand what that means.”
