The Monroe County Airport

budget for 2020 includes additional funding for promotion and marketing. “We’re going to bring in some people from the local community and business leaders to take a look at how the Airport can best serve the community, and how we can attract some of the local entities or even some outside of the community to the Airport,” he notes. “Bloomington is heavy with Indiana University, and we have several billion-dollar, bio-medical companies. We’re 20 minutes away from Crane Naval Base, so these are some of the parties that we would like to target for some landside development. I think that we have a tremendous opportunity to increase our offerings to the local community and to other businesses in the region, and to show them that we provide a cost and a convenience advantage over the bigger Indianapolis International Airport, nearby.” Along with bringing more economic development opportunity for the county, Laverty also hopes to raise the community’s awareness of the facility, itself. On his radar are functions such as charitable events, aeronautical displays, question-and-answer sessions with pilots, or even a run-walk event on the runway. He also wants to promote the airport as a place where children can come and learn about aviation, potentially inspiring the next generation of pilots. Once a small rural airfield on former farmland, today’s Monroe County Airport is a modern and progressive airport with facilities and services to meet the needs of any large organization’s flight department. It offers charter services, flight instruction, fuel sales, aircraft maintenance, and meeting facilities. And, by the way, there’s even a barber shop in the main terminal where customers can see planes come and go while they get their haircut. PREFERRED VENDOR n Hanson Professional Services www.hanson-inc.com