Business View Magazine | April 2021

132 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE APRIL 2021 infrastructure. In the short-term, the airport has purchased nearly 400,000 dollars worth of new snow removal equipment which will be delivered soon. Next on the books is resurfacing the pavement on the south end of the airport that was installed in 1992 or earlier – this will increase the strength of the pavement as well as remedy some drainage issues. “We have a lot of planning going on over the next few years,” Demulling explains, “New Richmond Regional will be getting an airport layout plan update and we will also be starting work on an airport master plan. That will be looking at planning three miles out from the airport and we are making it quite comprehensive, so it will show how the airport will fit into the community going forward.” There are also some construction projects on tap that include upgrading security gates, adding wildlife fencing to certain portions of the airport, and planning for the next runway upgrades. Strengthening the runway and aircraft parking on keeping the airport open 24/7 and having a safe usable airport even during the worst conditions. One of the main reasons we do that is because we have a charter operator here at the airport, Orion Airmotive, and they do medical flights which can occur any time of the day or night. We will always maintain the airport so they can complete their lifesaving missions.” The year of the pandemic posed a lot of challenges for businesses in every sector and the New Richmond Regional Airport was no exception. In fact, Demulling reports that March of 2020 was the worst month in his 26-year career as airport manager. He admits, “So, we really prepared for the worst, but then you saw glimmers of hope in late April and by the time summer came around business was fantastic. We had a good year and it was actually record setting here at the airport. It completely flipped the switch on what we expected.” With growth comes continued investment in