OGDEN — Ogden is currently in the middle of a major overhaul of its policies regarding the Ogden-Hinckley Airport’s operation.

At the center of that has been the Ogden City Council which recently took the first of what will be several actions to overhaul airport operations policy.

Ogden City Council At Large Seat B Council member Bart Blair told the Standard-Examiner he believes the airport represents an “untapped resource” for the city.

“I think Ogden Airport is in prime position to truly be a wonderful asset for our community and we’ve never really tapped into that potential,” he said. “Some changes have been made. The mayor hired a new airport manager that comes with a lot of experience and a lot of know-how.”

He said recent changes to Title 8 have been to help put day-to-day decisions at the airport in the hands of those on the ground rather than waiting for it to go through the City Council.

“Title 8 at the airport is how we run the airport and basically before (overhaul) that meant everything would go through the Airport Advisory Committee, then that would come to Ogden City and we would vote on it,” he said. “The Title 8 changes basically allow the airport manager to run those day-to-day things, to make those decisions based on what is in Title 8. It cuts out a lot of back-and-forth between the City Council.”

Blair said the board will still have the power to review the standards on a yearly basis.

He said that the airport manager having more direct control over decisions is key in an environment where investment doesn’t come cheap.

“People don’t come to the airport and say, ‘Hey, I’d like to invest $100,000,'” he said. “People come ot the airport to say, ‘I want ot invest $20 million. I want to invest $40 million. I want to invest major dollars.’ They want to make sure that that investment is going to be protected, that that investment is going to be able to grow and that’s part of Title 8 — raising those minimum standards to a much higher level so that everyone at the airport is held to a higher standard so we can attract more partners and people that want to be out there.”

Blair said one of the goals is to make the airport a money generator rather than needing to subsidize it each year.

“If the Ogden Airport were to turn that corner and start to be an economic driver in the city, that frees up so much money,” he said. “We subsidize the airport every year between $800,000-$1 million. Even if it just broke even, there’s $1 million per year extra to be put back into infrastructure, to be put into sidewalks, to be put into parks.”

He estimated the airport is likely three to five years away from potentially breaking even.

In the meantime, Blair — who has served on the City Council for a decade and a half — said there was one very telling sign that momentum is behind the city’s efforts to move forward with tweaks to airport policy.

“When we passed the Title 8 changes, that’s the first time in my time on the council that we had the airport manager, we had consultants and we had private business owners from the airport and private hangar owners from the airport all in the same room speaking cordially, getting along and saying, ‘I’m on board with that,'” he said. “They all agreed — did they get everything they wanted? No, but they got to have their say, they got to make revisions they feel they can be successful with the direction it’s going. I’ve been there the longest and it’s never happened that way.”