Forest Service hits turbulence in search for new helitack base

OGDEN — The Ogden Airport seemed like the perfect spot to permanently house

the Forest Service’s helitack crew of firefighters and helicopters, along with the agency’s administrative offices.

But the deal fizzled after the new airport manager came onboard.

In 2015, the Forest Service launched its effort to purchase a structure at the Ogden Airport.  

“We came very close to buying this building,” Ogden District Ranger Sean Harwood said. “Had we gotten it done before the management switched, we’d probably be out there now.” 

Bryant Garrett took the helm of Ogden’s airport in January 2019, vowing to make the taxpayer-subsidized facility break even and possibly begin to turn a profit.

“I have successfully taken two airports from losing fair amounts of money to being profitable,” Garrett said in a recent phone interview. “This has been my chosen vocation for 36 years, and this is my fifth airport.”

His modus operandi centers on change, and Garrett acknowledged that change is hard.

“There are carcasses of businesses and government entities that lay on the side of the road because they wouldn’t change,” Garrett said. “Change is required, because that’s the only way you get improvement.”

Garrett put his draft business plan on paper, but said he had yet to present it to the mayor or City Council when someone leaked it to key stakeholders at the Airport, including pilots and hangar owners who filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of Utah to block further implementation of his vision.

Fueling for dollars

While the bulk of the airport’s funding comes from the Federal Aviation Administration, its $1.1 million in annual expenses consistently exceeds revenues by about $400,000. 

So Garrett plans to raise fees across the board, and also increase land lease costs for hangars, of which there are currently about 250 on airport property. 

Hangars 50 years or older would get demolished, and the city would construct new hangars and lease them to interested parties for 30 to 40 years depending on cost of construction.

Once hangars reach their 30-year mark, ownership would revert to the city. At that point, hangar owners would have the right — but perhaps not the ability — to haul their structures elsewhere.

The premature leak of Garrett’s intentions sent shockwaves through the Ogden Regional Airport Association, which represents pilots and hangar owners who sunk thousands of dollars into their structures and now fear they will lose those investments.

The nonprofit association is the plaintiff in the federal lawsuit, along with 70 hangar owners who signed on to the legal action and consider Garrett’s plan to be a taking of their private property without just compensation.

“We’ve literally got millions of dollars at stake here,” said Association President Edward McKenney.

But Garrett believes the law is on his side. 

“At the termination of their lease, they’re welcome to remove the improvements that they own and give me my land back. How is that taking?” Garrett said.

Perhaps even more striking is the part of Garrett’s plan where Ogden City becomes the sole fixed-base operator (FBO) for fuel and ground handling at the airfield. The airport currently has three FBOs — Kemp Jet Center, Mountain Valley Aviation and CB Aviation — and Garrett sketched timelines to terminate their leases.

“I’m very confident I can be the sole fuel provider, but you’ve got to put up money to make money,” Garrett said. “And when you’re a money-losing entity, asking the city to put up millions of dollars for facilities, fueling and an extended staff — that’s a heavy load to tow, hence the reason I haven’t chosen to pitch that plan to the city.”

McKenney blasted Garrett’s intent to become the airport’s sole fuel provider.

“A municipality may have the right to do this, but it doesn’t make it right. They should be facilitating private enterprise, not becoming it,” McKenney said. “They should be doing everything they can to attract business to Ogden Airport.”

Shutting the door

It turns out that the Mountain Valley hangar happened to be the structure the Forest Service had wanted to purchase. In 2018, they secured the specified purchase amount in an FAA grant for that very purpose.

While not at liberty to give specific numbers, Ogden District Ranger Sean Harwood said the 10,000 sq. ft. hangar had an estimated value of about $3 million. 

“So that’s what we have now to put together a new facility, which isn’t much. Hindsight tells me I should have asked for three times that,” Harwood said.

In addition to the purchase price of the hangar, the Forest Service would also pay an annual lease for the airport land underneath it. 

“It was pretty reasonable when we first started to negotiate this, but by the end it got really expensive,” Harwood said. And instead of the 30-year lease his regulations required, Garrett would only go five.

So years of negotiations ended in an impasse in August 2020, when Harwood said he just had to walk away.

“That would have been the very best-case scenario for the District and the helibase. The response time would have been awesome,” Harwood said. “But the Ogden Airport has a plan and we just weren’t part of it.”

Garrett bristled at the idea he might have sunk the Forest Service deal.

“Put down on record that the federal Forest Service is welcome at the airport, We’d love to have the helicopter unit here,” Garrett said. But “they wanted things I can’t give them. They wanted 30 years on a building that was already 50 years old.”

Garrett specifically wrote about the Mountain Valley hangar in his business plan, noting that its owner had made a substantial investment in the structure in 2008 and  received a 25-year lease that expires at the end of 2033.

“It’s a beautiful building but it’s 50 years old,” Garrett said by phone, drawing a hard line in the sand. “We don’t offer a 30-year lease unless it’s brand new construction.” 

Seeking a home

When the Forest Service, in frustration, abandoned its plan to purchase the Mountain Valley hangar at Ogden Airport, its focus shifted to other possible sites for its Wasatch helibase and new administrative offices.

Since 2001, the Wasatch helitack team and equipment have occupied a hangar at the small Morgan Airport. But that door shuts in May 2022. And the Forest Service must vacate its office on 25th Street by August 2022. Wildfire season extends from May through October each year.

After exploring several options, the Forest Service selected a site near Pineview Reservoir and Anderson Cove Campground. That proposal is currently in the thick of the federal environmental approval process, and Ranger Harwood said that public opposition far outweighs support.

“Seven out of 10 say what are you thinking? Then the other three say ‘hey I think this is a good idea,’” Harwood said.

Pushback centers on impacts to the environment and recreation.

“It’s noise, migratory birds, pollution, dark skies — stuff we can mitigate,” Harwood said. “But they are legitimate concerns. And if we can’t mitigate to their satisfaction, then that’s a concern.”

But Harwood believes he’s starting to see another door close as the political temperature rises against it.

“Public comment and everything else is very important. I don’t want to make enemies of anyone in Ogden Valley,” Harwood said. “I have to work too closely with those people.”

The remaining option, Harwood noted, would be to move helitack base operations to the southern part of the Wasatch Range near Spanish Fork or Nephi.

Politicians weigh in

As Ogden Mayor Mike Caldwell understands it, the roadblock to the Forest Service purchase of the Mountain Valley hangar was the agency’s desire to house its administrative offices there as well.

“The Kemps did some amazing work on the Mountain Valley hangar,” Caldwell said. “The rub is that they were looking to move in a lot of administrative functions that weren’t aeronautically oriented. That’s where the FAA tied our hands and said that’s not an acceptable use at the airport.”

But Harwood believes that Garrett had a big hand in that ruling.

“Back when we were going through all this, Garrett approached the FAA for a ruling on whether we could have non-aviation people out at the airport,” Harwood said. “The FAA never contacted us after that fact concerning our plans. It was just something that came through Garrett.“

Up until then, Harwood said the message the Forest Service got from the FAA was “we’re federal and there’s no reason not to have us out at the airport.”

In recent weeks, politicians at the county, state and federal level joined the fray. Rep. Steve Waldrip, who represents the upper Ogden Valley in the Utah Legislature, said he’s been getting an earful. 

“I’ve received a full slew of concerns and complaints from constituents, neighbors and friends, and I have the same concerns for the helibase on the shores of Pineview,” Waldrip said. “I’ve been extremely involved over the last couple of weeks with the county, the Forest Service and our federal delegation to have them reconsider and look at other options.”

Those discussions led the crew of politicians back to Ogden City to revisit the original idea of having the permanent Helibase at the Airport.  

“Everybody agrees that it makes the most sense,” Waldrip said. “So it’s just a matter of everyone getting back together and finding a solution.”

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