Mount Pleasant will repave its airport runway with a $1.8 million state grant, not local tax dollars, and drafts midnight quiet hours

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. — Mount Pleasant will resurface Runway 9/27 at Mount Pleasant Regional Airport with $1.8 million from the state, a deal City Manager Aaron Desentz says keeps the bill off local taxpayers. The City Commission approved the Michigan Department of Transportation contract for the project, along with an engineering contract, at its Oct. 13 meeting, according to the city’s summary of the meeting.

“At the end of the day, this is money. This is a big windfall for the people in the area. We don’t have to come up with the tax dollars,” Desentz told Central Michigan Life, the Central Michigan University student newspaper.

The runway had to be redone one way or another, Desentz told the paper. Without the grant, the city would have had to find the money in its own budget, and following the federal standards it had been pointed toward “would have been something closer to $10 million,” he said. He said the new surface should last at least 10 years.

Desentz credited airport manager Bill Brickner and the airport’s joint operations and management board for landing the grant, which he said grew out of lobbying state and federal lawmakers. Commissioners also hired Mead & Hunt, a firm the city has worked with for years, to handle engineering and project management for the job for $99,928, Central Michigan Life reported.

Quiet hours. Commissioners directed city staff to draft an amended noise ordinance that would set quiet hours from midnight to 7 a.m. and limit noise that carries beyond the public right-of-way, the city’s summary says. The student paper reported that the discussion followed multiple complaints from residents about a nightclub at Wayside Central.

Other business. The commission extended its contract with Brown & Brown Insurance Services Inc. for three years, from Jan. 1, 2027, through Dec. 31, 2029, and ordered a resolution drafted that would move public comment earlier in its meetings. Commissioners also split a proposal on free menstrual products in city restrooms into two questions: an ordinance on where the products go, and whether the city should pay for dispensers. Central Michigan Life reported that a draft policy is expected at the next meeting. The meeting ended with a work session on the proposed 2027 operating budget.

What’s next. The commission meets again Monday, Oct. 26, at 7 p.m. in the City Commission Room at City Hall, 320 W. Broadway St., where it will hold a public hearing on the final report for its Housing Improving Local Livability, or CHILL, grant, which was paid for with federal Community Development Block Grant money. The city offers virtual options for its meetings.

Sources:
City of Mt. Pleasant, “Summary of minutes from the 10/13/2026 Mt. Pleasant City Commission meeting,” https://www.mt-pleasant.org/news_detail_T10_R346.php
Beth Nocerini, “City Commission given $1.8 million grant for airport resurfacing,” Central Michigan Life, Oct. 14, 2026, https://www.cm-life.com/article/2026/10/d_citycommission_news_101326
Photo: Lance Cpl. Cory D. Polom, U.S. Marine Corps, “Cherry Point begins resurfacing runways, Air Station begins project that may save lives 121026-M-EY704-012.jpg,” Wikimedia Commons, public domain, cropped and color-adjusted, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cherry_Point_begins_resurfacing_runways,_Air_Station_begins_project_that_may_save_lives_121026-M-EY704-012.jpg

Mid-Michigan

Tags: Mount Pleasant · Mount Pleasant Regional Airport · City Commission · Taxpayers · MDOT · Noise Ordinance