Marquette County votes again to end Kubick Aviation’s contract at Sawyer airport, this time in open session

MARQUETTE, Mich. — The Marquette County Board voted 4-1 Tuesday night to end Kubick Aviation’s contract to run fixed-base operator services at Marquette Sawyer Regional Airport, its third try at a termination that has been tangled in court for months.

Commissioner Fred Benzie cast the lone no vote, WLUC-TV6 reported. The board acted after a closed session and after more than a dozen residents and pilots spoke against the county’s plan to take over the operation itself, during a meeting that ran about three and a half hours.

A second motion, from Vice Chair Bill Nordeen, requires any money the county makes by running the operation to stay in the airport’s budget instead of going to the county’s general fund. It passed unanimously.

“This whole thing started so Marquette County could be in charge of its own services, create its own offset services to make Sawyer self-sustaining,” board Chair Joe Derocha said, according to WLUC.

Chad Kubick, the company’s owner, told the board that critics questioned whether the county had understated expenses, counted on unrealistic revenue and had the experienced staff needed to run the service safely.

The vote came a week after Delta County Judge John Economopoulos ruled that the board had to meet and vote as a body to end the contract, because that had never happened in an open meeting, WLUC reported. Earlier termination attempts in October 2025 and May 2026 were ruled invalid on that ground, The Mining Journal reported.

The judge said the missing vote was not itself an Open Meetings Act violation, according to WLUC, but has not ruled on the other counts in the 13-count suit brought by Kubick and local pilot Mark Hangen, which include fraud allegations. The county’s attorney, Matthew Cross, has said he is confident about the remaining claims.

The termination would take effect in April, a year after the county had planned to take over the operation, The Mining Journal reported.

Sources:
WLUC-TV6, “Marquette County Board moves to terminate FBO contract with Kubick Aviation,” Oct. 6, 2026, https://www.uppermichiganssource.com/2026/10/07/marquette-county-board-moves-terminate-fbo-contract-with-kubick-aviation/
WLUC-TV6, “Judge issues partial bench ruling on Kubick Aviation lawsuit against Marquette County,” Oct. 1, 2026, https://www.uppermichiganssource.com/2026/10/01/judge-issues-partial-bench-ruling-kubick-aviation-lawsuit-against-marquette-county/
The Mining Journal, “Marquette County Board to discuss terminating Kubick Aviation for third time,” Oct. 2026, https://www.miningjournal.net/news/front-page-news/2026/10/marquette-county-board-to-discuss-terminating-kubick-aviation-for-third-time/
Photo: RontheRubio, “SawyerRegionalTerminalBldg1,” Sept. 17, 2023, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/), cropped and color-corrected; derivative under the same ShareAlike license, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SawyerRegionalTerminalBldg1.jpg

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