ARCADA TOWNSHIP — Gratiot Community Airport sold about 28 percent less jet fuel in the first eight months of 2026 than in the same months of 2025, according to the airport manager’s report in the Gratiot County Airport Authority’s Sept. 15 meeting packet.
The report’s tables show 15,655.6 gallons of Jet A sold from January through August, down 6,073.8 gallons from the same period a year earlier. August alone fell from 8,178.1 gallons to 4,513.7. Sales of 100LL, the fuel used by most small piston planes, were down about 10 percent, to 15,475.5 gallons. The report also counts 71 days this year with no fuel sales at all, 19 more than in the same months of 2025, and lists low ceilings, high winds and severe weather as the causes.
A month of pavement work
The manager’s daily log for August describes a pavement project. Rieth-Riley Construction built a temporary road and removed concrete on Aug. 3, crews pulverized the taxilanes on Aug. 4, and the first 1.5-inch layer of asphalt went down on Aug. 8. The final asphalt layer was laid Aug. 11, and topsoil and hydroseeding followed. From Aug. 24 to Aug. 28 a crack-sealing contractor worked on Runway 18/36, the taxilane to Runway 27, the midfield taxilane and the ramp. A seal coat planned for Aug. 31 was rained out, the log says.
The log’s Aug. 20 entry reads, in part, “Pre-bid terminal meeting (15 people here).” The packet does not describe the terminal project, its cost, or when bids are due.
What the ledger shows
The county’s revenue and expenditure report for the airport fund, through Aug. 31, shows $334,816 in revenue against a $650,970 budget, including $156,600 in fuel sales. None of a budgeted $328,450 federal aviation grant had been received. On the spending side, $257,859 of a $725,500 budget had been spent. A capital line budgeted at $391,500 showed $7,237 spent. Contractual services had reached $87,684, about 110 percent of their $80,000 budget, after an August payment of $27,414.73 to the engineering firm Prein & Newhof.
The airport fund began the year with a balance of about $3.25 million. It is budgeted to receive no transfer from the county general fund.
The packet does not say what the August paving cost or how it was paid for. Airport construction in Michigan is often funded through the Michigan Department of Transportation’s Office of Aeronautics, and those payments may not pass through the county ledger. This report does not assume either way.
The Airport Authority and airport manager Dennis McDonald have not been asked to comment for this report. Either is welcome to respond at contactus@gcwhistleblower.com, and any response will be published.