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Airport officials say they’re ready to move ahead with projects
By Lynn Hotaling
Meeting for the first time since a Superior Court judge established their legitimacy, local airport officials said they’re ready to move ahead with needed projects.
First up on Monday’s (March 6) agenda was a financial report that showed the Jackson County Airport Authority is operating in the red so far this fiscal year. With expenses ($59,647) outstripping income ($42,389), the Authority’s budget is some $17,000 in the hole.
According to Chairman Tom McClure and Secretary-treasurer Jim Rowell, the reason for the deficit is actions by county and state officials that cost the Airport both state allocations and lost revenue.
The budget for the 2005-06 fiscal year included planned revenue from new hangars that should have been built and rented by now as well as from increased fuel sales as a result of the additional hangar space. County commissioners’ action in removing McClure, eliminating budgeted payments to the airport, combined with state Sen. John Snow’s action to prevent the Authority from moving ahead on the hangar project influenced the shortfall, Rowell and McClure said.
Both emphasized that the Authority is not in debt because it has cash reserves in the bank.
“All bills are being paid,” McClure said.
In addition to the lack of projected income, the Authority also incurred unexpected expenses, McClure said. Airport officials paid about $10,000 for grading work after an Aug. 22 downpour in the Little Savannah area caused localized flooding and triggered a landslide that damaged the R.L. Ammons property off Ben Cook Road. Authority members contracted with Paul Lewis to repair the damage and clean out a drainage ditch that hadn’t been properly maintained, McClure said.
Rowell said he had been to see the Earl Frizzell property on Little Savannah, on the opposite side of the airport from the Ammons tract, and said that a holding pond above the Frizzells’ needs maintenance to avoid problems in that area.
“That’s what happened on the Ammons side; no maintenance was done,” said Authority member Eldridge Painter.
“No maintenance was done anywhere while the county had the airport,” McClure said. “(That work) should have been done a long time ago before the county turned the airport over to the Authority.”
Authority members voted to ask Lewis to survey the area above the Frizzell property and estimate the cost of short-term repairs there.
The next N.C. Department of Transportation allocation to the Authority could be used to cover those repairs since it’s a safety issue, McClure said.
A report on slope stability related to the Jackson County Airport, prepared by geologists with the N.C. Geological Survey, was discussed. The document suggests that airport officials need to establish a slope stability monitoring plan and take steps to stabilize or mitigate slope failure hazards. It also indicates that any future plans to expand the airport would require detailed engineering studies.
In other business:
– McClure reported that calls come in every day from pilots who desire hangar space and information about the airport, and that some say they’re willing to pay to construct hangars. With the loss of a $400,000 DOT grant last fall, McClure said the Authority will begin looking at other financing options and will likely meet again in a few weeks to discuss more definite proposals.
– An audit report, prepared by accountants with Burleson Earley & Keel of Asheville, produced a clean report with no exceptions for the 2004-05 fiscal year, Rowell said.
– Authority members voted to reduce the price of fuel at the local airport to $3.54 per gallon to bring the price more into line with those at nearby airports. The Authority purchased the current load of fuel at $3.35 per gallon, McClure said.
Monday’s meeting was the first Airport Authority meeting since October as airport officials postponed any action pending the results of a lawsuit McClure, Rowell and Painter filed against Jackson County in March 2004.
Superior Court Judge Zoro Guice Feb. 14 upheld an April 2004 injunction that had restored McClure and Rowell to their posts. He also ruled that Jackson County had violated North Carolina’s Open Meetings Law and denied McClure due process when they removed him from his Authority post in January 2005.
The series of events that led to the lawsuit was set in motion by commissioners on Jan. 12, 2005, when – with no public discussion – they removed McClure from his Airport Authority seat as part of a complex, five-part motion that also sought to transfer Economic Development Commission activities back to the control of Jackson County.
Commissioners subsequently appointed Ed Riley to fill McClure’s seat, and during Authority elections in February 2005, Gary Buchanan and Riley were elected chairman and secretary-treasurer, respectively, despite the protests of then Secretary-Treasurer Rowell and member Painter.
McClure, Rowell and Painter filed suit March 21, seeking an injunction that would restore the Authority as it was prior to commissioners’ action to remove McClure, which would also reinstate Rowell as secretary-treasurer.
Superior Court Judge Ronald Payne’s April 15 injunction restored McClure and Rowell to their former positions and ended Riley’s tenure, pending the resolution of the lawsuit.
Buchanan resigned his seat on the Authority after the April injunction restored McClure to the chairman’s post.
Also last summer, state lawmakers passed a bill that would allow Jackson County to enter into a regional airport authority with Macon County, and Sen. Snow pushed a bill through that prevented Jackson County’s Airport Authority from signing any contracts until September. Snow was also instrumental in persuading state DOT officials to freeze funding allocations to the local Authority.
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