DUNBAR TWP. - A tenant at the Joseph A. Hardy/Connellsville Airport told the Fayette County Airport Authority Wednesday he had reservations about signing a new hangar lease agreement issued last month to tenants.
Fred Diederich, who has stored his Cessna 172 at the airport for about 30 years, said he had concerns with the provisions contained in the agreement that he felt were harsh and adversarial toward the tenants, according to his interpretation of the lease.
Diederich questioned 11 different areas of the agreement that he asked the authority to review and make possible changes to.
"Because of obligations, I don't even understand under the conditions of this lease. I'm not sure I can stay here," said Diederich.
Authority chairman Terry "Tuffy" Shallenberger said Diederich had some valid points.
Solicitor Gretchen Mundorff prepared the leases that received an exceptional rating from the Federal Bureau of Aviation.
Mundorff told Diederich the agreement was not intentionally written to be adversarial or harsh, but to adhere to the standards of the aviation industry.
"What I was charged with doing for this particular airport was to come up with a comprehensive lease that covered most of the things that could be issues for the airport and tenants and try to deal with those issues if they arise," said Mundorff.
Mundorff added that she would review and address each of Diederich's concerns and present the information to the authority.
"I've been happy here for a long time," said Diederich.
In a separate matter, the authority approved its 2011 audit conducted by McClure and Wolfe, Certified Public Accountants (CPA), of Uniontown.
Clayton Gregg, a CPA with the firm, reported on the findings for last year that indicated the authority's net assets had increased compared with 2010 because of state and federal grant money associated with the terminal and apron project.
According to Gregg, the authority received over $900,000 this year in state and federal grants compared with $1.3 million last year resulting in a $592,259 increase.
Because the authority spent more than $500,000 in federal money, Gregg said it qualified for a single audit under government accounting standards.
Gregg said findings for the 2011 audit were similar to 2010 in having one person record all transactions and the absence of lease agreements that has since been addressed.
"With the cooperation of everyone here you're close to being back on track," said Gregg.
Under efficiency, Gregg said the authority will need to clean up prior audit entries dating back to 2000 that are out of order.
Turning to other business, the authority voted unanimously following an executive session to grant a request from Washington Security Group to terminate a lease with the airport effective Dec. 31.
Airport manager Mary Lou Fast said the company worked on government contracts and no longer had a need for training facilities at the airport.
The board also agreed unanimously to appoint Stanley Horwath as director of maintenance with a pay increase of $1 per hour and granted employee Rick Vorassi a 50-cents per hour raise.
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