April 22--MIDDLETOWN -- Start Aviation is set to be the permanent manager at the Middletown Regional Airport/Hook Field, after serving as the interim manager since January.
Middletown Economic Development Program Manager Matt Eisenbraun, who is the city's employee liaison to the airport commission, said a contract is "working its way through the system" to award Start Aviation the contract.
"That was going to help us with the question of ramping up the new airport manager, to understand what was going on," he said. "Just the learning curve that's pretty substantial."
Start Aviation, owned by John Hart, was awarded a 90-day contract to take over as the airport manager on a temporary basis after the resignation of Rich Bevis, owner of B&B Aero. Bevis said in a scathing resignation letter that he was leaving because of issues he had with City Manager Judy Gilleland, claiming she "mishandled" business contracts costing the airport tens of thousands of dollars.
Hart, who also owns Start Skydiving and who's company is the airport's fixed-base operator (which provides general aviation support to the airport), is "excited" to take over as the permanent manager, pending City Council's approval in May. The airport commission recommended earlier this month to award the contract to Start Aviation.
"It's s a great opportunity for our organization as well as the city because our focus is not just on managing the airport," said Hart, "We're very strong in marketing that can be one of our goals is to make the airport a real economic engine. People are already seeing all the great changes at the airport, and even more will occur over the upcoming summer."
Council is expected to vote on the contract at one of its two regularly scheduled meetings, but a few changes in the contract will help save the city between $20,000 to $25,000 a year. The city spends about $90,000 a year to subsidize the operations of the airport, and a goal of Start Aviation, the airport commission and Eisenbraun is to reduce that subsidy to zero.
The contract will include Start Aviation provide all of its lawn maintenance and snow removal equipment, which was provided by the city. The contract will be increased from $50,000 to $70,000 a year, but Eisenbraun said the city had paid $37,000 last year for Bevis and his crew to use that equipment.
Once Hart's company is in place as the manager, he and the airport commission will work to establish a set of standard operating procedures. Eisenbraun said this is building upon the minimum standards document created in 2008 "so that everything from day-to-day operations, from long-term planning, strategic planning can all be part of a document we can all look ahead of time and have input on."
Hart said just like any other business, there should be an SOP, which he recommended be instituted, is important.
"There should be standard operating procedures that we can adhere to because we want to make sure everything is done safely and by the books to prevent any type of potential problems," he said. " We need to make sure we have a good, solid standard operating procedure in place for everything -- safety, for maintenance, for marketing."
Being the permanent manager will provide Hart the opportunity to make significant improvements, and while some stuff is operational changes -- such as runway and hanger maintenance and care -- "there are some things in the works."
"I think the overall appearance, when they come out now, is completely different then what they saw years ago," he said. "We have some great, great opportunities to bring additional business in the area but we can't disclose those until they're official. But there are some neat things that are happening that are going to be a real positive for the city to come out of the airport."
Copyright 2013 - Middletown Journal, Ohio
