Stout Flying Service has lost its lease at the Lewiston-Nez Perce County Regional Airport over a disagreement about insurance.
The airport authority board voted unanimously at a Tuesday evening meeting to end a lease in 45 days that had governed the business’s location at the transportation hub since 2004.
The lease requires Stout to maintain public liability and property damage insurance, coverage the venture didn’t have from Jan. 2 to May 21, said Airport Director Michael Isaacs.
The amount of required coverage started at $500,000, had been increased to $1 million and was being raised to $2 million, he said.
The Federal Aviation Administration expects the board to treat all tenants fairly and equally by enforcing the provisions in their leases, Isaacs said.
Failure to do so can result in enforcement actions, such as prohibiting commercial passenger service or requiring an airport to pay back FAA grants from as long as 20 years ago, he said.
The FAA covers the majority of the cost of maintaining or upgrading infrastructure at airports across the country.
In this last year, it helped the Lewiston airport rebuild a secondary runway. In the previous year, the FAA assisted with an airport operations building that houses a new fire truck. Both were multimillion-dollar projects.
Paula Stout, an owner of the business, told the board she and her husband, pilot Ralph Stout, would pursue the matter with their attorney, even though they would prefer a compromise with board members.
The business that provides services such as selling commercial aviation fuel and offering charter flights, had insurance to cover everything other than someone who walked into their office and fell during the time in question, said Ralph Stout.
“It’s on me,” he said. “I made the mistake. Nothing happened. ... We did the best we could. We cured the problem.”
The business has operated for 30 years at the Lewiston airport and is a lifestyle, Stout said, not a moneymaker. In recent months, he has had to work seven days a week to run it.
“There’s got to be another way to handle this other than destroying a business,” he said.
What happens next is not clear. Board members said ending the lease was a difficult choice. They encouraged the Stouts to have their lawyer meet with the airport’s attorney to discuss a resolution before the lease expires in 45 days.
If no alternative surfaces, the Stouts will need to have all of their belongings out of the business’s building in 45 days, Isaacs said.
Anything that isn’t moved becomes property of the airport, he said.
No decision has been made about what will happen to the building that belongs to the Stouts and sits on airport land, Isaacs said.
Williams may be contacted at [email protected] or (208) 848-2261.
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