The skies over the Slidell Municipal Airport are not blue and cloudless according to some pilots and airplane mechanics.
Instead they feel that since airport manager Sam Carver was laid off due to city budget woes last year, the airport has gone downhill.
That’s what a group of disgruntled pilots gathered inside the Slidell Aviation Inc. hangar told four Slidell Council members Wednesday night.
Pat Quigley, an aerial photographer, who owns three planes at the airport, and organizer of the meeting, said the city administration has not done anything to keep the airport secure, the fuel tanks filled, and they have endangered the safety of the residents who live around the airport. Others are upset because Slidell Aviation Inc., the airport’s Fixed Base Operator, FBO, was being evicted from the airport.
Most of their anger was aimed at Slidell’s chief administrative officer, Tim Mathison, and Felicia Carpenter, Carver’s former administrative assistant, who runs the day-to-day operations of the airport. Mathison, who was not at the meeting, said that after Carver was laid off, there was no one else to take over managing the airport.
“ I fell into the position,” Mathison said in an interview.
Quigley said that the administration has “lied” to him several times on issues that he considers important to the airport. Other pilots complain that Mathison and Carpenter are not paying attention to their needs. Most of the people at the meeting are afraid that the airport will lose business, and eventually close, especially since the city has evicted Slidell Aviation Inc.
Slidell Aviation Inc. has been the airport’s FBO for nearly 30 years. An FBO is usually a private company that provides the fuel for airplanes and mechanics to fix the planes at small airports. Slidell Aviation Inc. is owned by Daybrook Fisheries, an aviation company out of Plaquimenes Parish.
For a long time, Tom Van Ness managed Slidell Aviation Inc. Everybody agrees Van Ness was a bad businessman, and that there were times when the FBO didn’t have enough money to pay for airplane fuel.
After Van Ness died of a heart attack last summer, Charles Huete took over operations. He admits that there were a lot of problems when he took over.
“But it was straightened out, and there was no problem getting fuel,” Huete said at Wednesday’s meeting.
Slidell Aviation leases out a hangar and an office in the main terminal. The lease for the hangar runs out March 22, 2012. The office lease was on a month-by-month basis.
The rift between the city and Slidell Aviation began Aug.12, 2011, when then city attorney Pat Berrigan sent a letter to the FBO saying the city was terminating the lease on the terminal office, and Slidell Aviation had to get out by Sept. 1. Slidell Aviation Inc.’s parent company Ascent Aviation sent a letter to the city with the understanding that it was the lease on the hangar that was being terminated, and that Slidell Inc. would move out. That was followed by a letter from new city attorney Bryan Haggerty to Ascent Aviation Aug. 31, 2011 saying they could stay in the hanger until March, 22, 2012, but the city had taken over the responsibility of providing fuel to aircraft.
The pilots have complained that since Slidell took over the fueling responsibilities, the airport has run out of fuel many times.
Not true, said Mathison. The only time planes could not get fuel was New Year’s Eve, when self-service was unavailable.
But before all that happened, there was an incident between Huete and Mathison. There are two versions of what happened. Huete and Mathison met at Slidell Aviation’s terminal office. Huete said Mathison was yelling at him and demanded the keys to the office and kicked Huete off the airport grounds. Huete told a newspaper that Mathison hit him, but Mathison said he was calm, never raised his voice, and never struck Huete.
No matter what happened, Mathison got the keys to the office and told Huete the city would take over fueling operations. Asked why the city was terminating Slidell Aviation’s services, he was succinct.
“They did not provide quality FBO service,” he said.
Quigley said he is also worried about the safety of houses around the airport because of deer hunting on the airport. Several years ago, while a plane was landing at the airport, a deer raced across the runway hitting the plane. There was a lot of damage, but nobody was hurt.
After that, Carver went to the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries and got nuisance animal control permit. This permit gave the airport the right to shoot deer and other animals the posed a danger to aircraft. There is a list of 12 people on the permit, who are the only ones that can shoot at deer.
Quigley said he has nothing against killing the deer; it is a necessity for safety. But he got upset because he said that a deer baiting station had been set up at the end of the runway.
“That just is not allowed,” Quigley said.
However, the permit says nothing about banning deer baiting.
Quigley claims that when he complained about it to Mayor Freddy Drennan, the mayor got “bellicose” and told Quigley to call the Federal Aviation Authority and the LDWF. Quigley did and he said the FAA started an investigation. St. Tammany News has called the FAA several times and has not received any information on the investigation.
Quigley said that after he complained, Mathison ordered Carpenter to get rid of the deer baiting stations. Mathison said that even though the baiting was legal, he did not want to have any problems, and he had the baiting stations removed from the airport.
A lot of complaints at the meeting were about pilots bypassing the Slidell airport and going to an airport in Picayune, Miss. because there was either no fuel, the tie-down fees were too high or that pilots were being treated badly by Carpenter. Pilots said the airport provides a lot of revenue for the city, and they are afraid that with no pilots, there will be no reason for the airport to stay open.
Mathison said that the city is not losing money. Between September and December, he said fuel sales at the airport went up 9 percent compared to the same period a year before. He added that he is familiar with what is going on at the airport.
“We are paying attention,” Mathison said.
Quigley also said that the safety of pilots is at risk because of a gate that spans Airport Road just at the airport. It is there for security purposes and closed at night and has to be opened with a code. Quigley said that first responders don’t have the code and if there is a plane crash at night, they could not get into the airport.
Mathison produced an e-mail dated Dec. 22, 2011 he sent to Police Chief Randy Smith, Fire District 1 Chief Larry Hess, and Acadian Ambulance giving them the code to open the gate.
Quigley said that there is no way for a big truck to turn around on Airport Road if it can’t get the gate opened. Mathison said that the city has contracted with Excalibur International to build a turn around at the gate.
At the end of the meeting, Councilman Bill Borchert, who is a pilot himself, said he was surprised at what he heard.
“I’ve learned a lot, and am disheartened that they seem to be pushing business away,” Borchert said.
Mathison said that is not true.
“We want the airport to grow,” he said. He said that there is almost $40,000 in the 2012 capital improvement budget to rehabilitate the north apron, do an abstract of landowners around the airport, just in case the airport needs to expand. From 2012 to 2016 there are plans, or as Mathison calls it, a “wish list” on projects to expand the runway, fix the taxiway and other capital improvements. He said they were advertising for a new FBO and had already talked to several companies.
Borchert reminded the pilots that the Council has no power to change things at the airport, but they will look into what the pilots said. Borchert, and Council members, Kim Harbison, Buddy Lloyd and Landon Cusimano suggested the pilots make a list of what they want to improve at the airport and to come present it to the Council at their regular meetings.
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