The Salem airport board met Thursday night at the Salem Community Center @ The Armory for the first time since May 12, 2020, and over two and a half hours voiced several grievances with the way the airport has been managed by the city.
Harold Tubbs, chairman of the airport board, and member John Maledy both voiced the board's concerns that the airport is not a priority for the city. City administrator Ray Walden assured them, “Anyone who says the airport is not a priority is mistaken.”
“I sit here and wonder what we’re doing as an airport board,” said Maledy, explaining that he doesn’t believe the board has been adequately utilized. An example that both he and board secretary Tyler Naramore cited was a recent Jan. 26 meeting that the city had with Lochner, the engineering firm that is working on an ongoing hangar project out at the airport. The board was not notified of the meeting nor given results from the meeting, they said.
“I really want us to work together,” said Maledy. “We can go a lot farther and get a lot more done if we work together.”
Tubbs asked Walden to call a meeting of the airport board. Walden sent an email March 1 containing the agenda for Thursday’s meeting.
Members of the airport board include chairman Harold Tubbs, Naramore, Maledy, Steve Spencer, Jim Heavin and John Mihalka. Former alderwoman Rachel Hinderliter served as the board of aldermen’s representative to the airport board until her resignation in January. Mayor Brad Nash has not appointed a replacement.
During Thursday’s airport board meeting, the board addressed their chief grievances. Most important is to get the lights operational again as soon as possible.
RUNWAY LIGHTS INOPERABLE
Runway lights have not worked since July 31, 2020, which restricts airport usage to daylight hours only, the board told Walden. This is not the first time that the airport has had problems with its current lighting system. The light problem dates back more than five years.
The runway lights have been out or intermittent since 2016, according to Naramore.
On Jan. 30, 2016, Naramore was flying his plane into the Salem airport after a long flight when he discovered that the lights along the runway would not turn on. Pilots can turn on the lights with an on-board process, when it’s working. He had to land at a different airport that night.
"Our lights were supposed to be working, there was no Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) published," said Naramore. A NOTAM is a notice filed with an aviation authority to alert aircraft pilots of potential hazards along a flight route or at a location that could affect the safety of the flight.
In this case, a notice to airmen would have been to alert pilots that the runway lights were not operational and that a safe landing would not be possible.
"As far as any other pilots that would have had an emergency or anything, the air traffic controllers would have directed somebody to Salem because our lights were reported working," he said.
The back story includes the regulator was reported broken in January 2016. At the end of 2017, the lights were still out. The airport sat inoperable at night for nearly two years before it was fixed.
At a Jan. 25, 2018 airport board meeting – the only meeting of 2018, according to Naramore – Walden announced that the new airport lighting regulator was scheduled to be installed Jan. 30, 2018. Exactly, two years, to the day, from when the previous regulator was reported inoperable.
The runway lighting issue seemed to be fixed in 2018, however, according to Naramore, the reliability of the lighting regulator was intermittent at best from that time until July 31 of 2020, when the lights again quit working entirely.
Naramore said former alderwoman Rachel Hinderliter, who was the city’s representative to the airport board, inquired at the May 12, 2020 airport board meeting as to when the board could expect to have the lights up and running. According to Naramore, public works director Mark Nash responded that the new lights would be installed June 1, 2020. As of today, no new lights have been installed and it’s still unclear when that problem will be fixed, the board brought up Thursday night.
PARTIALLY FINISHED AIRPORT PROJECT
A matching grant from the Missouri Department of Transportation was initially received in 2012 for about $400,000, As a matching grant, the city was to contribute 10 percent toward the project.
The project has not been complete for a variety of reasons.
According to Walden, he and Public Works Director Mark Nash did meet with representatives of Lochner on Jan. 26 to discuss the project.
“I know we’re technically an advisory board, but what’s the point of having a board if we’re kept in the dark about airport business?” Naramore said.
“We’ve had to halt the project,” Walden told The Salem News prior to the Thursday meeting. “We have to submit a long-term plan to the FAA in order to qualify for an updated grant.”
Meaning that, if done right, the lighting project may be eligible to also receive 90% reimbursement from MoDOT.
The reason the city halted improvements to the airport was to consult with Lochner to make sure that working on the lighting project will not jeopardize grant money already allocated for 90% reimbursement of funds spent by the city to make new taxiways and new hangars, Walden said. He said the taxiways are already finished.
NEW SECURITY GATE
The airport has been in need of a new security gate for a while now, the board brought up Thursday. Airport Manager Gary Glenn reported that he has been working on it. “I’ve called several companies,” he said. “I can’t get them to call me back.”
FUEL BID
With reduced usage at the airport – largely due to inoperable runway lights and faulty fuel pump equipment that makes it difficult and dangerous to pump fuel – less fuel is being used at the airport, the board stated Thursday. As a result, the fuel loses octane over time, causing it to no longer be viable fuel for planes. The simple solution that the board came up with some time ago was to contract out to a gas company and allow them to run the fueling station.
“I was under the impression that the city was going to get those bids,” said Tubbs. Walden indicated that ne bids have been sought.
According to the minutes of the Feb. 24, 2020 meeting, the city had been approached by Phillips 66 to provide such a service. According to those minutes, the city agreed to obtain the necessary bids to move forward with that. According to Walden, no such bids have been obtained and agreed to look into obtaining the necessary bids.
COURTESY CAR
When new police cars were commissioned a few years ago, the airport was set to receive one of the decommissioned cars to would serve as a courtesy car at the airport. But that car has yet to reach the airport.
In the February 2020, airport board meeting, it was announced that a courtesy car would be made available for the airport by the city.
“Several years ago we requested a courtesy car at the airport. It was voted on and approved by the current aldermen,” Tubbs said to Walden Thursday. “It has never happened. You have given me reason after reason after reason after reason after reason.”
“I’ve got a car,” said Walden.
“You’ve told me that before,” said Tubbs. “The last thing you told me was that you needed to get the decals off the police car.”
Walden responded, “When the decals are off, the car will be out there, I expect that to be within a couple weeks.”
ECONOMIC BENEFIT
Having an airport is an economic benefit to Salem.
One example of that is Chad Cook of the Independent Stave Company, who said the company does business with people around the world and needs a working airport.
“A lot of people we bring in from other countries, and so they’ve already had a long flight, so not being able to use the airport at night causes scheduling difficulties,” he said.
Additionally, Cook said that pilots hired by Independent Stave Company have had similar experiences as Naramore, having to land elsewhere because the runway lights were not operational when there was no NOTAM filed.
Salem Economic Development Director Sally Burbridge agrees the airport can be a valuable asset to the city.
“It’s not without benefit now,” she said, noting improvements need to be made such as more hangar space and a longer runway to attract more businesses and tourism to the area.
“I’ve not been directly involved with anything going on at the airport,” said Burbridge, who added that there needs to be a bigger discussion about what the community wants and needs regarding airport business. “I would love to have that bigger conversation.”
“Improving the airport is a great idea,” said Cook. “The airport out there doesn’t have to be anything extravagant. We just want it to work.”
Cook’s words are a pretty good summation of the general sentiment of the board members.
“I appreciate you all being here,” said Tubbs to Walden, Nash and Glenn. “I hope that this has been a productive meeting, and I hope that you feel the same way.
“It’s like John (Maledy) said, we can go a lot further working together rather than fighting each other. If you have meetings that you can invite us to, we would appreciate it,” he said, referencing the meeting that the board was not invited to in January.
The board agreed to allow Walden to reach out to them once the city had time to address the issues discussed Thursday.
