This comes as the county-owned airport is accommodating commercial passenger airline service for the first time since the 1990s. United Airlines-affiliated SkyWest began one-a-day flights here in July. With that comes the need for more airport personnel, more specialized tasks, more training, more accounting and higher wages, Beasley said in his report submitted to supervisors.
The airport is not what it was a year ago, when it operated with a $200,000 annual appropriation and “was running with a skeleton crew.”
The $290,000 budget increase Bailey recommended Monday is scaled down from the original $600,000 budget boost he asked for in August.
“We can’t afford to put it off,” he said of the airport’s revised funding request.
The airport also has a new passenger terminal to operate and maintain. The former airplane hangar was remodeled this year to accommodate passengers, airline agents and federal TSA security officers. It was constructed with a budget of nearly $7 million. Much of the construction expenses are covered with state and federal funds, but $2.6 million more is needed, Beasley said. He expressed hopes state or federal grants can be received to pay much of that.
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