Edgar County Airport Board Nominates New Board Member –

Edgar Co., IL. (ECWd) –
The Edgar County Airport Advisory Board held its first meeting in three months, since the Airport Manager, Jerry Griffin, could never get the agenda posted in the required amount of time.
During the meeting, they discussed several names put forth to fill the seat vacated by JD Kessler, and ended up recommending Spencer Jobst as the name to bring in front of the county board to fill the vacancy. Jobst has been a member of the Casey, IL. Airport Advisory Board for almost 10 years, is a pilot, leases a hangar and owns an aircraft that is based at the Edgar County Airport.
There has notice given to the airport that their fuel supplier will immediately cease delivery of aircraft fuel due to their difficulties getting it from their suppliers. The board will search for a new company to purchase their fuel from. One thing they could look at is where the surrounding airports go to purchase their fuel, since all were using the same supplier.
Griffin stated the airport went almost $11,000 under budget this year, mostly due to less staffing expenses. Most present at the meeting were in favor of saving money wherever possible. Next year’s airport budget was reduced by around $10,000.
Griffin was put in the hot-seat again during public comment (by Chris Patrick) for not using the available budgeted funds to fix the remainder of the hangar posts or purchase a mower, and for his failure to collect “parlor fees” – those fees collected when crop dusters and others bring their own fuel into the airport instead of purchasing it from the airport.
Additionally, during public comment, Patrick asked Griffin about hangar leases requiring an airplane or tail number to be held within the hangar (which has never been a requirement), was asked about a “waiting list” of people wanting hangars and Griffin stated there were three on the waiting list. Another question was brought up about the requirement to have a tail number in the hangar in order to lease it – it was suggested that requirement was in the airport manager’s handbook, and even suggested the handbook was passed and approved by the county board (we do not believe that to be the case and will check to see if one was approved by the county board).