Commission gives airport funding boost

By Mallory Panuska
Times West Virginian

FAIRMONT November 26, 2008 09:04 pm

— Tourism efforts at the North Central West Virginia Airport received a funding boost from the Marion County Commission Wednesday morning.
Commissioners approved a request from Joan Keith, director of marketing and business development for the regional facility, to donate $7,000 toward promotions next year.
Keith’s letter said the airport has an annual goal of reaching 10,000 passengers boarded and expects to come very close to if not reach that goal this year. If the airport hits that passenger mark, the Bridgeport facility will be eligible for $1 million of federal Airport Improvement Funding.
“They got real close to 10,000 this year,” commission President Alan Parks said.
Keith’s letter said the number of passengers boarded in 2007 has more than doubled, and those passengers generate landing fees and Passenger Facility Charge revenues to the airport, which the money provided for marketing in the past has helped generate.
Last year, the commission donated funds that helped the facility host a number of marketing and advertising campaigns, the letter states. These campaigns included involvement in the Fairmont Fourth of July parade with a float promoting aviation careers available through Fairmont State University and events at the airport for local high school students and more than 700 children and parents, among others.
The commissioners voted to take this $7,000 donation out of the hotel-motel tax if it is possible, but if it is not then the money will come from the coal severance fund.
In other business Wednesday, the commissioners approved a $20,000 request from the town of Grant Town to help fund a waterline extension to residents in Morris Siding, Hecks Run and Panther Lick. This request was approved unanimously pending the receipt of additional information about the details of it, which includes how many residents live in those areas.
This money is needed to match a $45,000 community participation grant from the governor’s office and will be used toward the actual construction of the water lines.
Also on Wednesday, the commission tabled a request from Richard Knight with the county’s PSD Improvement Committee to add an additional three members to the 13-member board. The commissioners requested the names of the individuals to be added to the board before officially approving the request.
The commissioners also approved a contract from GRW for aerial photography for the county and approved a request from Carolyn Ledsome, director of Central Communications, to hire Lisa Baston, Sherry Colson, Jaina Lemons, and Dana Satterfield to fill vacancies within the Central Communications 911 Emergency Operations Center.
Their annual salaries will be $18,000 with full benefits, and their starting date will be Dec. 8. Ledsome also requested several changes to employee status which were also approved by the commission.
E-mail Mallory Panuska at mpanuska@timeswv.com.