VTR board sets up plan for spending in 2012
Published 11:43 am Wednesday, August 10, 2011
MOUND — As owners of the Vicksburg Tallulah Regional Airport met Tuesday to decide on a budget for the coming fiscal year, pilots ballyhooed a wish list that calls for about $30,000 to upgrade their lounge and public waiting areas at the airport in Mound.
The new amenities didn’t get the go-ahead, however, as airport board members voted to adjust the $306,699 in planned spending in 2012 to reflect what is received from Vicksburg, Warren County, Madison Parish and Tallulah for daily operations — $46,500, based on what the county kicked in.
The wish list spurred plenty of talk from Gary Estes, Warren County’s representative on the board, and other members during an impromptu gathering of city, county and parish officials at airport offices.
“You get up at 4 in the morning, you fly here, you sit over here for eight or nine hours. You’re beat. You want someplace private to sit.”
Estes, owner of Estes Aviation, a buyer and seller of used aircraft, counted the lobby’s outdated promotional material and the pilot lounge’s worn-out sofa and lightly stained carpet as reasons the airport remains “marginal” despite its location. Currently, pilots and the public use the same waiting area. The ideal lounge, he said, appears more like a workstation — where pilots can stay connected to the Internet and handle business.
The wish list includes new furniture and flooring estimated at $31,801.16. It mentions two new sofas, a 32-inch flat-screen TV, new ceramic floors and a new living room set. The plan would involve removing a wall on the south side of the building.
“If we have a comfortable facility, then through word of mouth, (activity) will increase,” VTR board chairman Benny Terrell said.
A $4 million federal grant paid for a parallel taxiway last year, and more aid to pay for new runway signs and night landing lights on both ends of the runway appear back online, as about 4,000 Federal Aviation Administration workers returned to their jobs Tuesday after a two-week shutdown following Congress’ failure to agree on a funding plan. However, a stopgap measure funds the agency through Sept. 16 — the 21st extension since the last full-fledged authorization expired in 2007 — and more than $160 million in subsidies to small, regional airports like VTR was cut in versions stalled in the House.
Fuel sales — the bulk of the airport’s operating income — totaled $260,313 through June 30, on pace to surpass sales in 2010. Jet and low-lead fuel sales totaled $480,830 in 2010 and make up 86 percent of income expected in fiscal 2012. Revenues are nearly $300,000 so far this year, on pace to break the $492,295.94 taken in during 2010.
“What we’re counting on is fuel sales will continue to rise,” Terrell said before he, Estes and T.J. Williams, the City of Tallulah’s appointed member, voted on the budget after officials with three of the four owners left. Both Mississippi partners kicked in more money this year for daily operations — Warren County, $46,500, and Vicksburg, $54,889.79. For years, the local subsidy was around $30,000. Five versions of a budget for 2012 have been discussed by county supervisors, four of which adjust totals around possible pay raises for sheriff’s deputies.
A five-year extension to the owners’ operating agreement was OK’d in principle last year but is unratified by Vicksburg officials, who continued subsidies this year. The issue of how fuel prices compare with Vicksburg Municipal Airport lingers. Supervisors favor a strict, market-based approach on fuel sales, something airport officials say private pilots already do when choosing where to buy fuel. During the Leyens administration, the city pushed a plan that shortened the term of the operating agreement to five years and required the airport to notify owners when fuel prices were set 15 cents below regional competitors.
“The agreement is on a computer somewhere at City Hall,” board attorney Randy Sherard said when Tallulah Mayor Eddie Beckwith asked where the issue stood with the Mississippi partners.
Though VTR’s engineer of record, Shreveport-based Allliance Inc., is less than a year through its contract with the airport, engineer Bobby Odom of Mobile-based Volkert Inc. spoke at the meeting to pitch the firm’s services on future FAA-funded projects. Beckwith said he invited the group to speak, an appearance Odom termed “purely informational.”
Vicksburg Mayor Paul Winfield arrived latest to Tuesday’s 90-minute meeting and left the soonest, citing business in Jackson. Winfield and City Attorney Lee Thames cited no figures for what the city may settle on to subsidize the airport this year.
“We’re assuming it was going to be close to what it was,” Winfield said. “We don’t want to compete against ourselves.”
In April, a $1.2 million fire station financed with a Katrina-related disaster recovery grant was dedicated at Vicksburg’s airport on U.S. 61 South. The airport’s terminal was renovated in February and a 10-bay T-hangar was completed last July, both of which were also paid for with federal grants. VTR has 12 T-hangars, the most recent of which was funded with a grant from the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development.
Williams, a former Madison Parish Police Jury member, implored the owners to commit to a long-term vision with money to back it up.
“If we’re going to grow the airport, we’ve gotta expand the hangars,” Williams said. “If we’re going to operate in a 21st century manner, if you want your asset to stay tops, you gotta kick in.”
VTR was built for $6 million, mostly with federal funds. Vicksburg, Warren County, Madison Parish and Tallulah contributed about $100,000 each to its construction. Each appoints a member to the advisory board, with one post alternately appointed by the county and the parish every three years. Alternating appointee J. Michael Nassour and Craig Cox of Madison Parish were absent Tuesday. Both cited prior commitments, Terrell said.