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Like many organizations, the local Saugeen Shores airport depends in
large part on the efforts of volunteers.
This year, a new staff member, the one lone paid person, was selected by
the Airport Committee from five applicants.
According to the recent Airport Committee report presented to Town
Council, long time Port Elgin resident, Bill Reany, has been offered the
position. Reany, who worked for AVROE during the Arrow Project, is a
long time member of the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) and has
built several of his own personal aircraft. He has maintained the field,
equipment and buildings at the airport.
"There are several members of the Airport Committee and some local
pilots that continually spend a substantial amount of their personal
time at the airport helping to perform maintenance," said Committee
Chair, Kevin Yaraskavitch. "They have helped winterize the terminal
building, open it in the spring, perform electrical maintenance of
runway and yard lighting, cut grass and attended to fuel purchase
requests, keeping the operating budget to a minimum so that monies can
be allocated to capital improvements."
Several projects have been slated as necessary improvements:
Fencing: A large gap in the fence has been temporarily fixed with
plastic fencing and the committee would like to see matching permanent
wire fencing installed, as this is now a carry-over from the previous
year.
Equipment Storage: The committee wants an equipment storage building
constructed to house airport maintenance equipment such as tractors and
mowers.
Terminal Building: Roof shingles were damaged by high winds late last
year and the roof is now leaking. Re-shingling is a high priority. (next column)
16/03/2009 04:36 PM
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Terminal Area Lighting: The parking area and refueling
area lighting is both old and outdated, as well as very inefficient. The
Committee would like to see energy efficient lighting installed, citing
that there may be financial assistance available under the Provincial
funded energy efficiency inititiatives.
Yaraskavitch pointed out that there have been mandy aircraft visits from
across Ontario, as well as the Northwest Territories (NWT) and the
U.S.A. He added that there are also several corporations, such as Kevcor
Inc. of Orangeville, AFW Aviation of Guelph, the Ontario Ministry of
Natural Resources, Transport Canada and Owen Sound Flight Services,
among others, that use the airport on regular business trips. In
addition, several flying clubs also use the airport with 10 aircraft
based at the airport.
In 2008, the airport participated in the Georgian Bay Platinum Poker
Run, as one of five destination fields and had 20 visiting aircraft.
"We've been asked if we'll support and participate again this year
(2009)," said Yaraskavitch. "Long weekends also see a high volume of
traffic and, on those weekends, all available tie-downs are used with
pilots either staying in town or camping out. The airport has proven to
be an excellent drawing card for the aviation and non-aviation
enthusiasts alike. We had 1214 recorded drive-in visitors during
attended hours in 2008."
Yaraskavitch urged Council, and anyone else interested in why small
airports have a role to play in a community, to visit
www.copanational.org/non-members/index.htm under the 'Flying in
Canada' tab.
Yaraskavitch, on behalf of the Airport Committee, requested the same
allocation of $19,500, that has remained unchanged for several years
despite the 2009 additional expense of $4,000 for roof re-shingling and
slight increases overall in other areas, such as hydro, telephone,
insurance and employee salary and benefits from $11,002 (2008) to
$12,000 in 2009.
The town's 2009 budget figures show that the grant has, in fact, been
reduced to $15,000.
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