Board to address airport regulations at Thursday meeting

Tim Leeds Havre Daily News [email protected]

The Havre City-County Airport board Thursday will look at what can be done to keep passenger flights serving the area. “We're starting at 2 (p.m.) and working on the plan to see how we work our way through this,” Hill County Commissioner Kathy Bessette, a member of the airport board, said this morning. The meeting will be held at the airport offices just west of Havre. The issue is regulations requiring that more be done at the airport as a location for passenger flights. The Havre airport receives service through Great Lakes Airlines of Wyoming through the federally subsidized Essential Air Service. If the requirements listed in a report are not met, Havre could lose possibly permanently the classification allowing it to receive passenger air service. Tim Solomon, acting airport manager and Havre mayor- elect, said at a meeting this month that most of the requirements have been met, but some will require additional staffing and funding to pay for that staffing. The Federal Aviation Administration requirements have increased over the last several years, including more paperwork, multiple daily inspections and people being on hand to provide snow and ice removal and to provide emergency services, such as fire service. Solomon, who now is filling in while permanent manager Bill Arvin is deployed in Iraq, said that will require someone to be on call 24-hours-a-day. Some people at the meeting said they could not express support until they saw the actual plan proposed by the airport board. Others said something needs to be done to preserve the Essential Air Service. Having passenger flights in Havre is crucial for the vitality and growth of the community, they said. Bessette said this morning that she is confident the Board can meet the FAA requirements and keep the flights running. The worker issue has temporarily been solved, with the District IV Human Resources Development Council using grant funding to provide three full-time workers through at least early spring. Bessette said the longrange situation is what must be addressed. Right now we do have enough employees. We have all that covered for the next few months,” she said. “It's the future that we are concerned with. “It is not a one-person job anymore,” Bessette added. Once the temporary funding for the workers runs out, the airport must find ways to pay the necessary hours, which is outstripping the manpower used at the airport. The time needed to file paperwork alone is huge, she said. “That's what we need, is a permanent solution regarding funding ,” Bessette said. “That's our problem.”