Published: September 22, 2009 07:18 pm      

Backing airport — 09/23/09

Stevens had no authority to withhold budgeted funding

While Boyd County Fiscal Court has resumed its $5,000 annual contribution to Tri-State Airport and Boyd Judge-Executive William “Bud” Stevens has appointed Economic and Community Development Director Nickie Smith to replace the late Morris Griffiths as the county’s representative on the airport’s board of directors, one suspects the contribution would have been discontinued and the board seat would have remained unfilled if Tri-State Airport Director Jerry Brienza had not brought the county’s snubbing of the airport to light.

Steven admits that he had “turned down” paying the county’s annual contribution to the airport last year because he didn’t realize the impact the airport located in Wayne County, W.Va., had on Boyd County. “I didn’t see the advantage at that time. I didn’t see where that $5,000 was going.”

First of all, Stevens had no authority to not make the payment. The $5,000 was included in the county’s budget approved by the fiscal court. As the county’s chief executive, Stevens had an obligation to adhere to the county’s budget. He was in no position to pick-and-choose which budget items to pay and which ones to ignore.

Even if the county lacked the funds to fulfill its budget obligations — which was not the case in this instance — Stevens would have to have the approval of the fiscal court to make the required spending cuts.

Beyond lacking the authority to decide on his own to not make the payment to airport, we find it amazing that Stevens failed to see the value of the airport to the entire region. The availability of commercial airline service is an important amenity to any community. Without it, many companies would not even consider locating in the Tri-State. Even with it, one of the reasons Ashland Inc. cited for moving its headquarters to Covington was to be closer to a larger airport.

Ironically, Stevens made his decision to not pay the county’s annual contribution to the airport just as air passenger service at Tri-State was being greatly improved. After enduring years of deteriorating airline service that was becoming more and more expensive, the arrival of Allegiance Airlines and the lowering a fares by existing airlines has made flying out of Tri-State an affordable option. As a result, the number of passengers using Tri-State has climbed steadily in the past five years.

This newspaper was a strong advocate for building a new airport between Huntington and Charleston that would combine Tri-State and Charleston’s Yeager Field, but since the demise of that idea, we have been an advocate of efforts to improve the service at Tri-State. While some local air passengers continue to fly out of Columbus, Cincinnati, Louisville, Lexington and even Charleston to take advantage of lower fares, more people are choosing to fly out of Tri-State.

Stevens insists he has seen the light and now recognizes just how important Tri-State Airport is to Boyd County and the entire region. Good, Better late than never.