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LOCK HAVEN -- Community members with an interest in keeping the William T. Piper Memorial Airport continue to request Lock Haven City Council consider various solutions.
Three airport stakeholders -- including two pilots and Ron Dremel, president of the Piper Aviation Museum -- attended council's meeting on Monday night to comment on the proposed 2024 budget.
Previously, council reviewed the airport's portion of the proposed budget during a meeting on Nov. 27. One of the sticking points of the budget surrounded a lack of fuel purchase in 2024.
"It makes absolutely no financial sense to end a service that generates income for the airport," Dremel read from a statement on Monday.
Dremel claimed City Manager Gregory Wilson's "mismanagement" and "poor communication" regarding the discussion about the airport's future already "caused at least one hangar tenant to unnecessarily leave the airport, causing the city to lose almost $3,000 per year."
Bob Larson, a pilot whose business has called the airport home since 1972, also questioned why there wasn't an amount listed under the line items for fuel services.
Wilson said the proposed budget isn't entirely complete, as new figures are added and adjusted.
"The draft of the original proposal to council does not have fuel budgeted," Wilson said.
Wilson said a final version of the budget will be presented to council at its Dec. 11 meeting, where those figures will be finalized.
"Council did hear last week and this week from individuals about fuel. That doesn't mean the budget changes overnight," he said. "That all gets worked on in the course of a couple weeks."
Wilson further noted the airport's checking account is overdrawn by roughly $380,000.
"The taxpayer budget, the General Fund, will have to show a transfer of that dollar amount value for the purchase of fuel," he said. Wilson said the General Fund is the only other account that can cut a check for fuel for the airport.
"When you purchase the airport fuel, it will have to be a transfer from the General Fund into the Airport Fund to make that purchase," he said.
He added that fuel was purchased in late 2023, between September and October, which will carry into next year. He specifically referenced the unleaded fuel.
"The only purchase of the jet fuel is for the Gypsy Moth spraying," he said. "The city makes a profit, on average in the last six years, of $100 a year on jet fuel."
Due to a lack of revenue regarding jet fuel, Wilson said the city could have an agreement with the organization completing the spraying to only stock fuel that's needed for those jets.
Larson asked council if they considered partnering with the county to potentially fund an airport authority to manage the facility.
"Can't (the city) somehow authorize or suggest we form an authority. The city and county can fund that authority to run the airport and cover the liability of that over five years," Larson said. "That would greatly cut the city's expenses."
Nils Montzaros, a pilot who has utilized the airport since 1972, said he feels the airport has never been mismanaged like it currently is.
"I feel as if there's an intentional move to make the airport not viable so it can be discarded," he said.
Montzaros said numbers presented during the previous council meeting, included figures from three different people -- from Richard Marcinkavege, the airport's bookkeeper and those in the budget.
"My suggestion is, maybe we should have somebody audit these numbers," he said.
During Dremel's portion of public comment, he emphasized the importance of the airport remaining in the county.
"As president of the Piper Aviation Museum, I see several thousands of visitors each year come to our museum," he said. This year alone he said visitors came from all over the United States and several countries across the world.
"Many of these visitors fly to the museum and a lot of these visitors purchase fuel," he said. "We also direct a lot of those visitors downtown to Lock Haven restaurants to spend money."
He noted, although he isn't a member of the Sentimental Journey Fly In, that the annual event brings in hundreds upon hundreds of visitors to the area.
Not only does this event, fuel sales and hangar rentals provide revenue, Dremel said the potential creation of a solar array on airport property could also bring funding.
"It's my understanding that the city was considering a solar farm on the fenced in property at the south side of the airport," Dremel said. "That solar farm would generate approximately $150,000 in revenue a year."
Discussion about a solar array at the airport has not been brought up to council since 2019, when it first began hearing from potential solar companies.
According to previous reports, the city's last update was in late 2019 when Public Works Director Anthony Stopper was speaking with three more companies, on top of two which had presented information to council.
The airport was the initial location for the panels at the time, however Wilson told council in 2019 that it would be better placed at the former sewage treatment plant to reduce costs.