Friends of the Piper Airport propose authority; look for volunteers
Trending
LOCK HAVEN -- The William T. Piper Memorial Airport has been facing economic turmoil for a while, but the Friends of the Piper Airport, in conjunction with Dr. Mike Jones of Swelbar-Zhong Consultancy, may have found a solution.
Discussions surrounding the airport’s future kicked into high gear in late 2023 when the City of Lock Haven -- through a letter from City Manager Gregory Wilson -- said it was considering a potential sale at the airport or another form of change.
The city bought the original 70-acre airport in 1937 when William Piper moved his operations from Bradford to the city, and it is currently situated on approximately 112 acres of land with a 3,600 foot asphalt runway in good condition.
When Piper closed its doors in 1984, the city began to operate the airport as a general aviation facility.
As time went on, those involved in the airport essentially had two options: to fix the airport or to shut it down. Right now, the plan is to fix it.
The Friends of the Piper Airport recently met with Lock Haven City Council members and staff and the Clinton County Commissioners to discuss what could be done.
Following Jones' presentation, the group was advised by city and county representatives to put together a business plan and draft an outline of what the authority would look like before it can be considered by either entity.
According to Jones, though the meeting went well, local officials were skeptical at first.
"They'd been told the airport's been losing money for 30 years, and they say 'if it's losing money for 30 years, how can you turn it around and turn it into a profit-generating function?' What my research at the University of Florida found... an airport that is governed by an airport authority with people who are experts in running airports will outperform city-run airports 20 times," he said.
The average general aviation airport in the US produces $30 million in economic impact for its community each year, according to Jones.
"I want to stress that economic impact is different than profit," said Jones. "Even when you control for geography, population and income the airport authority airports produce $50 million (in economic impact.)"
Alan Uhler, volunteer and Friend of the Piper Airport, began the process of working on the Governance and Business Development Plan, though struggled to find the time to detail his findings and recommendations.
"There are still more details we need to learn and still more information we need, but we've developed a pretty extensive book that talks about what we've found... what we're finding with the current management of the airport, and what's going on with it," said Uhler.
The Friends of the Piper Airport put together an extensive plan that outlines the current physical, aeronautical and economic conditions of the airport, and offers a recommendation based on the information gathered.
The 90-page document details a general description of airport facilities, the airport operations, the finances, economic impact and revenue enhancement, the new plan for airport governance and much more.
The report demonstrates that the airport is a valuable asset to Lock Haven, which contributes 77 jobs and around $13.1 million dollars in economic benefits, and it could operate self-sufficiently without the use of public funds if the management structure changed.
Overall, the recommendation is the airport be transferred over to Clinton County to run as an "enterprise zone" responsible for its own profits and losses, establish an active and engaged Airport Authority to operate the airport on behalf of the county and hire a customer-oriented professional airport manager to implement a business development plan.
According to the report, it is highly likely the plan will return the airport to robust financial health.
There are multiple pieces of the puzzle to consider, but the number one concern at this time is changing the mindset of the operation from serving constituents to serving customers.
"Customers are people who have choices. They can say no to your offer. They can say, 'I'm not going to fly there because the runway is too short. I'm not going to fly there because you don't have fuel on weekends. Because your bathrooms aren't clean.' Whatever it might be, they can make that choice," said Jones.
He compared serving constituents to going to the Department of Motor Vehicles, or having a building inspector show up -- you have no choice in what they say.
"That attitude is subtle, but it pervades public service. It changes the way you approach problem solving," he continued.
According to Jones, the William T. Piper Memorial Airport already has everything needed to have a sustainable future.
The biggest issue right now, he said, is the airport is being run as though it were a part of the city government.
"City finances don't have profits. (They) can't track cost of goods. They simply don’t have any way to do it. My research has proved to an astoundingly strong degree that the way the city is managing the airport today is guaranteed to cause it to fail. We literally cannot do any worse. I'm really sure we'll do a lot better," said Jones.
The report in the document packet reads, "Instead of using the municipal accounting system, the airport should switch to using Quickbooks or another accounting system suitable for a small business. ...While the airport no doubt receives some benefit from some of (the municipal) software packages, this overhead fee is far in excess of any reasonable software cost which is necessary for the airport."
The solution is to organize the airport as a "for profit" business and create an autonomous board of directors called the Airport Authority.
The mission of the authority will be to sustain the airport in perpetuity and increase the total economic impact of the airport by 25 percent over the course of five years.
The Friends of the Piper Airport and Jones are looking forward to the future -- ideas such as working with Commonwealth University-Lock Haven to create a pilot program, on-airport campsites and more -- with new innovations created every day, the importance of a local airport has never been clearer.
The airport is host to nine businesses that rely on the airport: The Piper Aviation Museum, Keystone Instruments and Hangar 2 Avionics, Goodrich Flying Services and Bailey's Aircraft Services, Coastal Defense, Air Parts, Cub Restoration Services and AvSport.
Jones' research indicated that for every dollar spent at the airport, there are $6-7 of induced benefits for the community as part of the ripple effect.
Jones noted that it was crucial to get the right people on the seven member board.
"We need volunteers -- people with experience in marketing and social media, website designers. We need people who have a legal background. People in civil engineering who understand pouring concrete and rebar and government contracts. We'll get a great Airport Authority of seven active, engaged, professional advisors," said Jones.
What they're looking for in regards to members on the board is specific expertise in some of the following:
-- Marketing and business
-- Economic Development
-- Financial Management
-- Civil Engineering
-- Knowledge of aeronautics
-- Aviation law
It was also mentioned that they don't want a board full of just pilots -- no more than 50 percent of the board should be pilots.
"Our real goal here is to create jobs in Lock Haven and serve the community," said Jones, "It's not just a rich man club."
Jones emphasized the fact that throughout history, every major city in the world was some sort of port -- whether that be a seaport or airport. Lock Haven's port, he says, is Piper Airport.
"This airport helps everybody in the community. When its economic impact is so small because it’s being mismanaged, why don't we turn that around and make its economic impact big because we're managing it properly? ...Having an active and engaged, outward-looking Airport Authority will really help the airport be more supportive of the community. It's all about supporting the community," said Jones.
For the Friends of the Airport's vision to become a reality, the City of Lock Haven and Clinton County Board of Commissioners will need to develop an agreement to transfer the property into the county's control and an authority implemented.