HASSO HERING

A perspective from Oregon’s mid-Willamette Valley

Change in store at Albany airport

Written November 24th, 2014 by Hasso Hering
Things look a little quiet at this Albany city airport on this Saturday in November.

Things look a little quiet at the Albany city airport on this Saturday in November.

Albany Municipal Airport may finally get a “fixed base operator” next year if negotiations now under way bear fruit. It’s been without one since December 2010, and while volunteers covered the office for part of that period, no one was around when I stopped by last Saturday.

City transportation supervisor Jon Goldman, who oversees the airport as part of his job, hopes to have the new operator in place by February, which should help give this city enterprise a boost. To prepare, the city intends to remodel the space that served as the airport office and lounge. It told two pilots using parts of that space for their businesses — flight instruction in one case and aerial advertising and spraying in the other — that their monthly leases would not be renewed and plans to resettle them in another part of the building.

I talked to Goldman and his boss, public works director Mark Shepard, after learning about what was described to me as a contentious meeting of the Albany Airport Advisory Commission last week. The discussion turned on the role of the commission as an advisory group, not one to handle management of the airport. The way Shepard put it in an email, “Many commission members do help out by providing staff with input and information on things that need attention at the airport.  Staff does our best to address these issue as they come up.  I think this has blurred the understanding of the commission’s role. To help clarify roles staff will work up some proposed changes to the current AMC (Albany Municipal Code) language and present it to the Airport Advisory Commission before taking it to Council.”

Meanwhile, the FBO negotiations continue, says Goldman, who gave commission members a draft of the proposed lease. The prospective new operator, now operating out of an airport in the greater Portland metro area, would plan on providing, among other things, a flight school as well as aircraft mechanical service and courtesy cars for arriving air travelers.

Albany’s relationship with its small general aviation airport and the pilots keeping planes there has been strained from time to time. In the 1980s there was even talk about selling the acreage for commercial development, but then the council decided to keep the airport going and created the advisory commission to help with that idea. (hh)

Vintage fighter jets await further restoration on the tarmac.

On the tarmac, vintage fighter jets await further restoration for static display.





Comments are closed.

 

 
HH Today: A perspective from Oregon’s mid-Willamette Valley
Albany Albany City Council Albany council Albany downtown Albany Fire Department Albany housing Albany parks Albany Planning Commission Albany police Albany Post Office Albany Public Works Albany riverfront Albany schools Albany Station Albany streets Albany traffic Albany urban renewal apartments ARA Benton County bicycling bike lanes Bowman Park Bryant Park Calapooia River CARA climate change COVID-19 Cox Creek Cox Creek path Crocker Lane cumberland church cycling Dave Clark Path DEQ downtown Albany Edgewater Village Highway 20 homeless housing Interstate 5 land use Linn County Millersburg Monteith Riverpark North Albany ODOT Oregon coast Oregon legislature Pacific Power Portland & Western Queen Avenue Republic Services Riverside Drive Santiam Canal Scott Lepman Talking Water Gardens The Banks Tom Cordier Union Pacific urban renewal Water Avenue Waterfront Project Waverly Lake Willamette River


Copyright 2022. All Rights Reserved. Hasso Hering.
Website Serviced by Santiam Communications
Hasso Hering