Losses At The Airport

I would like to discuss the abolition of the Pickens County Aeronautical Commission, as well as the replacement of the director a couple of years ago when the council cleaned house at the airport. I think time is proving that to be a bad decision.

The commission oversaw the director and expansion of the Pickens County Airport. The director was part-time and ran the airport day to day. The commission was composed of one representative from the six districts in the county (Clemson, Liberty, Easley, Six Mile, Pickens and Dacusville), and the members were typically pilots and those with experience in aviation and airports

Under that leadership, the airport grew, expanded and evolved into a first-class general aviation facility that catered to and facilitating local industrial growth. From 2005 through 2016 nearly $2 million was granted to Pickens County through the FAA Airport improvement initiative. These funds were used to acquire land for airport expansion and improve in the instrument approach environment. In addition, funds were used to construct a state of the art terminal building and additional hangers that boosted income at the airport and property taxes from the additional aircraft based there. Also, the runway, taxiways and aprons were expanded and upgraded to allow for more multi-engine transport aircraft that service corporations in Pickens County.

This improvement was reflected in the airport’s financial statements. Looking at the county financial audits, in 2005 the airport had revenue of $147,886 and day to day expenses of $306,438, resulting in an operating loss of $158,552. During the next 10 years or so the director and the commission grew revenue more than 300% while controlling expenses. As a result, the airport generated an operating profit for its first time, of $3,736 in 2016.

The county council then abolished the commission and the director was run off. In just two years, the airport is now deeply in the red again. This past year, 2018, the airport had an operating loss of $122,614, due to a 55% increase in spending in just two years. It is not a surprise given there was a swap of a mostly volunteer commission and part-time director for a full-time manager with a staff that only answers to the county administrator and not to those who use and operate out of the airport.

More importantly, the council should rethink its desire to further centralize operations. We also saw similar results with the animal control activities, further centralization under the control of the county government and much higher costs.

Sad, we are likely to see the same with fire service. The council just abolished the 13 local fire boards, and all departments are consolidated under a county Fire Marshall. The initial consolidation proposal presented last year, had the total budget rising from $6.2 million a year to $7.7 million and a new fire millage tax.