County reorganizes planning, airport management

Fairfield County approved reorganizing the structure of both the management of the County airport and the community planning organization. Both moves were recommended by the Administration and Finance Committee prior to the meeting.

Under the reorganization, the Fairfield County Airport will no longer be under the management of a Fixed Based Operator. Those duties will be handed off to a new Airport Director who will report directly to the County Administration.

Prior to the change, the FBO was in charge of managing the Fairfield County Airport and collecting fees on hangar rentals and fuel. He was paid by the County. The fees that the airport generates yearly, about $61,036 will now be used to cover the $60,000 salary of the new Director.

“We are taking all those back and bringing it in house,” Taylor said. “We’ll have a manager in house, use all those fees to pay that person’s salary and then rent back space to the current FBO and treat him more as a vendor and allow him to use space for mechanic services and things like that.”

According to Council’s Request of Action, the airport was deemed to be sub-par in safety levels and overall professionalism by an operational assessment performed in June.

The County also unanimously approved a motion to separate the positions of Planning Director and Certified Building Official, both of which are currently held by a single county employee. This reorganization had already been budgeted for.

“A Planning Director generally is proactive, and looks to secure funds for community revitalization projects,” Taylor said. “A Certified Building Official handles code enforcement and ensures projects are being built up to the proper codes and ordinances.”

“We’re suggesting that we split those duties and hire, and we did budget this also, a true Planning Director and have our current Planning Director concentrate on building code and code enforcement,” Taylor said. The reorganization is already in process.