City board votes against renewing contract with Dyersburg Air Service

Thursday, June 11, 2009

The crowded upstairs conference room at City Hall was surprisingly quiet at a called meeting of the city of Dyersburg Board of Mayor and Aldermen on Wednesday morning.

It was standing room only for the pilots, local businessmen and residents who took the time to attend the 9 a.m. meeting called to take action on a recommendation from the Airport Committee to change the management at the Dyersburg Regional Airport, but only one citizen voiced his opinion on the issue.

Chairman Dennis Moody shared the minutes of Monday morning's Airport Committee meeting with members of the board and moved to allow Mayor John Holden to inform current fixed-base operator and airport manager Joey Spindler of Dyersburg Air Service that the city would not be renewing its contract ending on June 30. Moody's motion also authorized the mayor to proceed with the acceptance of proposals of a new contract for fixed-base operator and airport manager at the airport.

The motion was seconded by Lewis Norman and the issue was open for discussion.

"I did fail in my vision at this airport," said local businessman Monte Warne, who created Dyersburg Air Service and the contract with the city in 2004. "But the city succeeded. The city now has a nice airport. I don't see anything wrong with the airport and I don't see how the city can expect Joey to lose money with the restaurant, the flight school and everything else when there is not enough (business) to support it."

Warne said there is not enough local interest in pilot training to support a flight school and economic conditions have affected the restaurant business.

"The city has gained a lot in the last five years. They got a new airport for about a nickel on the dollar," continued Warne. "I wish everyone would support Joey. He came here from out of town, with his family and his assets, invested in a lot of real estate in this town and now we are wanting him to leave? I mean, it's no wonder we can't grow."

Lewis Norman requested a roll call vote on the matter.

Board members voting in favor of Moody's motion not to renew the contract with Dyersburg Air Service and look into optional fixed-base operator and airport management proposals included Norman, Moody, Bob Kirk, Bart Williams, Freeman Dudley and Mayor John Holden. Alderman Kevin Chaney voted against the motion.

Aldermen Charles McCright and Shannon Walker were absent from the meeting.

The motion passed 6-1 in favor of Moody's motion.

Also at the meeting, members of the board approved:

* the city attorney's invoice of $5,062.50. Chaney moved to accept the invoice, with Kirk adding a second. The motion passed unanimously.

* an invoice of $25,118.54 to repair damage created by the May 24 flooding of the railroad spur located at the Industrial Park, which was washed out when the area received approximately five inches of rain in 45 minutes.

City Purchasing Agent Greg Williams said the damage affected Quebecor World's operations and had to be repaired quickly. He will ask City Engineer Brad Davis to look over the area and see if any changes can be made to prevent a washout from occurring again without backing up water toward buildings or houses in the area.

Kirk moved to pay the invoice, with Moody adding a second. The motion passed unanimously.

The meeting adjourned at 9:15 a.m.

Comments

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why do we need an airport, city of newbern doesnt have one and look at the jobs there?

-- Posted by jscott on Thu, Jun 11, 2009, at 1:42 PM

Jobs in Newbern? Are you kidding? I don't call 300 per week a job that is slave labor.

-- Posted by Bek1 on Thu, Jun 11, 2009, at 6:50 PM

First of all to jscott: Newbern's newest employer, Briggs and Stratton, has a corporate plane that lands at Dyersburg.

The "Powers that Be" have decided they want to raise the bar once again. When you look around, other cities are making a lot of improvements to their gateway from the sky. Check out Union City's airport at this link:

http://www.estewartregionalairport.com

We have to stay competitive with other cities or the businesses that create jobs will go elsewhere.

Joey Spindler is a good friend and I hate to see this happen to him. I wish there was another way for the City to work with him to surround him with the supporting businesses to make it all worthwhile for everyone. He has made the investment and commitment to the City of Dyersburg and it just did not pay off.

-- Posted by jimbobvol on Thu, Jun 11, 2009, at 11:37 PM

if the airport, hospital,libraries, golf course brings in business, where in the hell is it? who is going to pay for the improvements , the unemployed? get real folks, tighten your belts.

-- Posted by jscott on Fri, Jun 12, 2009, at 5:59 AM

The meeting began at 9 a.m. and ended at 9:15 a.m.? Man, that's efficiency! The Dyersburg REGIONAL Airport is the gateway of the air to all of Dyer County and surrounding areas. Why not put the management under county supervision? And why not ask the planning board to look at expanding the airport into a transportation hub for northwest Tennessee, a hub that would include a Greyhound bus terminal/stop so that people in our part of the state wouldn't have to go all the way to Jackson or Memphis for bus service. Perhaps the county or some enterprising individual could use some of the airport facilities for a van service with regularly scheduled routes through towns in Lake, Obion, Weakley, and Lauderdale Counties to make our city, the airport, and the bus terminal accessible to more people? Think big! A transportation infrastructure like that might entice some feeder aircarrier to make scheduled stops here as well.

-- Posted by A Citizen on Fri, Jun 12, 2009, at 8:21 AM

A Citizen.....You have great visons and they need to follow some of them if not all!

-- Posted by different/visons/12 on Fri, Jun 12, 2009, at 10:23 AM

If the business is not here, it is not here. You have to have 100% of all the city fathers included to make it work. I live in Milltown and we never see our representative to the city

-- Posted by riverman on Sat, Jun 13, 2009, at 3:16 PM

I agree the general aviation industry is really flat financially in our part of the country. It will be hard for most interested parties to scrape any profits out of the airport unless they have something to draw business here. Let's face facts, Dyersburg Avionics is about the only contender I know of that might keep some business flowing in our direction. With all due respects to Mr. Warne who really put a lot of much needed repairs and upgrades into the airport, his timing was out of sync with trends that were beginning to dampen aviation here. He had some excellent ideas, but ours is an economically depressed section of the country. Our economy is fundamentally based on agriculture with a little industry. That's not likely to change until we as a community begin to put together some processing plants and other production oriented operations to keep some of our money in the local economy. We ought not look to China and other foreign countries to bail us out by investing here. That's our job. Let's get on with it.

-- Posted by A Citizen on Tue, Jun 16, 2009, at 1:07 PM