Airport Master Plan 2012 - City of Waterville

Airport Authority
The Maine Legislature recently passed a bill to modify Title 6 of the Maine state statutes for the creation
of a new Airport Authority 7 . A detailed assessment of Airport authorities for facilities similar to the
Waterville Airport is provided later in this Chapter. These sections include a discussion of best practices
and a summary of the pros and cons for establishing a new Airport authority as it may relate to the City of
Waterville. Included in the new legislation is a provision for the establishment of a Board of Directors,
which shall appoint an Airport Manager as the chief executive officer of the facility. The Airport
manager in turn may be empowered by the Board to appoint other Airport employees.
This new option of governance is an intriguing departure from the status quo; it offers many advantages
over the city’s current organizational structure. A formal Board of Directors with oversight and decision
making authority represents a paradigm structural shift, particularly for the City of Waterville given its
recent history of employing a part-time Airport Manager and choosing to forgo with an Advisory Board.
However this more formal political structure focusing exclusively on aviation issues is a much better
business model than what currently exists. If organized and operated properly, city government can
benefit from the knowledge base and experience of individual Board members. Although it may sound
counter-intuitive, the Board should not be comprised entirely of pilots, but rather a reasonable cross
section of the community. In addition to aviation expertise and city government representation, an
effective Board should include members of the business community. In no particular order, other
beneficial representation may include expertise in civil engineering or planning, the legal profession, law
enforcement, the insurance industry, accounting, higher education, and a representative of at-large
community concerns, particularly from a neighboring town to promote regionalization efforts. Joint
ownership or management of the facility induces additional Board considerations 8 .
Regardless of its role (advisory vs. authority), an effective Board should consist of a reasonable number
of participants; too many members can be unwieldy and unproductive. Consensus building fosters
accountability and improves productivity; disagreement and debate is a healthy by-product of decisionby-committee,
as long as it remains focused through strong leadership from the Board Chairman.
Fixed Base Operations (FBO)
The FBO situation at WVL has been problematic for the City in recent years. Telford Aviation (Telford)
was the last successful Fixed Based Operator serving the Waterville Airport. Telford served customers at
WVL for twenty years from 1980 to 2000. Input from the interviews conducted under Task 3 suggests
that Telford was well regarded and ran a successful business until its departure from the Airport in 2000.
In fact, most people generally agree that the City and Telford both benefited from this relationship.
Succeeding Telford was Kennebec Air from 2000 to 2002 and then Airborne Aviation from 2002 to 2004.
It has been said that neither of these two FBOs made a serious investment in WVL. Other attempts were
made to secure an FBO since 2004, but to no avail.
Since 2004, the City of Waterville has been providing FBO services for its customers. Some people
might suggest the City is a reluctant participant in the FBO business, many people have said the City
should not be running the FBO. In fact there were previous accounts of inadequate FBO services
described during the interview process in Task 3. Under the circumstances Airport personnel are
performing admirably; results from the user surveys suggest services have improved in recent years.
However the City is not well qualified or equipped to run a first class FBO. It has been reported to the
7 Reference Maine Public Law, Chapter 563, “An Act To Facilitate the Creation of an Airport Authorities”, Section 1.6 MRSA c.10
– “Airport Authorities”
8 Task 10.3 summarizes the legal requirements and ramifications of joint ownership / management
The City of Waterville Maine
Airport Management Structure Assessment – Page 7-7
Airport Solutions Group, LLC & The Louis Berger Group, Inc. December 2011