Airport could get foam roof coating

WILLIAMSTOWN - The Wood County Airport Authority Tuesday gave the airport manager the authority to purchase foam roof coating if money becomes available.
"I think that we are all in agreement that we need to do this," said board member Mike Knopp.
The board held a conference call with Dave Davis, maintenance supervisor for Marietta City Schools, who said he has had good luck with the foam roofing, which is on the district's high school, part of the middle school and about 60 percent of the elementary schools and several other buildings.
"The (foam) roofs have been on the buildings 12-to-14 years and we have to do some maintenance with putting new coatings on them every few years," Davis said. "But we have not had a problem with them for any reason, including wind, and leaks we used to have stopped with the installation of the foam."
Board members John Pfalzgraf, Knopp and Virgil Flinn all gave airport manager Terry Moore permission to get the roofing, which would cost roughly $150,000 to be put on the former terminal building as well as hangars 1,5 and 4, which all have leaks.
Moore brought up the subject of foam roofing during the February board meeting because the cost is much more affordable than putting metal roofs on.
"We do not have the money currently, but we are looking for funding approval and, should the opportunity present itself, the money would probably need to be spent quickly," Moore said.
He said he previously spoke with staff members for Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., about funds for new roofs at the airport and is awaiting information on that money.
In other business:

• Moore said new Federal Aviation Administration rules he learned about last week during the 34th annual Airport Conference in Hershey, Pa. could hurt the airport.

"The FAA is not taking over rules of non-moving parts of the airport," Moore said.
The rule that has Moore the most concerned is a restriction of access to non-movement areas of airports with commercial service.
It would work for big airports and general aviation only airports, but it doesn't work for our airport," Moore said.
"We have voiced our disagreement of this with other airports because it impugns on our rights of making rules for our apron."
The FAA rule would keep people from being allowed to drive to hangars and planes, which Moore said many of the airport's customers like to do.
"It's something they like to do, the cars aren't bothering anything and they aren't in the way," he said. "I could lose business if this passes because GA (general aviation) airports could likely still offer it."
"I don't disagree with the safety factor, but this is our place to make rules, not the FAA's," Moore said.

• Enplanements continued to fall in February with 347 people flying with between the local airport and Cleveland Hopkins International Airport.

"There were 21 weather days in February that caused the major impact in enplanements," Moore said.
Moore said that the cancellations throughout the month were for full days' worth of flights and not just a flight or two at-a-time.
"A lot of times flights to and from Cleveland were canceled because connections to New York, Chicago and other destinations were closed due to weather," Moore said.
"We understand that, but the passengers don't and it is difficult to explain why we don't have flights while it is sunny and clear here," Knopp said.
Taking into consideration the 21 cancellations, the February enplanements were not bad.
"It's still higher than when we had (service from) Colgan in 2008," Moore said.
The January enplanements were 452 with 11 cancellations.