Ongoing Debate Over Piper Airport Fund Continues at Lock Haven City Council Meeting
By Emily Wright
LOCK HAVEN – At Monday night’s Lock Haven city council meeting, community members involved with the William T. Piper Memorial Airport and Piper Aviation Museum continued their efforts to confront council members regarding the 2024 Budget Proposal as it pertained to the airport. This has been an ongoing topic of discussion since the budget was released to the public in the fall. Before the council voted to approve the budget, two concerned citizens voiced their concerns and questioned the financial projections and details outlined in the Budget Book.
Ron Dremel, President of the Piper Aviation Museum, addressed council members again as he has at recent meetings, regarding the airport fund. Dremel questioned the revenue included in the budget book for aviation gas sales. “I see that we’ve included $45,000 for aviation gas sales, and I appreciate that,” he said. “My question though, is, we’ve lowered our revenue from Av. (aviation) gas sales from $20,000 to $10,000. I don’t understand that. If we’re buying $45,000 of Av. gas, and you’re already planning on selling off $20,000 of Av. gas on hand, shouldn’t we have revenue of $65,000 in Av. gas sales?”
In response, City Manager Greg Wilson explained that the $20,000 in gas revenue has been added back into the budget, bringing the airport fund balance to $40,000.
Dremel also questioned a $1,976 line item for credit card processing fees, highlighting that the percentage does not match anticipated gas sales. Wilson addressed this, stating that “the credit card fees are actual fees charged not by the city but by the bank,” however, upon further questioning, he provided a brief explanation and confirmed that the credit card fees would be corrected in the budget.
Alan Uhler, a hangar space tenant at the airport and Civil Engineer/Surveyor, also addressed his concerns to council members Monday night. Since August of this year, Uhler has been trying to work with the city to prevent the sale of the airport. He asked city council members about the $12,000 budget line item for software fees at the airport. “Looking down through the budget, one budget item that I’m not quite sure I follow the reason for is towards the end of page 65, where we have a software fee of about $12,000 budgeted,” he pointed out. “We go back about three, four years, and then we’ve got $1,000, and it jumps up to $1,689, so I’m a little bit puzzled as to what software the airport has that’s $12,000,” Uhler said.
Wilson explained that the airport pays a percentage of the total costs for various software licenses and services that are used by the entire city, “The airport is a subdivision of the City of Lock Haven, and the City of Lock Haven has a variety of software, all of which benefit the airport, including payroll software, human resources, our accounts receivable and accounts payable, account reconciliations… Those all have a cost and the airport pays for a percentage of those,” Wilson said. “We also have a cybersecurity firm which comes out of that, and because of the operations of the city, especially with the airport taking credit cards, there’s a security issue. So we have a very good cybersecurity firm, and that costs money. The airport has to pay its fair share of that,” he said. “Overall, it’s generally 10% of the total of what the city pays.”
Uhler also asked about the proposed solar project to be constructed on airport property. “This is on the airport property and the property that’s included in the airport layout plan; has this been coordinated with the FAA and environmental remediation?” In response, Wilson confirmed that both the FAA and the Department of Aviation (DOA) have “weighed in on that process”.
To conclude, Uhler asked if revenue from the solar project would benefit the airport. According to Wilson, there is no direct revenue, but it would reduce electricity costs. “The airport and every entity that is city-owned that has the ability to get some of the electric off of there will see 30 years of long-term substantial energy savings,” he said. “That’s why it is an important process; because it reduces costs.”
The state of the Piper Airport Fund has been a financial burden, with the city spending $3,842,905 in tax dollars to subsidize its operations over the past 39 years. Since Piper stopped providing financial support in 1987, the city has shouldered this expense alone, resulting in an average of $98 thousand per year in city taxes going toward the airport.
Despite the airport’s main income stream being leasing options for aviation tenants, the rental prices for hangars and storage units are significantly higher in comparison to neighboring airports, resulting in lower occupancy rates. Further, while fuel sales have shown high revenue, the associated costs leave little available funds for airport operations.
