WILLIAMSTOWN - The Wood County Airport Authority at the Mid-Ohio Valley Regional Airport may have a new member to succeed the late Virgil Flinn.
Tim Flinn, Flinn's son and a captain on the Parkersburg Fire Department, attended Tuesday's meeting in preparation of filling his late father's seat. The senior Flinn died Sept. 21 and was a long-time member of the airport authority.
"My dad had asked me if I would be interested in filling the position at the end of this term, and when he passed and Terry (Moore, airport manager) asked me, I couldn't say no," Flinn said.
Moore said he is awaiting a letter of approval from the Wood County Commission before Flinn becomes an official voting member of the board.
When approved, Flinn will finish out his late father's term on the authority, which ends with the fiscal year on July 1, 2013.
"I will finish out my dad's term and will see how it goes," he said. "It all depends how this term goes if I decide to continue."
Virgil Flinn passed away on Sept. 21 following an illness.
At the time of his death, Moore said it would be difficult to fill Virgil Flinn's seat because of his years of experience working for Piedmont Airlines and U.S. Airlines at the Wood County and Yeager Airports for more than 37 years.
Tim Flinn worked for Crown Airlines from 1984 through 1992 and has held a commercial pilot's license, flying for several corporations out of the Mid-Ohio Valley Regional Airport.
In other business:
"But, enplanements for the third quarter of 2012 remain up," he said. "This is the best third quarter we've had in several years."
In the third quarter of the year the airport saw 2,029 passengers.
"That's up about 2.5 percent from last year at this time," said authority president Bill Richardson. "If this keeps up, we might be pushing 8,000 enplanements for this year."
The number of enplanements is important because airports that have at least 10,000 enplanements per year receive $1 million in federal Airport Improvement Project (AIP) funds annually, airports with fewer passengers receive $150,000.
The closest year in recent history was 2008 where the airport had 5,169 enplanements due to several months of three flights a day to Dulles International Airport near Washington, D.C., from former carrier Colgan Air, Moore said.
* The Wood County Airport Authority also held officer elections on Tuesday and chose to maintain the current slate.
Richardson will remain president while vice president is John Pflazgraf and Jeff McDougle is secretary/treasurer. Wayne Dunn will remain the Wood County Commission's presence.
Flinn did not vote because he is yet a member of the board.
