Conway Aviation Newsletter, May 2004

Congratulations to Rob Quinn! Rob was hired by Continental Express as a pilot recently. Rob has been a fixture around the Conway airport since he was in high school and has worked as a lineman and a flight instructor here since I can remember. We’ll really miss Rob’s positive attitude and his professional demeanor. FLY SAFE ROB!

CITY TERMINATES LEASE

You probably read it in the paper just like we did, the City Council has voted to cancel our lease on the airport! Almost everyone we know has asked or called to inquire about what is going on so I thought I’d make this newsletter mostly about this subject. I think the phase, “something else must be going on” is the most common thing I’ve heard from most people.

KEY POINTS:

ConwayAV was not given prior notice of proposed City action.
ConwayAV has engaged legal council.
ConwayAV to address City Council, May 11, 6pm.
Contact ConwayAV, (501) 327-4559, to get involved.

First the facts; we have been late on our lease payments to the city several times over the past four years. Not that it’s a justification, but in the 55 months that we’ve leased the airport, the city has been late with their management payment to us 36 of those months!!

We’ve gone back and traced the history of our payments and a pattern arose. We’re late in the winter months. Our business in the winter is slow. We struggle to meet our obligations in the winter. How can we change this pattern? We can’t. Our business is not one that we can bring in business with additional advertisement or promotions. It’s not driven by a holiday rush or the Christmas season.

Our business is driven by fuel sales and when the weather is bad or cold or windy people don’t fly as much. Period. We always catch up on our obligations after winter but the truth is that during the winter months we think we’re doing a great job that we can meet our payroll obligations and keep the electricity turned on!

The FBO business is not a get rich business. Many small town FBO’S are going out of business. Tina and I made a huge financial commitment when we assumed the lease on the airport. We borrowed several Hundred Thousand Dollars and invested every dollar that we had to start this business. We continue to this day to pour in personal funds into the airport. (If the city’s action stands we will lose our entire investment.)

Our feeling was that when our debts were paid we’d have a retirement income if and when I decided that I no longer wanted to be a pilot.

We immediately contacted our attorney, Mr. Sam Perroni, when we learned of the council’s action. His legal opinion is that the City Council has acted illegally by terminating our lease. Paragraph 7 of the lease specifies that in the case of any disagreement or problem, the city will inform us in writing and that we will have 30 days to rectify that situation.

No notice was given that the city was planning to terminate our lease. Not a phone call, not a letter; they didn’t ask to speak with us, ask us to appear before the council, nothing. We found out about it just like you did. At the time of the action by the council we were approx. 30 days behind on a lease payment of $2,300.00!

How can you fight City Hall? That’s another question I’ve heard. Well, if David can win over Goliath anything’s possible! This week we’re meeting with the council members face to face. We believe that the council has taken this action because they don’t know all the facts. We feel this way because in the four years that we’ve leased the airport we’ve never spoken to the council or them to us and until two weeks ago we’d only received one letter from them.

Next we’ll be speaking before the council, along with our attorney on May 11th. I encourage you to attend this meeting at 6 p.m. if at all possible. And last but probably most importantly we’re asking our customers, friends and family to write and speak to the council. Many of you have already spoken to and written the council with your opinion on this matter. For that, we thank you! We’ll appeal to the council on the 11th to change their vote and if that doesn’t happen this matter will more than likely end up in court.

You own a duplex or two. One couple who rents one of your units are really good people. They have 3 children; they work hard for a living. They mow their grass every Saturday; they’ve painted the entire interior of the apartment. You never have complaints about noise or trash in their yard, they are great tenants. BUT, once a year or so they’re late with their rent!!! They always pay, but they’re late. What do you do?

Small town politics. Big town politics. Neighborhood politics. It’s a fact of life. Politics impact our every day life. In this case the politics of the council’s actions seem evident to most everyone I’ve spoken to.

We can only assume but it seems that the questions that we’ve brought up about moving the airport have struck a nerve. Lots of rumors and stories have made their way back to us but it seems that lots of people have questions about the logic of moving the airport. We’ve even heard that the FAA has questioned the motives and logic of the proposed move.

As you all know we’ve been vocal about the proposed movement of the airport. The survey that you answered last year told us that almost all of our customers had serious questions about the movement of the airport. Those questions have still not been answered. Why not improve what you have at a fraction of the cost? We’ll only have an additional 125 feet of runway available at the new site? You haven’t looked at the possibility of extending the runway to the west, especially since the Virco buildings are now vacate?

These and more questions were asked to Aubrey Adcock the engineer in charge of the relocation project. He knew nothing about the vacant Virco buildings, the new shopping center on the east side of the airport or many other details about Cantrell Field.

We are committed to work thru this storm in our life. We know that God has his hand in this and every other aspect of our life. We’ve worked hard each and every day of our life and we pledge to continue to work hard to overcome this injustice. Please continue to pray for our family and for our leaders, both locally and nationally.