The ongoing bickering about the local airport bothers me. This small facility should not be a topic of arguments, but it is.
How to fix it? Maybe if everybody involved has the chance to air their grievances, then they can work out their differences and quit making news so regularly.
Last week I talked to McComb Mayor Quordiniah Lockley, Pike County Supervisor Robert Accardo and McComb-Pike County airport board president Bob Hensarling. They each shared their concerns but agreed that it’s better if everyone gets along.
The big issue is that the county has been giving the airport more money than the city has. I have not seen the airport’s operating agreement, but if it says the city and county will split operating expenses evenly, this is a problem.
Lockley said he is fine with the city and county giving the airport the same amount of money. He would like to see a proposed airport budget that lists its expected revenue and its anticipated expenses. If expenses are higher, as usually happens, the airport board should then ask each owner to make up half the difference.
Budget work is going on right now. Hensarling said he recently delivered copies of the airport budget and its request for money to City Hall — one for each of the seven elected officials.
He said the airport board is asking McComb and Pike County each to contribute $30,000 for 2024.
“It meets our basic expenses, and it would give us a little cushion to do some things that we would like to do,” he said.
Hensarling, who has spoken at several city board meetings in recent years, said the current group of selectmen, who took office in 2022, is more cooperative than the prior board.
Lockley, for his part, feels like the airport board does not understand the city’s position when it comes to funding.
“I think they’re listening, but they’re not dissecting what we’re saying,” the mayor said. “We have never said we don’t support the airport. It’s just the contribution part that was never discussed between the city and the county, but they’re not hearing that. We need to be on the same page.”
Accardo agreed that the bickering between the city board and the airport has “subsided to a large extent” over the past year. He said the county is more than willing to work with the city on airport funding.
“I think we’re close to a solution, I really do,” Accardo said. “I think everybody’s willing to work together at this point.”
It will be no surprise that the personalities of a small town are playing a role here. Lockley and Hensarling are rarely on the same page. Lockley said members of the city board have felt taken for granted; Hensarling believes he has been mistreated and insulted at city board meetings.
There’s no way around this next one. Another sore spot is Dr. Ed Silence, appointed by the city to the airport board in 2019.
Lockley traces the bad feelings to an effort several years ago “to destroy the reputation and character of Ed Silence. That’s where it started.”
Hensarling, choosing his words carefully, said Silence has a Facebook page, The Unofficial Public Airport Board McComb/Pike, where he has in the past “posted stuff that is just not true.”
Lockley said Silence has a drone license and is in the process of becoming a certified pilot.
“What are the qualifications for somebody to serve on that board?” he asked. “There are none.”
Accardo said he “respectfully disagrees” with the mayor on Silence being a member of the airport board.
My sense of it all is that everyone wants to figure out how to get along. And they should. What does it say if these three boards can’t agree on funding or management of our airport?
Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center is owned by the city, county and part of Amite County. I don’t hear about any bickering on that board, so the airport problems ought to be solvable.
I am opposed to McComb giving up its share of airport ownership. We are a small community, and we will sink or swim together.
Lockley said a meeting between him, city administrator David Myers, supervisors president Lee Fortenberry and county administrator Tami Dangerfield probably could resolve whatever financial issues remain. Hensarling said he organized just such a meeting a few years ago.
That’s the obvious place to start. Talk it out, debate as needed, then make a fair deal so that everyone can move on.
