Today’s the last day on the job for Plymouth Airport Manager Dave Lattimer. He’s retiring after seven years on the job.
During that time, he says the airport has made a lot of progress on the quality of its buildings. “I’ve told a lot of people, ‘What would your home look like if you hadn’t put any money back into it for 30 years?’ And that’s basically what happened to the buildings at the Plymouth Airport,” he explains. “They did some projects, obviously, along the way, but pretty much zero for the buildings. We’ve come a long way, but there’s still a long way to go.”
Lattimer gave a farewell speech to the Plymouth City Council Monday. He said the airport is currently at capacity, and that’s led to a desperate need for more hangar space. “Hangar space is something the FAA will help us pay for down the road,” he said. “It’s not available right this minute, but even if we were able to obtain funds somewhere else, we could go forward, have a third more aircraft parked at the airport, a third more amount of traffic in and out of the airport, and a year or two down the road, the FAA would help reimburse us for that investment.”
Other future priorities include relocating a driveway out of a protected area at the end of the runway, installing a taxiway next to the runway, and the continued extension of the runway itself. Those efforts will now be the responsibility of the new airport manager, Bill Sheley.
A retirement celebration for Lattimer is taking place this afternoon from 1:00 to 4:00 at Plymouth Municipal Airport.
