Plymouth Municipal Airport Manager Bill Sheley told the Plymouth City Council members Monday night that he’s presented an offer to the Alpha Flight organization during this health pandemic.
Sheley commented that the Plymouth Board of Aviation Commissioners agreed to forgive three months of rent payment for Alpha Flight for being the driving force behind operations at the airport. The payment is just less than $1,800 a month and shouldn’t have a large impact on funding. Alpha Flight representatives present flight school instruction for students in a nine school corporation cooperative in the area.
He stated that the company has doubled the typical monthly fuel purchases at the airport since the spring of last year. They did close for two weeks in order to observe COVID-19 health related actions, social distancing and the governor’s stay-at-home order.
Plymouth City Attorney Sean Surrisi said Alpha Flight has a lease to rent the hangar and the board is willing to forgive the $1,800 monthly rent fee for three months.
Sheley added that the FAA does have a compliance for grant assurance which allows the city to do this as a result of the health pandemic. Surrisi explained that while the FAA has invested a lot of federal money in the airport, a consideration like this can be made if private entities are renting space and it is being fairly done.
A few council members expressed concern allowing the relief, saying they wanted some time to review the request and to negotiate a possible lower number. A motion to table the issue was unanimously approved.
Council member Robert Listenberger commented that he’s appreciative of Alpha Flight’s business, but he suggested putting together a policy to how the city should address requests like these going forward.
