By Rusty Nixon
Correspondent

PLYMOUTH — The Plymouth Board of Aviation Commissioners opened the year by keeping some things the same and moving on with others.

In its first meeting of the new year Tuesday, the board voted to keep its current officers for the coming year, but officially killed any plans on the table for airport expansion.

Tom Flynn was retained as the board’s president. The board also officially put to rest any expansion plans on the board for the coming year.

“I know we haven’t officially said it, but I think the consensus is that we will not be moving ahead with any expansion plans right now — that we want to improve what we have,” said Flynn. “I don’t see us purchasing any more land. We just want to make the airport the best we can for this county.”
Board member Steve Hupka echoed Flynn in saying that he hoped to “…invest our money wisely to try to bring some life back to the airport.”

Discussion also centered on recent talk of moving the airport to a soon-to-be abandoned stretch of U.S. 31 just east of Plymouth. While that idea is not officially dead, it is being put on hold. The board will do a feasibility study on the plan to open discussion at a later date should the airport need to get bigger.

One area of action will be the airport building itself. The board recently walked through the structure and noted a large amount of office space that could be made available.

Work will continue on restructuring the board to make it a county wide “Airport Authority” rather than its current make up.

The Light Sport Aircraft company that makes its home at the airport is planning to host a fly-in Aug. 8 and 9. The company is one of the tops in the nation in the industry and expects more than 100 flyers from around the country to make the trip to Plymouth.

The company is planning on donating any proceeds from the fly-in to the Marshall County Boys & Girls Club.