DRAA Board agrees to increase fuel price at airport
Members of the Delta Regional Airport Authority agreed Thursday to raise the price of aviation gas at the airport.
The gasoline price will increase from $3.90 per gallon to $4.39 per gallon.
During the meeting, members also discussed recent police activity at the airport and the possibility of a hay policy.
DRAA Board Vice-Chair Chad Runsick presided over the meeting in the absence of board chairman Shannon Hobbs. Board secretary Mike Easley and new member Kendall Owens also were not in attendance.
Board member Tad Scarborough said signatures are still needed on paperwork to continue moving forward with the Jet A fuel system at the airport.
"The current fuel price is $3.90, which is 50 cents above cost," said Scarborough. "The board has not met in some time. Chad and I have met with Trey Baker from Titan Fuels since our last meeting. Signage was discussed and Trey asked if we were still going to sign the paperwork. I emailed the paperwork to Mike and Shannon
(Continued from Page 1) on April 16, but still have not gotten those back at this time."
Scarborough said that currently, the airport had the lowest price within 50 nautical miles of the airport, but that the airport’s price is so low, they were not competitive.
"I pulled up the fuel prices from all airports within a 50-mile radius of this airport and we are 25 cents below the lowest price listed," said Scarborough. "I am glad we met tonight because we probably should raise our price. As we can see, 22 nautical miles is the closest to us. If we raised the price to the point where we are about third from the bottom, I think we would be in a good position."
"I would just like to stay below the price at West Memphis, which is $4.59," said board member Nancy Jarrett. "We could raise the price to $4.39 and still be 20 cents below West Memphis and 10 cents above Tunica."
Board members voted unanimously in favor of raising the price.
According to Board member Corbin Brown, an automatic lock needs to be installed on the front door of the terminal building to keep people out of the building if they have not flown into the airport.
"We have had two instances of people being here who had no business being here," said Brown. "We had one lady drive up and come inside and try to get the keys to the courtesy car. She called me and sent a picture of a state issued ID, not a driver’s license. She stated that she needed the car to go on a trip to Georgia. The police ended up being called and they came and had a chat with her about it.
“On another instance, a man came up here while Allison was here cleaning the building and told her that he had an interview here,” continued Brown. “She called me and I came up here to see what this was all about. When I got here, I was told that he worked for he President and what he was doing was top secret. He also stated that the government wanted to turn this airport into an Air Force base. The police were called to that incident as well. For some reason, this door is staying unlocked when nobody is here and that needs to stop. We need a door with a keypad similar to the one on the back side of the terminal building."
Jarrett told members of the board about a quantity of old hay bales that have been abandoned around the property.
"We would not leave our property looking like this, and with this being an airport, I believe we need some sort of policy in place to keep these bales picked up," said Jarrett.
The board will consider a policy regarding the hay bales at the next meeting.