Board votes to lower prices of fuel at Delta Regional Airport

The Delta Regional Airport Authority on Thursday met to discuss the current price of fuel at the airport as well as the fly-in event that was originally scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 10.

Board chairman Shannon Hobbs, as well as board member Shirley Harvell, were absent from the meeting.

According to board vice chairman Chad Runsick, the airport currently has one of the highest fuel prices in the area.

"I have heard a few complaints about our prices," said Runsick. "I understand where we bought and where we are selling, but we are in a bind. I think we are in a bind. I checked our prices and everyone else has come down. We are one of the highest. We talked about that when we did this. On the avgas side, everyone is around $7. We are at $7.29. We are above Jonesboro and quite a few other airports."

"I have here in my notebook, which may not be correct, because I think Shannon had to call to get the correct price, but I have written down $6.43,” said board member Angie Smith.

"Is that the price we bought fuel at?” asked Runsick.

"Possibly," said Smith. "That is just in my notes from last meeting. It may have been more because I think he had to call."

Following a call to Titan Fuels from board Secretary Mike Easley that confirmed the fuel price was $6.65 the last time the DRA purchased fuel, board treasurer Corbin Brown made a motion to reduce the price of fuel at the airport from $7.29 to $6.95.

"Is $6.95 going to make an impact?” asked board member Kendall Owens.

Runsick said he knows the airport had lost a sale on Thursday due to the high price.

"You know how that goes," said Runsick. "When you go to the store to buy a box of chicken, $3.99 versus $4.05, $3.99 is better. We still have a little bit of a profit at $6.95. We've got .30 cents worth of a profit. We lost a sale today due to the price and I know that for a fact. This guy flew in from Texas. He loaded his tanks in Texas because he thought the price was a typo and when he got here and saw that the price was real he flew elsewhere."

In other business, according to Owens, the fly-in event that was scheduled for Sept. 10 needed to be postponed to a later date.

"Because of work and some of the things I have gotten, on top of stress, we are going to need to back up the event we were planning in September," said Owens. "I have had some additional things come up at work over the last few weeks that has kept me from focusing on that, so I will come up with a new date and present that to you all at the next meeting. I don't want to cancel, but I would say postpone."