Clayton didn’t want to discuss his departure.
The job was posted with a salary between $68,379 and $99,142 on July 30 and an application deadline of Aug. 9. Fehr said they had received 15 as of Thursday. The airport manager wears many hats including all “administrative, managerial and technical work in the operations of the airport” the job posting says, but Fehr said there is much more to the job.
“It’s not just to run things but also to help grow the airport,” Fehr said adding there are several opportunities they are considering like becoming a “last mile” hub for Amazon. He said they are in the “exploration” phase but they have been meeting quarterly with CVG to discuss the “air mobility phenomenon that’s going on, using drones.”
“They’re thinking this could be the last mile deliveries where Amazon could set up a hub at at our airport and maybe planes would bring in product and then drones would take it from there and do that last mile drop off to homes,” Fehr said. “The other thing is there is quite a bit of medical transport between hospitals, whether it’s equipment, it could be a lung transport or something like that, that they are able to use drones.”
Fehr said Clayton has also been looking at providing electric vehicle charging stations at the airport and polling other airport managers for money-making ideas. Because the airport relies heavily on the Federal Aviation Administration for grant funding Fehr said, “we can’t co-mingle funds” and they can’t “use airport funds to support the general fund” but they can use additional revenue to make airport improvements.
Prior to Clayton, the county hadn’t had an airport manager since the commissioners fired Ron Davis in June 2018. The primary reason they let the former manager — he had been at the helm for nearly 18 years — go was money. The county could no longer sustain Davis’ $93,710 annual salary. With benefits the total general fund outlay was $110,310.
Revenues were not covering the costs and general fund monies bailed the airport out to the tune of $40,000 to $50,000 annually, up to as much as $100,000. That didn’t include the $155,000 in annual debt payments.
Hogan Field has been solvent since 2019, even with Clayton’s $74,578 salary — he didn’t use the county’s health benefits. The tax budget for 2025 shows $400,000 in revenues to cover $384,787 in expenses.
Commissioner Don Dixon told the Journal-News he knows they’ll find someone qualified quickly to run the airport and reiterated the most important candidate credentials involve the ability to enhance the airport.
“The management style ought to be more in the dollars and cents and the figures and long-term planning... it’s more important to have a good growth plan, a good future outline of where we’re headed and what we want to do and coordinate it with the other airports,” Dixon said adding the current operation “the way it’s set up it can almost run on auto pilot.”
The airport just reopened after a six-week closure for the $3.4 million project to revamp the runway. Fehr said they are putting the finishing touches on the runway now that the pavement has cured. They had overnight closures beginning Thursday to install rumble strips and there will be another full closure from Aug. 19 through Aug. 22 for final painting.
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