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North Adams Airport Advisory Panel Holds First Meeting
By Jack Guerino, iBerkshires Staff
04:19PM / Saturday, November 13, 2021
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NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The Airport Commission Advisory Panel held its inaugural meeting this week and reviewed a portion of the new draft rules and regulations.
 
This panel was appointed to look over some of the rules and regulations and fee structures," Administrative Officer Angie Ellison said Tuesday. "They wanted to have a few people from around the airport with a vested interest to look it over."
 
The Airport Commission voted to form this panel to provide the commission and the city feedback and input. The committee is largely made out of airport users and business owners who are staged at the airport.
 
Their first charge was to review the updated draft rules and regulations that the majority of the members felt were pretty thorough. 
 
"There are a few things here but whoever put this together put together this is a good set of rules to start with," Panelist and elected chairman  Mark Candiloro said. "I am not really sure what changes need to be made here."
 
"I dont see this making many changes to how the airport functions it just spells things out," member Jon Goodman said
 
Panelist Stuart Yorke agreed and liked the wording of the new rules in regard to access.
 
"I am not suggesting any total lockdown but seeing some of the rules here makes sense to me," he said. 
 
He said security has been an issue in the past with members of the public walking near equipment, planes, and dangerous areas. He said he once found someone camping in his hangar.
 
This led to some questions around access and enforcement. Candiloro felt if they followed the proposed rules to the letter, access would be very limited which could create difficulties for customers and users.
 
"Someone may not have a badge or whatever, but they just need to walk across the grounds to get to their plane so they can fly home," he said. "You get too tight with the rules and things can get hard...we need a balance."
 
He did agree that there is a need for some control and noted recently a limousine pulled up near the runway waiting for a plane. He said planes had to taxi around the limo. 
 
Yorke felt that anyone affiliated with the airport should have access to the airport. He was more concerned about members of the nonaviation community walking their dogs or something of the like on the airfield. 
 
"I think if someone has some affiliation and is affiliated with a club or company based in the airport access should be fine," he said. 
 
He said typically at airports there is a central location such as an FBO that directs airport visitors. Because that does not yet exist at the airport, people tend to just drive up to the nearest gate.
 
The panel agreed that the airport manager should be the one enforcing these rules and they should be the one who determines what is the proper use of the airport.
 
They also made some other small tweaks to the language to make the regulations more applicable to the North Adams airport.
 
The panel looked to keep its meeting at an hour and will continue working through the draft at through the next meeting.
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