Stephenville -
Despite receiving some letters and comments aimed to shoot down a fundraising campaign for Stephenville airport, Bill Hynes said his committee will continue to try.
The chairman of the Stephenville Airport Citizens Committee was speaking at a public meeting at College of the North Atlantic on Wednesday evening with about 50 people in attendance.
He said every donation is important, no matter what the size, and a statement the people of southwestern Newfoundland want to keep Stephenville airport in operation.
"While some people believe we won't succeed in our campaign, I want to prove them wrong," Hynes told those in attendance. "We are not going to get our airport operating right if we don't fight for it."
While some people question why a fundraiser for an airport is appropriate, he said this fundraiser will help keep jobs, keep people in the area and help the town, and area's financial situation.
The public meetings are being held to keep the public updated on what the airport citizens committee is doing.
Mayor Tom O'Brien, who was at the meeting and spoke briefly, praised the work the citizens committee is doing and said council is behind them and the airport.
He said the business plan is still being worked on, but is taking longer than expected because of the audited statements they have to go through. He said there is confusion in the statements, which date all the way back to 2005.
"We're pushing it as hard as we can and hope in the not-too-distant future it will be ready," O'Brien said. "We need to identify where the airport is today and move it forward, and it's likely there will be rougher days ahead before they get better."
Hynes spoke briefly about the committee's meeting with KAZ Aviation and the importance of the revision clause, which the company had agreed to. He said their committee went a step further and asked for such a revision clause to transfer over to any company that would buy the airport from KAZ if such a deal takes place in the first place.
Hynes said the company assured it would still be interested in operating a fixed-base operation at the airport even if there was no takeover of operations by them.
Weblinks: savestephenvilleairport.ca
