Oct. 7—Scott Edens says there is a definite need for aircraft hangars at airports all over the country, and Baldwin County is no exception.
"This has very little to do with Fouts Bros.," said Edens, president and chief executive officer of a fire truck and rescue truck manufacturing company that moved operations to Milledgeville in 2019. "It has to do with a CIP (Capital Improvement Project) five-year rolling plan that has some timing work before it today."
The company is now one of Baldwin County's biggest employers.
Edens is among a number of people who say new hangars are needed at the Baldwin County Regional Airport.
"We have signed an agreement with the county to build and lease a 100x100 hangar on the east Apron," Edens told The Union-Recorder following a Baldwin County Board of Commissioners meeting Tuesday night. "It's a project that we've been working on since April, based on the CIP, which was approved sometime between 2017 and 2019."
He said as part of the Fouts Bros. business development due diligence he met with others at the airport where he was shown the master plan.
"This is a community issue," Edens said. "We have a wonderful airport that's in the middle of a neighborhood on a lake."
Asked why he needs a hangar at the airport, Edens quickly replied.
"This is a Fouts Bros. business development tool that will allow us to bring in customers and suppliers," Edens said.
He said in the past week alone, two clients flew into Baldwin County Regional Airport to do business with his company.
"CIPs are a part of the business development strategy for the county, and we need to make sure we have a strong CIP for the airport [so] that we can continue to attract private businesses to the county to supplement some of the public jobs that we lost through closures of hospitals and prisons."
He said there also has to be a partnership with residents living near the airport.
"I believe the east apron is the next project that must be built because it was in the CIP," Edens said. "I believe it can be built properly and in that partnership. The challenge for the commission right now is that the west apron is a five- or six-year plan that is potentially the next project, and I think there is some confusion with the residents of the neighborhood that that is a current option, and it's much more of a long-term option."
He said commissioners are confronted with a difficult situation, and they must find a way to resolve it.