BAY MINETTE — A domino effect of misunderstandings and “he said, she said” conversations has resulted in the withdrawl of an agreement between Bay Minette Avaiation owners and the city of Bay Minette and the cancellation of the Nov. 1 Air Show and Expo.

Bay Minette Aviation Owners James “Rock” Rockhill and George Sigler gave a presentation Sept. 1, to the Bay Minette City Council about what was being done at the Bay Minette Municipal Airport and proposed an agreement that would turn over full operation of the airport to BMA, including the $24,000 revenue from the rental of airport t-hangers.

“The agreement would allow us to assume responsibility for repairs, maintenance and day-to-day upkeep of the airport, thus making sure the work got done,” Rockhill said. “The city would benefit in that it would no longer be responsible for those things and the costs associated with them.”

Rockhill said Bay Minette Mayor Sonny Dobbins contacted him and asked him about BMA taking over operations.

Dobbins said he went to Rockhill and Sigler because the airport authority board is supposed to run the show, but they don’t have the money.

“Everything falls back to the city,” Dobbins said. “We don’t have the manpower of the money to do that. We’re having the cut the grass, pay the utilities, insurance and everything else that has to be done by the city.”

Rockhill said he and Sigler had been in support of the agreement as a favor to the city

“The agreement was not a money-making deal for us,” Rockhill said. “The city is saving more money than we are making. We don’t really want to do it [take over operations], but the agreement would take care of maintenance. We would make sure that it got done.”

Rockhill said after saying yes to taking over operations of the airport, the city came back wanting more.

“They wanted us to pay the utilities, and we said OK,” Rockhill said. “We want to support the city, and they wanted to wipe their hands of it.”

Rockhill said the cost to the city for cutting the grass is in the range of $21,000.

This figure could not be confirmed, because there are records or budgets kept by the city of Bay Minette or the Airport Authority Board.

Dobbins introduced the agreement as a resolution during the Sept. 15 council meeting, and the first reading was unanimousy approved by the council. A special meeting was called Sept. 29 to approve the second reading of the agreement and other timely issues.

The agreement did not make it to a second reading.

The Bay Minette Airport Authority Board met Sept. 18  to discuss the agreement. During the meeting, Mayor-elect Jamie Tillery voiced concerns about the language of the agreement and the implications on the city of Bay Minette and BMA.

“It’s important that I know what the city of Bay Minette and the authority are responsible for,” Tillery said.

The problem came when no one there could answer those questions.

“This is a complicated issue,” Airport Authority Board Member James Phillips said. “The authority was set up 11 or 12 years ago, and I don’t know what the intention was of those who set it up.”

Phillips said there are essentially two kinds of airport boards — airport boards with complete control over operations including taking in revenue, paying the bills and maintaining the airports; and airport boards with advisory powers that report to the city council and advise them what to do.

Phillips said he thinks Dobbins’s intent was to have the airport authority board run the airport and be a self-sustaining entity, but revenues from the airport are not sufficent to be self-sustaining.

“The city is going to have to be involved,” Phillips said.

The Airport Authority Board meets once a month, or less, to discuss what needs to be done at the airport and how to get it done.

Rockhill said that doesn’t happen, and the lack of action by the board is causing neglect of airport maintenance and operations.

“The FAA [Federal Aviaition Administration] did an inspection in April and gave us a list of things that needed to be done to bring the airport up to FAA standards, and it has not been done,” Rockhill said.

Rockhill said one of the factors in deciding to cancel the airshow was that the airport had not been brought up to FAA code specifications.

“We don’t want the FAA coming down here until the airport is brought up to FAA standards,” Rockhill said. “To have an airshow, we have to submit a form to the FAA, and they come down and look at the airport.”

Rockhill said another factor was a fear the airport authority would not go through with their agreement to fund the air expo.

“Last year, George and I spend just under $17,000 out of our pocket to put the air show on. The Airport Authority Board said this year they would support us financially,” Rockhill said. “After that meeting, I got the impression they would not support us.”

Rockhill and authority board member James Phillips said a major problem is a lack of cooperation and communication on the part of Authority Board members.

Rockhill said when the board was first established, one meeting a month was sufficient, but with operations through the roof, the biggest problem is that the airport cannot be managed by meeting once a month — or less.

“They are supposed to meet 12 times a year, but I think they are meeting more like eight times a year,” Rockhill said. “They are missing meetings, and when they do meet, it always seems to be a catch-up.

“Take this agreement. The board has been working on an agreement like this for over a year. They voted on it, they said yes we are going to do this, and it never happened.”

Rockhill said that is the historical pattern of how  the authority board does things.

“Now, you have this  situation where you get a few folks on [the board] that disagree with this, disagree with that, and nothing gets done,” Rockhill said.

That combination led to the withdrawl of the agreement and cancellation of the airshow.

“We had the board meeting, and we had large, boisterous objections,” Rockhill said. “It was extremely antagonistic and adversarial, that’s our position.

“You have the board pulling one way, the city is pulling the other and our company is standing in the middle,” Rockhill said. “We don’t even want to do it anyway. We respectfully backed out and said when ya’ll want to do something, we will be here.”

Phillips said he thinks an agreement could have been reached.