DOBSON — It was a Surry County commissioner who brokered the deal to put a former member of the Mount Airy-Surry County Airport Authority back on the airport’s governing board.
“I contacted Mount Airy officials to ask them to consider putting Nolan (Kirkman) back on the board,” said County Commissioner Larry Johnson in an interview on Tuesday.
After speaking about an ongoing airport project, Johnson explained that he sought to set the record straight regarding how Kirkman came to be installed on the airport board in one of the city of Mount Airy’s two seats on the authority.
On May 8, Johnson was one of two commissioners who sat in on meetings with the county’s five appointees to the seven-member authority. In those meetings, Kirkman and two others were asked to sign prepared letters of resignation. Two other county appointees’ terms on the board had expired, and they were told they would not be reappointed by the Surry County Board of Commissioners.
At a subsequent county board meeting, county commissioners appointed themselves to the five vacant seats, but county officials had no control over the two seats appointed by the city. Dr. Thomas Jackson and Greg Perkins remained in those seats and attended the first meeting of the airport board in its new composition.
At that May airport board meeting, Jackson indicated Kirkman had urged him to ask a few questions, such as whether the new airport board intended to continue the runway expansion project at the airport.
The term of Perkins’ appointment to the board had expired, and he was set to be considered for reappointment to the seat by the Mount Airy Board of Commissioners at the city board’s June 1 meeting.
As previously reported, Perkins’ reappointment was included on the city board’s consent agenda, a list of items which are approved by way of a single motion and vote.
However, when the meeting began, Mayor David Rowe asked that the matter be pulled from the consent agenda and placed on the regular agenda for the meeting, opening the matter for discussion.
Though he had previously expressed interest in being appointed to another two-year term on the airport authority, Perkins had sent a letter indicating otherwise to Rowe.
The mayor explained that Perkins, who is not a pilot, recognized the value of having someone with such credentials to represent the city in the management of the airport.
In a subsequent email, Perkins stated that aviation experience was the ultimate factor in his decision not to seek reappointment.
“When I went on the airport authority, it was made up entirely of aviators and, as a non-aviator, I thought I could offer a valuable outside viewpoint,” Perkins stated. “After going to the first meeting of the authority in its current makeup, I realized the dynamics had changed completely and they were now largely a group of non-aviators in need of more input from aviation experts.”
Johnson said it was actually Kirkman who spoke with Perkins about the need to have another pilot on the authority and urged him to withdraw his name from consideration.
“He (Perkins) realized he (Kirkman) could do a better job than him,” explained Johnson. “I commend Greg (Perkins) for doing that.”
Johnson called any thoughts that Rowe was behind the change “absurd,” and he said Kirkman — with his years of experience on the airport board — should be welcomed back.
“He has a wealth of knowledge and a love for the airport,” said Johnson of Kirkman. “That will really help us.”