Joseph A. Hardy Connellsville Airport (KVVS), Connellsville, Pennsylvania

Fayette County Airport Authority: Corrections made since audit include checks and balances, signed leases

 Fayette County Airport Authority on Wednesday night approved the 2011-12 audit report, which included several findings that ranged from the lack of tenant leases at Joseph A. Hardy Connellsville Airport to inadequate financial checks and balances.

The Uniontown accounting firm McClure & Wolfe conducted the audit, which examined the airport's financial records from two or three years ago, when the Dunbar Township facility was facing financial problems.

“I think it's very important to note that this audit dates back several years ago before the new airport manager and new board members were involved at the airport,” said Bill Gerke, newly appointed board president. “I want to make it clear that the current board members had nothing to do with these findings. It was the previous administration.”

Board member Sam Cortis, who was the airport manager many years ago, said the audit cited the authority for not having signed leases with airport tenants.

“We do have signed leases with our tenants right now, and that's no longer an issue,” Cortis said. “That has been resolved.”

Cortis said auditors also cited the authority for not having adequate financial “checks and balances” in place.

During the time period covered by the audit, the authority employed an airport manager but no other employees who had access to financial records, Cortis said.

Since then, Cortis said, the authority hired an administrative assistant to work directly with the airport manager.

“We now have two employees who handle the finances, and we have checks and balances in place now,” Cortis said. “The newly appointed authority members have been working hard to turn the airport around and to eliminate the financial problems that the airport faced in the past.”

For the past few months, authority solicitor Bill Martin and airport Manager John “Bud” Neckeraurer have been working directly with officials from the Federal Aviation Administration and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation's Bureau of Aviation to correct recent land-use deficiencies.

“We are communicating with them and providing them with a timeline of when we plan to have the deficiencies corrected,” Martin said. “The FAA is willing to work with us, but they want specific details of how long it will take for the airport to be in compliance with land-use deficiencies.”

In other business, the authority accepted the low bid of $119,844 from Ramp Construction Co. Inc. for a roof-replacement project at the former fixed-based operations building — the airport's largest hangar — pending the solicitor's review.

Other bids received for the project included $127,200 from G&W Roofing and Construction Inc.; $186,000 from Donald M. Miller Inc.; and $218,900 from Kalkreuth Roofing and Sheet Metal Inc.

Neckeraurer said the solicitor will review the lowest bid to determine the cost of masonry and brick work included in the bid price.

“We want to make sure that the airport has enough money in a state grant to cover the project,” he said.

The authority also voted to update and modernize its bylaws, a long-awaited move that had been tabled since 2012.

Source:  http://triblive.com