BESSEMER AL- A resident of Vestavia Hills, Johnson can now
serve on the Bessemer Airport board. The council recently amended the ordinance
governing the composition of the Bessemer Airport Authority to allow up to two
members of the 5-member board be non-residents of Bessemer.
Bessemer Mayor Kenneth Gulley sought to have Johnson to represent the pilots'
point of view on the field who are the customers and also passionate about
their airport. Johnson, based on the field since 1997, is past president of the
Bessemer Pilots Association.
Johnson explains, for many years the airport has been languishing with little or no growth, suffering from lack of development and no promotion. There has been a steady exodus of long time tenants, pilots and revenue producing aircraft to other airports. The first and foremost need is to develop achievable short range and long term goals and objectives. Identifying methods to promote and market the airport through joint cooperation with the mayor's office, business development board and business leaders will be key. There have been several recent announcements of businesses moving to Bessemer that were due in part to the availability of a nearby airport. This needs to be a concentrated and collaborative effort rather an occasional success story.
He has specific objectives such as identifying options for development of new corporate and GA hangars, attracting aviation related businesses to the airport and development of an on-airport business park could certainly better position the airport and provide increased revenue to sustain growth.
To Johnson, the needs are many but the Bessemer Airport has
long been poised for greatness that he thinks can be achieved, "I don't
anticipate my single voice and contribution will turn things around immediately
but I do think the current board has made progress stabilizing airport
operations and has been successful in archiving financial stability as well. I believe we can collectively get things moving in a positive and
exciting direction."
The resolution passed unanimously as
part of the council's consent agenda. Johnson 's 6-year term will expire June,
2019.
-B Meyer