Published: June 07, 2007 10:35 am      

Municipal Airport Board changes

It’s been a season of change for Gainesville’s city airport.

The Gainesville Municipal Airport lost a staple on its board of directors, two weeks after it welcomed a new director.

Earl Clement, the former co-owner and manager of the Clement-Keel Funeral Home and a longtime volunteer in the community, died Friday at a Denton hospital. He was 69.

Clement served as president of the Airport Board most recently.

Earl Russell, a member of the Airport Board since 1983 soon after it was organized, praised Clement’s involvement.

“He was a delight on the board,” Russell said. “He often took contrary positions on the board, which forced us to take a look at both sides of an issue.”

He added Clement was “a very valuable member of the board and served for a long time.”

Dave Vinton, who has been at the helm of Gainesville Municipal Airport for two-and-a-half weeks, said the board’s attitude was forward-looking and upbeat.

“Anyone I’ve talked to said it’s been a very positive board,” Vinton said. “That makes my job 100 percent easier when you have a progressive board.”

Vinton fills a vacancy left by Vince Nelson, the former director who vacated his position earlier this year. Nelson was appointed in October 2006. City manager Mike Land, as well as the human resources department of the city of Gainesville, were out of the office until Monday and could not be reached for comment.

Nelson would not give a reason for his departure.

“I could really open a can of worms but that would prove nothing,” he said in a comment via e-mail Thursday morning.

He said an unspecified new position he took doubled his salary.

Vinton, himself a licensed pilot, said he was previously at Lenawee County Airport in Adrian, Mich., as the manager. He got his start as an aircraft fueler in 1995, and later worked at Midland International Airport as an operations supervisor.

He is a Member of American Association of Airport Executives and is now a past member of the Michigan Association of Airport Executives.

He said he has a wife and young child who are on their way back from Michigan to move from Texas. He said his wife is from Odessa, and Gainesville will be a lot closer to home for her. Vinton is originally from Adrian, Mich.

He said marketing will be a major focus of his time as airport director.

“A big part of this job is not necessarily to improve but to grow the airport,” Vinton said, “and attempting to bring aviation companies to Gainesville.”

Russell added the role of airport director, if it is to exist at all, should be to market the airport. He said the position of director started out as a temporary one in the early ’90s, and evolved from there.

“The purpose wasn’t for him to run a lawnmower and pump gas. It was to do marketing!” Russell said of the intent of the director. “And so far we haven’t had much of that!”

Russell added, however, there has been much progress in developing the airport, including the gradual expansion of the runway to 5,000 feet — which took nearly 17 years to raise the funding. He said just about everything has been accomplished in the long-range plan for the airport, and now Russell himself is considering leaving his decades-long stay on the board once a successor to Clement is found.

Vinton, again, said he looks forward to working with the board.

“I had a real good feeling coming into here, and it’s such a pleasure coming into an airport with this type of enthusiasm and attitude,” the new director said.

Reporter Andy Hogue may be contacted at andyhoguegdr@ntin.net