Bulletin E-Edition:
Bend airport chief wants to reach out
By Erin Golden / The Bulletin
Published: March 16. 2009 4:00AM PSTGary Judd, the new manager of Bend Municipal Airport, stands next to a plane parked at the airport on Thursday. Judd, the former manager of Grant County Regional Airport in John Day, started working for the city of Bend on March 9.
Pete Erickson
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It’s only been a week since Gary Judd took over as the manager of Bend Municipal Airport, but he’s already settling in and making plans for the airport’s future.
Judd, the former manager of Grant County Regional Airport in John Day, started work on March 9, about three months after the airport’s last leader, Susan Palmeri, stepped down to take a similar job in California. He was selected from a field of about 50 applicants to serve as the city’s only full-time employee at an airport that’s home to private pilots, users of helicopters and gliders and businesses of all sizes, including airplane makers Cessna and Epic Aircraft.
Judd, who spent 15 years in John Day and previously owned a small aviation business, said he’s had a lifelong interest in flight. He’s certified as a private pilot and flight instructor, but in recent years has focused his efforts more on the ins and outs of running an airport.
In John Day, Judd said he worked hard to get people from all aspects of the community involved in the workings of the airport — and plans to do the same in Bend.
“That’s kind of my goal for this airport — that the community as a whole will come to see it as something that benefits everybody,” he said. “As a rule, airports and pilots and all of us — I’m a pilot, too — we kind of do a poor job of that sometimes, because like everybody, we’re focused on our piece of it.”
Judd said he wants to get community members and airport users more involved in a variety of ongoing issues, including an update of the airport’s master plan, which outlines how the facility should develop in the future and how that development could be funded.
The master plan has been a hot topic over the last several months.
Last summer, the city of Bend proposed the creation of a new taxing district that would help fund airport improvements like runway extensions and a new control tower, but the plan was cut off by members of the Deschutes County Commission, who said the city needed to get its master plan up to date before finding money for any development.
More recently, some members of the Bend City Council have floated the idea of annexing the airport, which is currently under Deschutes County jurisdiction, into the city — a move that would allow for a tax district to go through without the approval of the county.
Judd said he wants to be sure any plans for growth at the airport are carefully considered so that development doesn’t change the way the facility operates or create a sudden, dramatic transformation to the area around it.
“It’s such a huge public investment that you have to be careful you don’t let the growth right next to the airport take away an asset to the entire community,” he said.
As airport manager, Judd will be responsible for both day-to-day maintenance and operational issues, and more long-term planning. City Manager Eric King said Judd was selected for the position because of his experience with a variety of airport issues.
“I think what made him stand out was, it’s a one-person show out there, and he really had the ability to step into that role, understanding all aspects of airport operations,” King said. “He’s built up a good reputation in the state, and he has a relationship with other airport managers in the state, and he understands the operation and maintenance side of things with limited staff.”
Unlike his predecessor, who operated the airport under the city’s Economic Development Department, Judd will lead an airport that’s now under control of the Public Works Department. King said part of the reason for the switch is that the city is still reorganizing the Economic Development Department after the resignation of its director, John Russell, in December.
In the three months since Palmeri’s departure, Public Works Director Paul Rheault said his staff has been taking care of maintenance issues at the airport and will continue to assist Judd with some airport operations.
In addition to checking in on the airport’s runways, hangars and other facilities, Judd said one of his initial goals is to bring the airport’s weather station up to date. Currently, he said, the system allows for pilots to check weather conditions at the airport, but the information isn’t transmitted out over a broader weather system, which means pilots in other locations can’t always track the weather in Bend. As a result, he said some pilots choose to land at airports with more updated weather systems, like Redmond.
“It would make, I think, a significant difference in the utilization of the airport,” he said.
Though the economic downturn has forced some airport businesses and users to cut back, Judd said he’s been pleasantly surprised by the amount of traffic at the airport and is excited about the chance to oversee the aviation activity coming in and out of Bend.
Judd’s salary is $70,000 per year, said Bend Human Resources Manager Janice Grady.
Though as airport manager, Judd will have to spend plenty of time in meetings or sorting through paperwork, he said he’s glad his job will continue to keep him close to the activity that has fascinated him since childhood.
“There’s always that little bit of fulfilling a dream in flying,” he said. “I told my kids when we used to go flying, that in all of time and all of history, people have only been able to fly in the last 100 years, and you’re one of them. That’s something we don’t appreciate sometimes, the ability to do that, the freedom to do that.”
Erin Golden can be reached at 541-617-7837 or at egolden@bendbulletin.com.
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