455,000 DOT Grant for Small Airports

I remember when we got this grant three years ago, after failing the two previous years. Due mainly to Congressman McGovern's efforts we received 455,000 to help recruit an retain commercial service. The grant itself was paid out via a reimbursement at a rate of 72.73% limited to a three year period. In other words if ORH submitted $100,000 of qualified bills for recruiting or retaining an airline, the DOT would reimburse the ORH $72,730.

I also remember a group of meeting with Mayor Murray coming up with various ideas as to how we could spend these monies to bring commercial service to ORH. In fact, Mayor Murray mentioned that he may recommend a Blue Ribbon Committee to work on this. In the end, it was decided it was best for the airport itself to handle this.

Over the past three years I have requested these reimbursement reports and have been trying to keep track of how the monies have been spent (note yesterday's e-mail). Per the September Airport Commission Board minutes, the three years have ended. Best I can tell we only received reimbursements of 170,000 over the three year period and in essence left 285,000 on the table.

Maybe if we had invested these monies in free parking and Allegiant Airlines, they would would never have left ORH and right now there would be direct service to three cities in Florida from ORH.