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Appointee to Airport Authority Approved

Posted on: Friday, 23 September 2005, 21:00 CDT

BLOOMINGTON -- A Normal man who holds a commercial pilot's license and serves on the Prairie Aviation Museum Board was appointed to the Bloomington-Normal Airport Authority on Tuesday.

McLean County Board members approved Earl Kingman's appointment at their meeting, with Paul Segobiano casting a present vote. While the airport authority chairman sets qualifications for members and submits nominations, the County Board must approve or reject nominees.

County Board Chairman Mike Sweeney said he reviewed 10 applications for the position that has been vacated by retiring airport authority member Neale McCormick. He said Kingman was far and away the best candidate.

"A lot of the applicants were aviation people. A couple were pilots. My criteria include having a person who sees the airport as a business, understands the airport's role in economic development and has aviation ties," Sweeney said.

Kingman, who could not be reached, regularly attends airport authority meetings. He's a retired Growmark Inc. technical services manager, who served as a U.S. Air Force navigator. He retired as a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force Reserve/Air National Guard in 1985.

Kingman is past president of Crosswinds Flying Club and serves on the general aviation advisory committee for the Central Illinois Regional Airport. His airport authority term will expire in April 2010.

Sweeney would not reveal names of the 10 candidates, but noted that he typically only has one to three people from which to recommend for board appointments. In August, a new state law took effect that eliminated limits on appointees to the airport authority.

Previously, the law required McCormick's replacement be restricted to someone living outside the Twin Cities but within the airport authority boundaries. That would have limited the applicant pool to 90 to 100 residents.

Board member Segobiano objected to the appointment process, noting he could not cast an informed vote for Kingman without comparing him to the other candidates. Sweeney said he acted correctly according to advice and consent rules under which the board makes appointments.

Source: Pantagraph

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