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One of the items on this past Tuesday’s county commissioner meeting agenda was a new consulting agreement for Decatur County Airport. Specifically, the proposition was to employ Passero Associates for all projects for the next five years. Croy Engineering was the previously contracted company, and will continue to finish out their remaining contract, the airport’s fuel farm.

“Croy was our consultant before, and we do five year plans, projects that need to be done on the airport,” airport manager Tommy Johnson said.

As the time drew near to look at the airports contracts, County Administrator Alan Thomas instructed Johnson to put a committee together and evaluate the airport’s contract options. Also on the committee were Randy Williams and Dennis Medley. Johnson elaborated on the decision to move from Croy to Passero, saying, “What we do, is we have a grade sheet that we look at. We call their references, and talk to those guys… really, the individual that is assigned to us, is working with us, or would be working with us, we get references on them.”

According to Johnson, that did not mean Croy had bad reviews.

“There was nothing wrong. I guess you’d say with Croy, Passero had a little better grading than Croy,” he said.

Passero has worked with airports in Cairo, Blakely, Camilla, Thomasville and more.

Some of the upcoming projects scheduled for Passero next year include a revamp of the airport apron and taxiway, along with new T-hangars. Johnson clarified that most of these projects will be covered by state tax money.

“A lot of these projects that we’re going to be doing over the next five years is normally a project that we receive funds from the Georgia Department of Aviation. So it may cost the taxpayers five percent, but most of this is 100% covered by state money,” he finished.