Phil Lajoye Appointed Airport Manager

By Wayne Allen
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The Scioto County Commissioners reported on Tuesday that Scioto County Courthouse Maintenance Supervisor Phil Lajoye has been appointed interim-manager of the Greater Portsmouth Regional Airport.

“The airport board recently removed the airport manager,” said Mike Crabtree, chairman of the Scioto County Commissioners. “There were a lot of issues with whose responsibility it was to keep the airport clean and how effective they were. There were lights that we not getting replaced, there were a number of things that were being basically undone.”

Crabtree said the items were not getting done because of the previous manager. He said Lajoye is not working at the airport full-time, he’s dividing his time between the courthouse and airport.

“He’s (Lajoye) a man of many talents and we are very lucky to have his around here,” Crabtree said. “He takes a lot of pride in what he does and that’s what we need.”

Crabtree said Lajoye has a team of people that will take care of the janitorial work at the airport.

“What Phil does is, he goes out there (Greater Portsmouth Regional Airport) periodically and has people who do janitorial work. They maintain that on a day-to-day basis,” Crabtree said. “This is a part-time thing and is not something that takes a full-time staff,”

Commissioner Doug Coleman said the Greater Portsmouth Regional Airport Board has indicated they are pleased with the work Lajoye is doing.

“That basically makes Lajoye the current airport manager, until something else is done. This is kind of an experimental thing,” Crabtree said. “We’re trying to cut costs out at the airport, to figure out how it could be done more efficiently and it seems to be working.”

Coleman said the county gives the airport about $15,000 a year. He said that equates to what the airport was spending for maintenance. Crabtree believes a portion of that funding may be returned for the county, with Lajoye taking over management.

Crabtree said the airport is handling the basic functions of the airport.

“His (Lajoye) main purpose is to make the airport look good and it things seem to be going be good and better than they were,” Crabtree said.

Crabtree acknowledged the short-term fix with bringing Lajoye on board could turn into a long-term solution.

Wayne Allen can be reached at 740-353-3101, ext. 1933 or on Twitter @WayneallenPDT