The last two columns here have covered the early history of the Adirondack Regional Airport, owned and operated by the town of Harrietstown. Included was the first commercial flight in June 1946 and the first hangar in 1947. We named the men who started it all and published a copy of a bond resolution in 1956 for improvements at the airport.

This week will cover the present day improvements at the airport, the financial picture including contributions from neighboring towns and from Franklin and Essex counties.

Also, dear readers, I want you all to know that I am in over my head here talking figures. (My favorite line from my newspaper days was, ‘a picture is worth a thousand words; well, if you believe that, then hold up a picture if you’re drowning’.)

So this column will have an illustration about airport improvements, worth a thousand words, and will get the message across very clearly.

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Harrietstown taxpayers

Generally speaking, taxpayers of the town of Harrietstown are not thrilled about paying for the airport. However, it is a relatively small amount of their total tax bill.

Here is an actual “2016 Property Tax Certification” (tax bill) for a property with an assessed value of $183,100 located in Lake Clear. The total tax bill for this property is $1,380.14 of which approximately 3 percent, or in round figures about $40 goes to the airport.

Percentages create equalization in taxing districts. So here is the 3 percent tax breakdown for the airport applied to this Upper Saranac Lake property assessed at $2,282,300 with a total tax bill of $17,203. This property owner, who probably does use the airport, pays a little over $500 to the airport fund.

Following are the 2016 contributions from our neighbors to the airport operation: Franklin County $25,000; Essex County, $7,200; Towns of North Elba, $3,000; Tupper Lake, $1,000; Brighton, $1,000; St. Armand, $2,300 and Santa Clara, $3,100 for a total of $42,600.

The town of Harrietstown budget for 2016 is $4,917,890 of which 3 percent goes to the operation of the airport.

Most of the town residents probably never use the airport but taxpayers with no children still have to pay school taxes.

When we pay our taxes to the county, state or federal government we may never know exactly how that money is spent. If it is any consolation to the Harrietstown taxpayers they know that the money spent for the airport supports a big economic machine that infuses money into the entire region.

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Airport managers – the Finegan brothers

Anyone who has ever worked for a “Board”, school, hospital, village, town or whomever, know it is the same as having five or seven or nine bosses depending on the makeup of the board.

The airport manager’s job has been somewhat of a revolving door. The position is in good hands now with Corey Hurwitch as manager. He was promoted to that job from assistant manager in October 2011 and he furnished much of the information contained in today’s column.

Having said that, and contrary to the revolving door theory, we come to Jack and Dick Finegan. Jack served as Airport Manager and his brother Dick as Assistant Manager. Dick served for 30 years from June, 1960 to December 1990 and Jack served for 35 years from 1960 to 1995.

Debbie Donaldson wrote a great airport history for the Enterprise in 1999; it can be found on Historic Saranac Lake’s “local wiki”. Including the above information, here is what she said about the Finegan boys:

“His contract [James Shapiro] was not renewed by the Harrietstown Board in 1960. In the late 1950s Jack and Dick had been flying rental planes in and out of the airport and decided that it needed some cleaning up. So they both went out on their time off and started clearing brush and clearing anything else that needed clearing. Airport officials who noticed what they were doing asked if they would consider operating the airport.”

And as they say, whoever ‘they’ are, the rest is history.

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From the Enterprise, Oct. 26, 1942

[The “A” sticker was for a few gallons of gas and tires were scarce]

“Most of the people in Saranac Lake who are still rolling on rubber and have an ‘A’ sticker, and most of those who are not so lucky but who have a friend who has four tires, visited the town of Harrietstown airport yesterday afternoon.

“Between 5,000 and 6,000 cars, most of them jam-packed with family members and guests, were said to have rolled over the two mile-long runways and the taxi strip. There was a constant slow-moving procession over these ground treads for future airway traffic during most of the afternoon.

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The staff today at the Adirondack Regional Airport : Corey Hurwitch, Manager; Carol Gibbs, Account Clerk; Bob Nadon, Mechanic; Kyle Girouard, Line Service and Rich Hewitt, Shawn Rohe, Shane O’Neil, Morgan Kilroy and Roger Girouard.

Also the Airport CAVU (ceiling and visibility unlimited) Cafe is in full operation with a great menu and great food operated by Clair and Josh Bovee, both Paul Smith’s College alum.

Town Supervisor is Mike Kilroy and town council members are Patricia Meagher, Ron Keough, Ed Goetz and Howard Riley.