Pilots fly in to serve on Saratoga Airport Board

The Saratoga Airport Board was back up and running this past week after the addition of two new members.

Jennifer Hamilton and Bobby Chitwood bring their aeronautic experience to the board in order to help improve Shively Airfield.

Hamilton, who currently works at the Hotel Wolf, attended aviation school at Aims Community College in Greeley, Colo. She graduated with her commercial pilot's license. She is currently trying to work on her certified flight instructor.

A musician and an owner of Lollypops, Bobby Chitwood has spent several years up in the air. He works as a flight instructor and worked as a Fixed-Base-Operator (FBO) in Cody for eight years. He then went to build his own FBO in Cody and worked as the director of operations for a charter operation as well.

Both Hamilton and Chitwood hope that their recent experience in aviation will give the airport board a fresh perspective for the airport.

"Our knowledge is pretty new," Hamilton said. "I'm sure they'll want to ask us questions about regulations ... we don't need the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) disagreeing with any projects that we want to do."

The new members also stressed the importance of making the airport local friendly.

"I am interested in making our airport accessible towards everyday pilots, not just the jets," Hamilton said. "And really gearing it towards pilots who like to fly every day."

Chitwood said that there were also some other projects that need to be addressed as they settle into their seat at the airport board.

He said that addressing the current projects such as "the business park that they are putting up out there and just regulatory issues," will need to be examined while moving forward.

Hamilton and Chitwood will be joining Steve Wilcoxson, Michael "Hack" Patterson and Lance Grubb on the Airport Board. Their next meeting will be at 1 p.m. March 12 at Saratoga Town Hall.