Paulding County Airport Authority (PCAA) last week voted to accept Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) funding in the amount of $300,000 aimed at constructing a [wildlife] fence on the airport site.
The funding, according to Interim Airport Director Terry Tibbitts, comes as a grant through a special exemption in order to add fencing for the purpose of primarily restricting deer and coyote from runway areas, which he said, has moved up the list of priorities for the airport management and the GDOT, and is “the number one safety issue at the airport.”
“We had previously returned this money to the state because this was involved in our Environmental Assessment, but the FAA and the state wants so badly to get this wildlife fencing built around the property that that have agreed to do what’s called ‘a Category Exemption’...so the state has reinstated the $300,0000,” Tibbitts said.
Tibbitts said he planned to speak to Paulding’s Board of Commissioners this week regarding the funding during their regular meeting. The funding comes as a 75/25 match that requires a 25 percent match, amounting to $100,000, he said.
However, Tibbitts proposed that the $100,000 would not need to come out of the county budget, but instead could be made-up from Airport Authority funds coming in this year that were reimbursed out of a previous “Block 150” grant from the FAA for projects that were competed last year at Silver Comet Field. Tibbitts, contacted by phone after PCAA’s meeting last week, said he hoped that the BOC would see fit to approve the request since the matching funds aren’t coming from the county and additionally the fencing that would install is for wildlife only, and not related to any requirements related to obtaining the Part 139 Permit that would allow the airport to begin offering limited commercial service. Tibbitts told Paulding Commissioners in July there are “....half a dozen legal actions over the Part 139.” The ‘139’ certification is associated with approval to add limited commercial service to Silver Comet Field and would involve adding other fencing and security measures to Silver Comet Field.
Tibbitts had served since May as the airport’s liaison to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which regulates and provided much of the funding to build Silver Comet Field in 2007. The Paulding County Airport Authority then hired Tibbitts to a three- month contract, later extended through January, as interim director to take over from former director Blake Swafford, who left in May. The move to extend Tibbitts contract was done because the PCAA currently lack the revenue to hire a full-time director, according the Airport Chairman Calvin Thompson.
Currently the airport makes revenue from aircraft owners along with tenants like McNeel Builders Inc. and Silver Comet Maintenance. Tibbitts reported last week that Silver Comet Field is up to 18 tenants and three of ten spaces rented in the larger hangar. Silver Comet Field has a goal and the capacity to serve up to 100 based aircraft.
In terms of the airport itself Tibbitts has stated that Paulding County’s Silver Comet Field could compete as an aviation airport since other metro airports McCollum and DeKalb-Peachtree are at their capacity.

Paulding County's Airport Authority voted last week to accept a grant through a special exemption in order to add fencing at Silver Comet Field for the purpose of restricting deer and coyote from runway areas, which Airport Director Terry Tibbitts said is “the number one safety issue at the airport.” (Photo: R. Grant)
top: Interim Paulding County Airport Director Terry Tibbitts (submitted)