Gov. Deal Visits Paulding Airport to Announce Plans for Chattahoochee Tech Aviation Academy

Gov. Nathan Deal made a stop at the Paulding airport last week to announce plans for a $35 million aviation academy at Paulding County’s airport tied to Chattahoochee Tech. He was joined by Technical College System of Georgia Commissioner Matt Arthur, Chattahoochee Tech President Ron Newcomb, and Paulding’s local legislative delegation.
Chattahoochee Technical College’s aviation academy would train airframe and power plant mechanics, jobs in high demand as baby boomers retire. Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines, Pratt and Whitney, and Savannah-based Gulfstream have been searching for ways to boost the pipeline of new aircraft mechanics.
Chattahoochee Tech is part of the Technical College System of Georgia, and the state’s move will create a new program for the college.
Deal said the academy and related jobs potential will prove good for both the local economy and the state’s economy. The Paulding venture will make only four such academies in the state and two of those are at airports that offer any type of commercial service.
As the aviation industry continues to grow in the state and as baby boomers continue to retire, workers for those jobs are needed at a rate of about 2,000 a year, Gov. Deal said last week.
Georgia ranks fourth in the nation for jobs in the aviation field, Deal said, and added that over the next 10 years the demand for those jobs will continue to exceed the national average.
Deal said through the establishment of The Hope Career Degree Program students who pursue any of the 17 qualifying jobs can receive 100 percent of their tuition fees toward earning a diploma.
Deal said that the joint initiative was made possible largely thanks to Paulding’s legislative delegation who agreed to put it into the [state] budget and to the BoC who donated the land for the project.
One unconfirmed report noted that the initiative would impact any further effort to add commercial service to Silver Comet Field. According to an AJC article published just prior to Deal’s Paulding visit, funding is provided “...on condition that the airport remains a general aviation facility without commercial airline service,” which is attributed in the article to two unnamed sources characterized as having “direct knowledge of the agreement.” Delta Air Lines and the city of Atlanta have for years opposed the commercialization of the Paulding airport, known as Silver Comet Field.
But earlier this year Propeller Investments contacted the airport authority with their intent to exercise their contractual option to lease the entire Terminal building at Silver Comet Field, which seemed to indicate a continued interest on their part in maintaining a presence, despite a series of litigations involving SCF and the need for Paulding’s Airport Authority to re-apply with the FAA to obtain commercial status, which also assumes that the PAA and BoC are – by then -- of one mind, as stipulated by the FAA. The terminal would lease for $20,000 a month. How this joint initiative might affect the company’s plans going forward was as yet unknown. The Governor’s announcement is likely welcomed news to some Paulding politicians. A majority of the county’s board of commissioners now opposes commercializing the airport. Litigation tied to that issue could go on for several more years. And the relationship between the PAA and BoC has been touch and go, at best. Still, there had been a chance the effort would be revived next year when new commissioners take their seats and the dynamic of the debate may shift. Each of the three incoming commissioners has expressed a desire to make Paulding’s airport a successful entity and an asset to the county in the long term.

Gov. Nathan Deal last week at Paulding’s airport announces Chattahoochee Tech Aviation Academy coming to Silver Comet Field. Deal is flanked by Paulding’s Legislative Delegation. (L to R) Howard Maxwell, (R-Dallas) Sen. Bill Heath (R-Bremen), Sen. Mike Dugan (R-Carrollton), Gov. Deal, Micah Gravley, (R-Douglasville) Kimberly Alexander (D-Douglasville) and Paulette Rakestraw,(R-Hiram). (Photo: R. Grant)