Cottonwood’s Airport Commission has one less vacancy on it after the Cottonwood City Council voted unanimously to appoint Bill Tinnin to a vacant seat on Tuesday, March 4.
The open seat was required to be filled by a tenant or lessee of the airport or by someone with a working knowledge of aviation matters. Tinnin and Bill Wagnon were the two applicants, and the council preferred Tinnin’s knowledge of aviation, as he had previously served on the commission for 13 years.
“What we know about his stance right now is he is also concerned about the level of airport noise,” Councilman Bob Marks said with regard to Tinnin’s appointment.
The appointment was made after residents asked the council not to make any new appointments to the commission and instead restructure it to include more local and out-of-town representatives.
“The issue is not necessarily with who has been selected,” Clarkdale resident Leslie Evans said. “What we want is just a tabling, a hold, made on any decision regarding this, because we are feeling from attending many airport commission meetings, is — just a reiteration of what you’ve already heard, is that we as the public are not heard because it is biased, one-sided, and that they don’t really care.”
City staff and council members clarified that the Airport Commission is exclusively an advisory body with no independent powers.
Mayor Ann Shaw commented that she planned to attended more meetings of the commission.
“I am not entertaining any kind of point now to restructure the airport commission,” Shaw said. “That’s not on the table. The only thing that is on the table this evening is whether or not we adopt a resolution to appoint Mr. Tinnin to the airport commission.”
Councilwoman Debbie Wilden then made a motion to review the code of the Airport Commission during a future meeting, which also passed unanimously.
