OKEECHOBEE —An Okeechobee pilot was surprised and disappointed Saturday when he was denied access to the airport during the testing of a jet engine.
During the August 28 meeting of the Okeechobee County Commissioners, the commissioners were told a lease had been signed by the county administrator with Tango Fox Services, a business that performs operational checks on newly overhauled jet engines.
Commission Chair David Hazellief said he was disappointed the commissioners were not consulted before a lease was signed. County Administrator Deborah Manzo said county staff followed existing county procedures.
To overcome some of their concerns, the commissioners were told they could attend a demonstration of these tests to see and hear for themselves how loud it would be.
Billy McCullers, a local pilot, was concerned about the noise level stating, “I’m completely opposed to this company being allowed to test them, as they are extremely loud. They tend to minimize it by saying it’s no more noisy than a jet taking off, but that lasts 30 seconds while these tests go for much longer.” He added that he understood it would bring in money, but taxes are up, property values are up and the airport is currently profitable. “There’s got to be some value to not creating a nuisance to the neighborhood surrounding the airport and affecting the public’s opinion of the airport.”
Because of his concerns, McCullers reached out to the airport manager and the county administrator’s secretary to find out when the demonstration would be held. He was told it would take place on Saturday, Sept. 7 at 2 p.m.
Okeechobee County Government posted a notice on their Facebook page: "Jet Engine testing will be conducted at the Okeechobee Airport on Saturday, 9/07/24 at 2 p.m. Location: 2800 NW 20th Trail, Okeechobee. There may be some increased noise in the area during this time. Thank you for your understanding!"
When McCullers arrived to attend the demonstration, he was told he could not enter due to safety hazards. “These don’t exist for the commissioners, just the public, even though I am a licensed pilot with clearance by the FAA to access the secure side of public ai fields. McCullers was reportedly told to leave the airport, or the sheriff would be called.
“I was threatened with trespass for asking the names of all who attended the meeting in Thomas Black’s office just prior to the engine testing event.”
McCullers said he was trying to gather information on matters of interest to the public. “This whole thing is shady,” he said. “The contract/lease was signed back in June but not made public until after the election. The commissioners claim to have known nothing about it until the last commission meeting when it was made public. The timing between the signing and its proximity to the election seems peculiar as…post-election there is often a cooling off period and issues are often given less attention by the public when there is not an election pending.”
As it stands, a month to month contract has been signed.
During the meeting, Commissioner Terry Burroughs said the short-term lease is already in place. He said before considering a long-term lease, county officials should do more research and visit other airports that have similar testing facilities. “We need to figure out if there are issues that we don’t know about today,” said Burroughs.
“You’ve already signed a contract under the administrative rule,” he said. “But we need to have more information about what they are doing.”
Katrina Elsken contributed to this story.
