CAA: GA News, "Charlotte County, Fla., Airport Eyes Candidate for Director's Job"

["Stephen Irwin" <stepheni@xxxxxxxxx>]

October 8, 2001

Charlotte County, Fla., Airport Eyes Candidate for Director's Job
Sun Herald, Port Charlotte, FL


The manager of the Ocala International Airport is the top choice for the
executive director's job at the Charlotte County Airport.

Charlotte County Airport Board members will look at extending a job
offer to Gary Quill, one of two finalists for the executive director's
position.

Airport board members will decide to formally offer Quill the job and
enter into contract negotiations when they meet next week. The salary
for the executive director is budgeted at $75,000 annually.

Mike Milanowski, the county's human resources director, who has been
assisting the airport board with its search, recommended Quill during an
airport preagenda meeting Thursday afternoon. The other finalist,
Stephen Cooke of New Smyrna Beach, is director of service marketing at
Daytona Beach International Airport.

Both candidates had strong airport operations and economic development
experience, two key qualifications the airport authority was seeking,
according to Milanowski.

The human resources director told board members Quill met all the
qualifications for the job, and the "only thing I could kid him about
was his accent."

Quill, who has a master's in business administration from Bellarmine
College, has been airport manager in Ocala since June 2000, and was
previously airport director with the Toledo Lucas County Port Authority
in Ohio from 1999-2000. Before that he was the director at Lakeland
Linder Regional Airport from 1983-1999.

Quill could not be reached for comment.

Among Quill's major achievements in Lakeland listed on his resume was to
secure $10 million in grants and a loan to purchase and renovate the
former Piper Aircraft Corp.'s manufacturing complex adjacent to the
airport, bringing businesses that employ more than 1,300, and selling
land to insurance carrier GEICO for a regional office that would employ
2,500.

It was his achievements in Lakeland that prompted Ocala City Manager
Susan Miller to hire Quill away from Toledo.

"I hired Gary with the full expectation of being able to do economic
development at the airport, the same kind of projects he did for
Lakeland," she said.

Ocala's city manager said she had no idea Quill was even looking for
another position elsewhere, and as far as she knew, no one had wanted
him to leave.

Quill's resume lists some of his challenges in Ocala as the following:

   -- Making the facility self-sufficient and out of debt by developing
non-aviation property.

   -- Complete a request for proposals to develop airport property.

   -- Finish building new T-hangars and install infrastructure for land
development.

Miller said Quill had been working on a master plan for the Ocala
International Airport, a general aviation facility with a lot of land.

"We've had no problems, so I'm shocked," she said.

Milanowski said his office received about 55 applications, with 11 at
the top of the batch before narrowing the list to the final two.
Although Milanowski did try to get two more candidates for final
interviews, both declined, he said.

The executive director's job has been vacant since April, when former
executive director Fred Watts resigned to take a position with the Lee
County Port Authority. Wayne Coulter and Cindy Anderson have been
handling the executive director's responsibilities since Watts'
departure.

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