The mayor of Stephenville admits that hope is fading on plans to rejuvenate the local airport as the owner gets more deeply mired in financial difficulties.
None of the lofty plans Carl Dymond announced for the facility when he first publicly declared an interest in acquiring the asset have come to fruition.
Dymond officially acquired the airport in 2023 for a token $6.90 and a commitment to finish the remaining $1.7 million in lighting upgrades required for the facility.
The town, which cannot own an airport, was subsidizing the facility to the tune of $400,000 to $500,000 a year, was glad to see someone take it over, but is now plowing the runways at the request of the owner who cannot do so.
It was revealed this week that Transport Canada has downgraded the airport to a registered aerodrome.
Mayor Tom Rose, who was one of the most enthusiastic defenders of Carl Dymond and his plans for the facility, now admits, it’s unlikely Dymond will be able to carry the airport forward, but he’s hopeful someone else will.
“Hope is fading on that file” Rose told VOCM Open Line, “because we haven’t had the deliveries or any components of what Mr. Dymond had planned. It’s getting to the point now that you have a lien on you and you’re in the courts, the courts might say ‘do you have control of this corporation?’ It may be another investor that’s going to come in with a new plan, because” as Rose puts it, ports and airports are “sustainable infrastructure facilities.”
