Well-traveled manager wants to improve reliability of air service at Quincy Regional Airport

QUINCY — Chuck Miller grew up in Ohio, spent 29 years in Alaska and has held positions all over the world.

He’s spent the last six months as an airfield manager for a U.S. Army installation while living with his wife, his daughter and four granddaughters in Copperas Cove, Texas. He will start a new job Monday as the manager of Quincy Regional Airport.

Quincy Mayor Mike Troup announced Miller’s appointment during Monday’s Quincy City Council meeting. Miller, one of 26 applicants for the job, will replace Sandra Shore, who left in February to become the director at the St. Louis Downtown Airport in Cahokia Heights. Shore had directed the airport in Quincy since 2018. Gabriel Hanafin was the interim director while the city searched for Shore’s replacement.

Asked what attracted him to the position, Miller said, “The city feels a lot more like where I grew up (in Mount Vernon, Ohio). It’s rural, and doggone it, the people were friendly.”

Miller’s hiring was celebrated during Monday’s meeting, as was the swearing in of the Quincy Police Department’s two new deputy chiefs — Mike Tyler and Travis Wiemelt — hired last week.

“This is a big deal,” Troup said. “You’ve got the chief (Adam Yates) who was able to swear in his two deputy chiefs. That’s a big step in reorganizing the department. And for us to fill the open slot (at the airport) that we’ve had for seven months is another huge staff component. So yeah, it’s a great day.”

Miller will take over an airport that is expected to switch its essential air service provider from Cape Air of Hyannis, Mass., to Southern Airways Express of Palm Beach, Fla. The airport also has several construction projects under way or about to start as part of $30 million in upgrades.

“We’ve got more construction projects going on at the airport right now than we’ve had in over 10 years,” Troup said. 

However, Miller wants to address the reliability of Quincy’s air service. Troup told aldermen at the April 13 meeting of the City Council that Cape Air canceled “some 40 percent of our flights” from Quincy to St. Louis and Chicago in February and March.

“One of several goals I’ve got is to get the reliability of the air service back up to where it needs to be so people can actually plan on using it,” he said.

Miller called the completion rate earlier this year “abysmal.”

What does Miller plan to do to fix it? Talk to people, he said.

“I want to talk to the IDOT (Illinois Department of Transportation) folks, the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) folks, the new carrier that’s coming on board,” he said. “That’s an awful large part of what a successful airport manager does. I don’t own the airplanes that fly there. I don’t own the people who operate them. But I can talk to them. We find enough common ground that we can make it work out. I would love to see the carrier have to ramp up its operations because, all of a sudden, they don’t have enough airplanes to support the traffic flow that we’re giving.”

Miller’s aviation career started in 1980 when he was a rescue helicopter pilot for the U.S. Air Force in Korea and the Philippines. He says he was credited with 53 lives rescued. 

He previously served in airport administration at the ARCTEC Alaska Project headquarters in Anchorage, Alaska; Herat International Airport in Afghanistan; an Air Force base on Ascension Island in the middle of the south Atlantic Ocean (between Africa and South America); and at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan.

“I’m not afraid of trying new things,” Miller said of his world travels. “I’m going to be walking into a fluid situation, so I think that’s going to be fun.”

Aldermen approved the following recommendations from the Traffic Commission and that ordinances be drafted:

• Removal of stop signs at the intersection of 13th and Lind and yield signs at the intersections of 14th and Lind and 16th and Lind. The city will implement four-way stop signs at the intersection of 14th and Lind and 16th and Lind. 
• Removal of two-hour parking on both sides of North 14th from Broadway north to an alley. 
• Implementation of a school speed zone for the Ulmus Academy, 2001 Jefferson, on Jefferson Street from 220 feet west of the centerline of South 20th to 50 feet west of the centerline of South 21^st, and South 20^th from 220 feet south of Jefferson to 400 feet north of Jefferson. 
• Placing a stop sign at the intersection of Ninth and Van Buren, with traffic on Van Buren stopping for traffic on Ninth.
• Implementing a no-parking zone on both sides of Wysteria Lane. 
• Implementing an all-way stop at the intersection of Northbrook Drive, Taylor Drive and Parkwood Drive. 

In other action during the 32-minute meeting, aldermen approved:

• Raffles for Blessing Health System for one year; the Veterans of Foreign Wars from Dec. 1 through Nov. 30, 2023; and Quincy Elks Lodge 100 of Benevolent and Protective Order of the Elks from Sept. 20 through Nov. 5.
• A special event application from the Quincy Early Tin Dusters to hold its annual Fall Color Run on Oct. 14-15 in downtown Quincy.
• A special event application from the Quincy Public Schools’ music department to hold the annual Octoberfest Marching Band Parade at 2 p.m. Oct. 15, beginning at 33rd and Maine and proceeding west to 14^th and Maine.
• A special event application from Quincy Brewing Company to hold an artisan-style Maker’s Market from noon to 6 p.m. Oct. 1.
• A request by AirMedCare Network to have aircraft at the Teddy Bear Clinic at Blessing-Rieman, 3609 N. Marx Drive, from 11:45 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Oct. 2.
• The purchase of 15 roll-off containers from Gregory Container Company of Kahoka, Mo., for $168,750.
• The purchase of 500 residential roll-off garbage carts for $27,390 from Cascade Cart Solutions of Grand Rapids, Mich.
• An ordinance allowing the transfer of an undedicated alley to Sunset Home. 
• An ordinance amending the 2022-23 Fiscal Year budget. Excess revenue from the general fund will fund the airport solar project, the airport hangar apron extension project UIN5025; and infrastructure improvement to elevate the sea wall at the barge dock.

Aldermen also heard an update on the PCs for People program at Bethel AME Church, 905 Oak. After sharing the opening prayer, the Rev. Carl Terry shared information about a free computer giveaway from noon to 3 p.m. Friday for families with incomes less than $35,000 annually. Terry said 223 computers have been given away, and his goal is to give away 500 computers.