Region considers rent relief for South Shore Flying Club
The South Shore Flying Club maintains the South Shore Regional Airport in Greenfield as part of a lease agreement with the Region of Queens. (South Shore Flying Club Facbook page)
The South Shore Flying Club is looking for a break on its rent at the South Shore Regional Airport.
Peter Gow, president of the non-profit, says his group’s 35 to 40 members maintain the runway, hangars and grounds at the small airport in Greenfield.
“Between the insurance and the annual fee that we pay to the region, it kind of makes it pretty tight to keep operating,” he said in an interview Monday. “We’re just kind of run pretty thin.”
The flying club has asked the Region of Queens, which owns the airport, to waive the annual $4,000 rental fee.
Last October, Gow wrote to the newly elected council to ask for a break on the rent. District 6 Coun. Stewart Jenkins brought up the issue at last week’s council meeting. He asked councillors to support his motion for the rent waiver.
“They also provide a substantial service because they do keep an eye on the aiport, they clean it, they maintain it so that it can be used,” Jenkins told council last Tuesday.
“The problem is their limited revenue stream. Unlike other users of the airport, they don’t have 500 or 1,000 people coming to watch an event that pay money. It’s a small club with limited revenues.”
Two years ago, the region was on the verge of selling the airport. But after public backlash, municipal councillors decided to hold onto it.
In spring 2023, the flying club and the Nova Scotia Drag Racers Association agreed to 20-year leases with the region.
Under the flying club’s lease, it has access to the large hangar, but it also agreed to maintain the property for the region. The drag racers have use of the small hangar.
“It was either we more or less agree to that or we don’t have an airport,” Gow says. “So we begrudgingly agreed to the lease with that stipulation that we would run it.”
Gow says the club has a few fundraising events each year, but it can’t sustain itself if it has to pay the rent on top of its annual $6,500 insurance bill.
“We try to do what we can here and there but everything is so expensive as everybody knows. It’s just kind of a bit of struggle. It just seems a bit odd that we pay a fee to operate the region’s facility.”
Gow said the small airport could help attract new residents to Queens County.
“We feel it’s very important. You take what’s going on around the world now, south of the border. Some of our American neighbours may consider moving to the area and that might be one of the things they look for — is there a viable airport there for someone who might have a small plane. It could make the difference between somebody moving to the South Shore and not.”
Last week, councillors said they were supportive of Jenkins’s motion, but voted to defer it to their next meeting on March 25 so they could get a look at the club’s financial statements.
Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com
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