Anniversary event planned for airport

Wood County Airport Authority established 50 years ago

WILLIAMSTOWN -- The history of the Mid-Ohio Valley Regional Airport will be showcased as officials mark the 50th anniversary of the Wood County Airport Authority.

The event is planned for noon to 6 p.m. Saturday, May 13, at the airport. It will include aircraft and equipment displays, inflatables, food, a cornhole tournament and raffles for prizes including Contour Airline round-trip vouchers and discovery flights from Rivertown Aviation.

The main focus will be history, with photos selected from more than 3,000 slides to be displayed on a "history walk," airport Manager Ben Auville said.

"You can see how buildings have been built; you can see how the runways have changed over time," he said. "There's pictures of, like, some of the VIPs who've come through here."

They include then-presidential candidate John F. Kennedy, who visited the area during the 1960 campaign, and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who spoke in Marietta in 1967.

The airport has been a fixture in the community since the 1930s, Auville said. But the authority, which oversees its day-to-day operations, was established on May 10, 1973. a fact Auville discovered as he was updating information for a program through which the facility applies for and receives federal funding.

"We are operated by a nonprofit (LLC), wholly owned by the county," he said. "It puts it such that the budget and everything here is separate from the county."

The Wood County Commission appoints members to the board, of which one commissioner -- presently Bob Tebay -- is also a member.

Auville discovered the upcoming milestone as he was updating information for a program through which the facility accesses federal funding. Since then, he and Assistant Manager Sidnie Beall have been planning for the event.