excessive heat. “We had a situation last fall, where a production line in Greensboro, Mercedes Benz, I’m told, was getting ready to shut down because they did not have these panels,” says Sparks. “The company called up and said, ‘we’re going to send an airplane in there to pick up those panels. And we need to move on this quickly.’ We opened up the gates and helped them load the airplane. They were going to shut down at midnight and they got there about 11:15. It was our seed for us to capitalize on this cargo capability that we already have.” Now, Sparks says he wants to the airport to get a forklift to handle heavier items. GOING FORWARD Sparks doesn’t envision that the airport will ever handle commercial traffic. “It would be nice, but I don’t see it happening, unless we can get into the Essential Air Services Program. (The EAS is a federal program that guarantees a minimal level 144 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 12, ISSUE 01
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