Zimmerlink recalls meeting with solicitor
Fayette County Commission Chairwoman Angela M. Zimmerlink said county solicitor Joseph E. Ferens Jr. told her in 2004 that members of the authority were “thugs’ and asked her, along with the other two commissioners, to disband the board. Zimmerlink said Ferens came to her office, soliciting support for disbanding the board. She said Ferens told her the idea to disband the authority came from Fayette County Commissioner Joseph A. Hardy III. Zimmerlink said she thought the board was doing a good job and balked at voting to disband the authority.
Ferens said he does not recall the specific conversation with Zimmerlink, but does remember that early on in the current administration, he was asked what could be done about the airport authority.
“I told (Hardy) that if he can’t get anything done with the authority, the commissioners have to vote to disband it,” Ferens said. He said in the case of any authority – such as the airport authority, the housing authority or a sewer authority – the only recourse is for the commissioners to dissolve it. Any decision made by the commissioners must come from a majority of the county commission, which in Fayette’s case is two of three votes.
However, Ferens said he didn’t think anybody was really in favor of disbanding the authority at the time. “It was more of a frustration thing,” Ferens said. He didn’t dispute the conversation with Zimmerlink, but said she has a better memory of it than he does. “Angela has a memory like an elephant,” Ferens said.
Zimmerlink said she asked Ferens if Commissioner Vincent A. Vicites supported the measure as well, to which she was told that Vicites would support it.
Zimmerlink said Ferens made it clear the other commissioners wanted her support. “Ferens said a unanimous decision was being sought, to which I said, ‘I’m sure,’ ” Zimmerlink said.
Ferens said while he did not remember saying the commissioners would like the vote to be unanimous, it did sound like something he might have said. “I would like all decisions to be unanimous,” Ferens said.
Vicites said he wasn’t involved in the conversation between Zimmerlink and Ferens, and thus he couldn’t comment because he wasn’t there.
However, Vicites said he was not seeking to disband the airport authority in 2004. “I would not have been in favor of that then and I am not now,” Vicites said. “What I am in favor of is getting the runway (extension) completed.”
Former airport authority Chairman Fred Davis said for the county solicitor to refer to the airport authority members at that time as thugs “does a great disservice to a group of dedicated people who turned it around.”
Davis said the way the authority members at that time were turning around the authority was apparently “not consistent with ‘HSP’ – Hardy’s Secret Plan.”
Davis added, however, he could fully understand Ferens being angry with him. “(Ferens) went head-to-head with me (on issues) four times and the score is Joe, zero, Fred, four,” Davis said.
Davis earlier provided the Herald-Standard with a copy of a June 23, 2004, letter from Hardy in which Hardy wrote he intends to “keep a vigilant eye on your operations as it relates to the necessity for disbanding the (airport authority).”
However, neither Zimmerlink nor Vicites recalled receiving a letter from Hardy on the subject.
Zimmerlink said the fact that she and Vicites are not copied on the letter lends credence to the fact that they did not receive copies of it.
Jeff Nobers, Hardy’s spokesman, said Hardy was concerned about several issues that had not been resolved at the time. “It was a wake-up call to get them moving forward,” Nobers said. “That’s something that’s not in his mind today.”
The issues, Nobers said, were the TOL Aviation lawsuit, an easement dispute and the runway extension project, all three of which are now on track.
At the time, Davis said he served on the airport authority with Timothy S. Mahoney, Martin Griglak, Robert Schiffbauer and Jesse Wallace. Only Wallace remains on the authority. The others have been replaced by Myrna Giannopoulos, Terry Shallenberger, Mark “Kingfish” Wasler and Todd Radolec.
Wallace, Shallenberger, Wasler and Radolec recently voted to change the name of Connellsville Airport to Joseph A. Hardy Regional Airport. The latter three were appointed to the board by Hardy and Vicites, with Zimmerlink voting no.