Lackawanna County Commissioner Chris Chermak declined to comment on whether he applied to become the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport’s next executive director.
Chermak, the county’s lone Republican commissioner and the chairman of the bicounty board that oversees the airport in Pittston Twp., did not deny interest in the executive director job when asked about those rumors after April’s airport board meeting. The deadline to apply for the position was Sunday.
Asked Monday via voicemail if he applied, Chermak responded in a text message.
“Yes the deadline has come for people to apply,” he wrote. “As for me, I have no comment at this time. If and when that changes I will certainly let you know.”
Whoever ultimately gets the job will replace Executive Director Carl Beardsley Jr., who began his tenure at the airport in January 2015 and went on sabbatical leave for a nondisciplinary reason late last year. Airport co-solicitor Donald Frederickson later confirmed Beardsley is unable to return as director but said he couldn’t elaborate on the personnel matter.
Carl Beardsley, executive director of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport, speaks during a press conference, held on Friday, April 11, 2025. (JASON ARDAN / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Stephen Mykulyn, the airport’s longtime director of engineering, is serving as interim executive director amid the search for Beardsley’s successor.
The airport board approved in March a $47,574 contract with ADK Consulting and Executive Search, a Florida-based firm specializing in searches for airport and aerospace management executives, to facilitate that process.
“From what we were told by ADK, there were 20 applicants who submitted resumes as of the deadline and ADK will review the applications to determine which ones meet the qualifications for the position,” airport air service development official Beth Coslett said in an email, noting “this is just the beginning of the process which is estimated to take 6-8 weeks before a final candidate is chosen.”
Airport officials “don’t know who the applicants are at this time since there is still more to the process,” Coslett said.
Whether Chermak applied and whether he’d be seriously considered for the executive director job remains unclear, but his hypothetical resignation as commissioner to take it would mark the second commissioner resignation in Lackawanna County in as many years.
Former Democratic Commissioner Matt McGloin, who also served as airport board chairman, resigned in early 2025 for a job in college football he almost immediately quit, prompting a bitter monthslong legal battle over the county Home Rule Charter’s replacement process.
That process involving the Lackawanna County Democratic Committee, since McGloin is a Democrat, and the county Court of Common Pleas, ultimately survived a legal challenge brought by Democratic Commissioner Bill Gaughan and the county, resulting in the temporary appointment of interim Democratic Commissioner Brenda Sacco.
Sacco, whose tenure was brief and turbulent, was finally appointed in October but replaced in November by Democratic Commissioner Thom Welby, who won a special election to fill the remainder of McGloin’s unexpired term running into early January 2028. The special election was also the subject of litigation, but proceeded after a panel of county judges and a state appeals court declined to block it.
Chermak’s second term as the county’s Republican minority commissioner also expires in early January 2028. It’s not clear how exactly the replacement process might play out if he resigns, but a Democratic victory in another potential special election could theoretically result in a three-member Board of Commissioners without a single Republican.
“I like being a commissioner,” Chermak said last month of the elected position he’s held since 2020. “It’d be a tough decision.”