The bicounty board overseeing the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport will vote Thursday on hiring the airport’s next executive director.
The board’s agenda for its meeting Thursday at 10:30 a.m. at the airport in Pittston Twp. contains a “motion to approve the hiring of the Executive Director, conditioned upon negotiation of a final employment contract.”
In recent months leading up to this point, board members have not identified applicants.
“We settled on a candidate and will be voting on it tomorrow,” board member and Lackawanna County Commissioner Bill Gaughan said Wednesday. Gaughan declined to comment further until the matter gets formally taken up Thursday by the board.
The motion on the agenda released Wednesday represents the next step in a hiring process made controversial by Lackawanna County Commissioner Chris Chermak’s candidacy for the executive director position.
Chermak, a Republican, chaired the airport board before confirming his candidacy in June and announcing his leave of absence pending a hiring decision. Chermak was temporarily replaced on the airport board by attorney Chris Munley.
Beyond Chermak acknowledging his own candidacy, officials have not identified candidates for the executive director post. Chermak was among five finalists who participated in virtual interviews Aug. 13. After those virtual interviews, the board then was expected to hold an in-person interview with at least one of the finalists, and possibly more depending on how the first one went.
Lackawanna County Commissioner Chairman Thom Welby, who also serves on the airport board, also reserved substantive comment on the board now being on the verge of hiring an executive director.
“I am looking forward, as I believe all board members are, to moving forward in a positive direction on this issue,” Welby said Wednesday.
Airport co-Solicitor Donald Frederickson said he could not comment on the matter.
The airport board tasked with hiring the next executive director currently consists of Gaughan, Welby and Munley, all representing Lackawanna County, and Luzerne County Council members Chris Belles and Lee Ann McDermott and Luzerne County Manager Romilda Crocamo, all representing Luzerne County.
Efforts were unsuccessful Wednesday to reach Chermak, Munley, Belles, McDermott and Crocamo.
The next director will succeed Carl Beardsley Jr., who was director from January 2015 until late 2025. That’s when Beardsley went on sabbatical leave for a nondisciplinary reason. The sabbatical soon became a permanent leave. In March, the board hired ADK Consulting and Executive Search to facilitate the process of finding a successor for the executive director job.
A hiring vote on Thursday, if it occurs, would cap a somewhat acrimonious process stemming from Chermak’s candidacy for the post that Gaughan has insisted Chermak is not qualified to hold.
Whoever the board hires will need the support of a majority of both Lackawanna and Luzerne counties’ representatives to get the job. Under a new agreement the counties ratified earlier this year for the continued joint operation of the airport, any motion or resolution requires the majority support of both partner counties to pass.
The prior two directors had served for a decade and 25 years, respectively. The airport board voted in late 2014 to name Beardsley as the successor to former 25-year airport Director Barry J. Centini, who earlier that year had announced his plans to retire.
Beardsley had served as the commissioner of aviation for Broome County, New York, since 2005. Broome County owns and its department of aviation operates the Greater Binghamton Airport in New York’s Southern Tier. As director of AVP, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton airport’s Federal Aviation Administration code name, Beardsley helped the airport navigate the COVID-19 pandemic and celebrated in 2024 the addition of Breeze Airways as its newest carrier.
Staff Writer Jeff Horvath contributed to this article.