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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Lewiston-Nez Perce County airport board hires new manager

Tribune News Service

Stephanie Morgan will be the new manager of the Lewiston-Nez Perce County Regional Airport.

The former Fernandina Beach, Florida, airport manager will earn $90,000 per year and is expected to start May 1, said Airport Authority Board Chairman William McCann Jr.

Morgan agreed to the offer by telephone after a board meeting Tuesday in which members altered two components of their offer, McCann said. What had been as much as $6,500 in moving expenses has been converted to a signing bonus. An installment of $2,500 will be paid after her first month in the post, and the remainder will be doled out in $1,000 increments over the following four months.

Also, Morgan could be eligible for a merit increase as well as reimbursement for training from the American Association of Airport Executives in October.

Those benefits are in addition to medical, dental, optical and life insurance, retirement, sick leave, paid vacation, a cellphone and possibly a car with the airport logo.

The board rejected a request from Morgan that she be entitled to three months severance pay if she is terminated from the position. Attempts to reach Morgan on Tuesday were not successful.

Morgan brings more than 15 years of experience in the aviation industry to her new job. She most recently was in Fernandina Beach, where city officials say she was dismissed from her job there after about six months. In that post she oversaw an airport that catered to private planes, many carrying passengers headed to the community’s high-end resorts. It paid $65,000 per year, according to the Fernandina Observer.

Prior to that she spent seven years at the Jacksonville airport, first as an airport operations duty officer and later in public relations. That airport is served by eight passenger airlines, including American, Delta, Southwest and United.

She also was a maintenance risk and schedule manager for Trans World Airlines in Kansas City, Missouri, from 1991 to 2000.

The hiring of Morgan follows a selection process that began in February, after Chris Hayes resigned to lead production at Howell Munitions and Technology. Hayes had been chairman of the airport authority board after stints at Seekins Precision and Vista Outdoor in Lewiston.

He was the third person to hold the job in as many years following Bruce MacLachlan, who was fired after 15 months for undisclosed reasons. MacLachlan had relocated to Lewiston from Indiana, where he was the operations and maintenance manager at South Bend Regional Airport.

MacLachlan replaced Robin Turner, who retired in 2014 after 30 years in the job.