Community Outreach A Question For Beverly Airport Manager Candidates

BEVERLY, MA — How to better execute community outreach amid increasing neighbor concerns over noise and potential fuel pollution coming from Beverly Airport will be among the questions posed to candidates for the open airport manager position that drew 20 applicants.

The Beverly Airport Commission Screening Subcommittee discussed the outline of the hiring process during its initial public meeting on Wednesday after the close of the application process. The Screening Committee will narrow the candidate field from 20 to eight semifinalists for interviews, then present three finalists to the full Airport Commission for interviews and a recommendation for an offer.

The narrowing of the field will take place in executive sessions that are closed to the public.

No timetable was presented for hiring a new manager to replace Gloria Bouillion following her resignation this past fall. The hiring comes at the same time the Airport Commission is working on updated noise-abatement protocols designed to help ease the frustrations of Danvers, Wenham and Beverly neighbors upset about increased airport traffic and volume in recent years.

"In the last year or two we've received a noted uptick in abutter interest," said Aaron Henry, who is one of the Danvers representatives, along with Town Manager Steve Bartha, on the Airport Commission and Screening Committee, during Wednesday's meeting. "Can we get a little bit more specificity from the candidates as to how they would view that relationship with the community?"

Screening Committee Chair Paul Trefry said he agrees that the ability to work with the neighbors needs to be in the questioning of candidates.

"I think what we're looking for," Henry said, "is to make the candidates aware that we're looking to establish a stronger relationship with the community."

The hope during the noise-abatement revisions and manager hiring is to somehow find a way to make things more amenable between airport flight schools, airport management and residents that have become more and more incensed each week about repeated "touch-and-goes" and emissions from the leaded fuel still used in aircraft.

The Beverly Airport Commission is revising the noise abatement policy for the first time in 12 years at the same time that it is involved with the selection of the new manager. The Noise Abatement Subcommittee is set to meet on Thursday to work on revisions that will then be presented to the full Airport Commission as early as next month.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)