New Beverly Airport Manager Recommendation Expected Monday Night

BEVERLY, MA — Four finalists to be the next Beverly Airport manager were interviewed on Tuesday with deliberation and vote on a recommendation to become the airport's next top executive expected at the Airport Commission's next public meeting on Monday.

Scott Anderson, the airport security coordinator at Sacramento International Airport, William Hamor, a U.S. Army veteran and customer service professional in the technology industry who lives in Beverly, Gabriel Hanafin, an interim director of Quincy Regional Airport in Illinois, and James Nall, airport manager at Brunswick Executive Airport in Maine, were chosen as the four finalists out of a field of 20 candidates and eight semifinalists.

All four candidates were asked about their experience in the aviation industry, business qualifications to run an airport and their ability to deliver community outreach after mounting frustrations from neighbors about airport noise and pollution concerns from leaded fuel in recent years.

"One of the things that was clear throughout the interview process," Danvers Town Manager Steve Bartha, who was on the candidate screening committee, told the Danvers Select Board at Tuesday night's meeting, "with the commissioners who were on there is that the concerns that have been raised in this (Danvers Select Board) room, and were raised by our members (on the Commission), are also priorities for the Commission.

"They want to hire a manager who is responsive to those concerns."

The Airport Commission is made up of a combination of primarily Beverly representatives with Danvers holding seats on the Commission and Screening Committee as well. Many of the noise and pollution complaints have come from the Danvers side in recent months about flight school "touch-and-goes" that repeatedly take off and land over Danvers neighborhoods.

The Airport Commission had the option to discuss and vote on a recommendation Tuesday night but chose to "digest" the four interviews and come back for a discussion next week. Monday's meeting will be hybrid with commissioners expected to meet in person at 50 Henderson Road and remote participation available through Google Meets here.

"There are four excellent candidates," Airport Commission member Paul Gentile said Tuesday night. "They each have pluses and minuses in different areas and categories. I think the time to mull over all of those and try to pick the best candidate is good."

The selected candidate will replace Gloria Boullion, who resigned in October.

While many of the rules regarding airport capacity fall under the jurisdiction of the Federal Aviation Administration, Danvers residents have repeatedly called for airport management to be more responsive to its impact on the neighborhoods than they said has been the case since they claim noise and potential pollution increased dramatically over the past two to three years.

"We talk a lot about how people appreciate a hard 'no' more than a soft 'maybe,'" Bartha told the Danvers Select Board. "So (the Commission is looking to hire) someone who understands the role, the responsibility, where the authority starts and stops, so they can be clear with the residents, supportive of the residents and work with the residents.

"I left my part of the process feeling optimistic that is a priority for the Commission. And if it is a priority for the Commission that it will be a priority for the next manager."

(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.)