PITTSTON TWP. — The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport board approved the airport’s 2020 budget, hired a new security company and said farewell to three departing board members on Thursday.
The board unanimously approved a contract with Tri State Security Solutions, of Hazle Twp., to provide security services for the airport starting next month. The board approved a three-year contract with the company, with two optional one-year extensions.
The airport’s current security provider, Century Security Services, was one of the finalists for the contract, airport officials said.
According to the company’s website, Tri State Security Solutions offers “screened and trained professional security officers, loss prevention specialists, roving patrol, on-site drug & alcohol testing, all types of investigative services.”
The board also unanimously approved the airport’s 2020 budget, which includes projected operating expenses of $6.91 million and a surplus of $108,724.
Also, passenger boardings for November were down by about 1.2% compared to 2018, but it was still the second-best November in the airport’s history, according to Carl Beardsley Jr., the airport’s executive director.
Beardsley praised the airport’s maintenance staff for keeping runways and roadways clear during recent ice storms and snow squalls.
Three members of the airport board, which consists of officials from Luzerne and Lackawanna counties, attended their final meeting Thursday after failing to win reelection earlier this year.
Outgoing Lackawanna County commissioners Laureen Cummings and Patrick O’Malley and outgoing Luzerne County Councilwoman Jane Walsh Waitkus received plaques and a warm sendoff from their colleagues.
O’Malley said that working together on the airport board paved the way for leaders of the two counties to reach a settlement of litigation over the establishment of the professional baseball team now known as the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders.
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