September 2, 2025 • 36 mins
State Senator Mike Oliverio on the governor's plan for PEIA.
KCI Aviation CEO Chuck Koukoulis on the $16 million hangar planned in the AeroTech Business Park on the grounds of the North Central West Virginia Airport.
KCI Aviation CEO Chuck Koukoulis on the $16 million hangar planned in the AeroTech Business Park on the grounds of the North Central West Virginia Airport.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:15):
This is the Talk of the Town from Morgantown to Klerksburg.
If it's happening, we're talking about it. Call the show
toll free at one eight hundred seven sixty five eight
two fivey five. Now Here is your host for the
Talk of the Town, Mike Notlting.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Well, good Thursday morning, and welcome to Talk of the Town.
I'm Mike Notlting. You'll find me out on x as
your news guy. Producing the program today is Ethan Collins.
You'll be able to find Ethan at eight hundred seven
six five eight two five five. To Metro Newszaki Weathers says,
(00:56):
today things look relatively nice, partly sunny skies and high
of seventy five degrees expected. And taking a look at
the future, I guess the very near future in terms
of our Labor Day weather pattern, everything really is pointing
to an absolutely spectacular Labor Day weekend. This trend will continue. However,
(01:22):
there is a slight cold air mass that is descending
down into the area now that's going to cloud things
up just a little bit today and we'll bring the
possibility of a late evening sprinkle or possibly a very
early morning sprinkle. However, the forecast for game time tonight.
(01:44):
That certainly looks dry and definitely fine. Of course, kickoff
tonight at pony lewis Field, Mohegans are taking on Parkersburg.
That's the WVSSAC High School football kickoff that's sponsored by
the West Virginia Army National Guard. And you'll be able
(02:06):
to get that live right here on WAJR O. Of course,
over on the network, you'll be able to watch that
on the TV, the Metro News TV. Take a look
at a couple of headlines before we get the program
started today. This just in Morgantown man has been charged
in connection with a fatal hit and run in Fayette County, Pennsylvania.
(02:31):
Steven Limro, seventy four years old, if Morgantown's accused of
hitting seventy year old Silvis at the intersection of West
Church and Morgantown Streets on Wednesday. Official says say that
Limro fled the scene, then he returned while that investigation
was ongoing, and he wasn't able to flee the second time.
(02:53):
Pennsylvania State Police were able to take him into custody.
He's been charged with involuntary manslaughter accident involving death fleeing
and reckless driving. He's being held on a ten thousand
dollars bond. He has a preliminary hearing set for September
tenth at ten A m trial continues in Mont County
(03:16):
Circuit Court of Jonathan Ramirez. That is the first degree
murder trial Ramirez accused of in the stabbing death of
twenty six year old Jacob Blow, who was an employee
of lear Field Sports. Ramirez has been held in the
North Central Regional Jail since that crime occurred in January
(03:38):
of twenty twenty four. During his stay, if you remember,
he faced two counts of battery ona law enforcement officer
and entered into a plea deal there and received two
sixty day sentences that ran concurrently for that particular crime.
What we're learning about this particular trial is he came
(04:00):
to Wayne County, West Virginia to meet a young lady,
and when that situation didn't materialize, he came to Morgantown,
where he ended up at the Hampton Inn on Van
Voris Road. He left there, got some beer, came back,
and that's when things started to go south, and he
(04:21):
got into an altercation there at the hotel and was
asked to leave by management. That was when he found
himself in the neighborhood of Milford Street and where that
murder occurred. Joe Nelson is covering that particular trial for
Metro News and WAJR and he's a matter of fact,
(04:44):
on his way down to the courtroom now, and I'm
sure we'll get a lunchtime update from Joe. We'll be back.
Coming up on the program today, we'll spend a few
minutes with State Senator Mike Oliverio. We're going to be
talking about Peia, the governor's recent proposal and how lawmakers
(05:06):
might receive that proposal. That's coming up next on Talk
of the Town AM fourteen forty FM one oh four
point five WAJR. Good Thursday morning, and welcome back to
the program. I'm my old thing right now. Partly cloudy,
fifty seven degrees in the University City today. Metro Newsaki
(05:30):
Weather says increasing clouds and I have seventy four degrees
In studio. We have State Senator Mike Alaverio with us,
and good morning, Mike, how are you hey?
Speaker 3 (05:41):
Good morning to you doing just well. It's one of
my favorite weekends of the year.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Coming up absolutely Labor Day, the change of seasons. Football,
there are so many good things about this season. What's
your favorite?
Speaker 3 (05:54):
Well, I also enjoy the Italian Heritage Festival and your
station had a little special on that about thirty minutes ago,
and that got my mouth watering already with all the
Italian food down there. And it's just a special weekend.
You know, the students are back, football starts, the seasons
start to turn a little bit, it's a little cooler,
(06:15):
and it's just an exciting time, almost the time of renewal.
And I really enjoy this weekend absolutely.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
I've got a speaking of the Italian Heritage Festival. I've
got to call into Wich and we're going to get
Weige on the program, hopefully tomorrow if she's not too busy.
But Senator, we're here this morning to talk about pe
i A and the recent four point plan that Governor
(06:42):
Morrissey released. Now, if you would, I guess, could you
address maybe there's been some criticism to the Governor's office
in terms of the level of communication or lack thereof,
with state lawmakers. What's your take on some of that.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
You know, the governor has typically a legislative liaison that
communicates with you. His current legislative liaison that's working with
the Senate is a former delegate that I served with
years ago in the legislature. You're a really good man,
and we you know, we communicate well. And you know
it's his job to communicate with several of us on
(07:26):
behalf of the governor. So and that's a reasonable expectation.
The governor is a is a busy person, a lot
of responsibility and can't can't communicate with one hundred and
thirty four legislators all the time. So so I think
we get good information through that legislative liaison. Sometimes, we
like anybody else, we like a little bit of love.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
You know.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
We want to hear from the governor when we think
something is especially important in our district or or when
we raise our hand and say, hey, we want more
than the legislative liaison. And on a couple of occasions
governor more he has done. At I had some issues
regarding West Virginia University just at the end of the
legislative session, and the governor did spend some time with
(08:09):
me and talk through some things. He didn't do what
I wanted, but that you know, that's okay. I mean,
you know, I was heard, got to voice the concerns
of my constituents, and that's really the role of the
republic form of government that we have.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Absolutely. Now, I know that you had expressed some concern
about the lack of communication during the sale of the
state run hospitals. Did you get some.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
That one was a little different there, I mean that
one kind of came at us out of the blue.
And the timeline. You know, for several years, some governors
had pursued selling off those state hospitals that provide long
term care services to kind of patients of last resort,
oftentimes patients that were not able to be admitted in
(08:58):
the traditional private sector or long term care setting, and
so they were filling a valuable niche those facilities. And
there were times when some governors in the pasta, Hey,
we're going to sell these off, and we need to
pass a bill to do that. Some legislators would react
very adversely to that, whereas this governor, uh, you know,
began the process, entered into a sale without telling us,
(09:22):
and uh and that concerned us. Now, my colleague Senator
Joey Garcia in Marion County, he really believes that the
administration stepped out beyond the legal bounds of what they're
able to do, and he uh with his lawyer hat on,
not his senate hat, but he is a private lawyer.
He has actually brought a lawsuit against the administration on
(09:44):
behalf of a resident at the Mansion Clinic, saying hey,
you can't sell this without the approval of the legislature.
So time will tell how that plays out. But uh,
but it's not it's not my not my intention to
throw the governor under the bus. And he's not communicating
with us because there has been some communication. I don't
necessarily agree with some of the things he's communicating to us.
(10:07):
And that's my that's my role as a legislator representing
one hundred and ten thousand people here in north central
West Virginia to speak up and say, hey, I understand
what you're trying to do, but I don't think that's
what our folks believe is the right thing to do.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Okay, Now, when we take a look at this four
part plan that the governor released or has talking spoken
to lawmakers about, were you in that circle of folks
that that was getting this plan first hand?
Speaker 3 (10:37):
We've had we've had a group of senators, delegates, and
administration that initially worked on the plan, and I was
not one of those four or five senators of the
thirty four involved in that, but I've been I've been
pleased with you know, the communication we've had since then
(10:58):
and the uh right, I'm sorry, a little technical difficulty here, Okay,
all right, So yeah, no, I understand what it is
the governor wants to do now, and it is kind
of four pillars of what he's trying to accomplish. I'm
just not sure they're the right direction that we need
(11:21):
to go. Regarding our PIA, and just for those listening,
PIA stands for Public Employees Insurance Agency. It is in essence,
the health insurance that provides coverage for our state employees
and included in that you know, vision, motor Vehicles, Division
of Highways, our teachers, and other public employees and so
(11:44):
those individuals, you know, they do their job for the
state and the state offers them health insurance. The state
puts up about eighty percent of the cost and the
individual pays twenty percent, and that is common in maybe
a lot of other workplaces. As state legislators, we are
part time state employees. So we're eligible to get to
(12:06):
receive PIA, but we're not eligible to receive the eighty
percent state subsidy. So if we want it, we can participate.
We just have to pay the one hundred percent of
the cost. And that's something I've never done all the
years I've been in office.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Sure, Now, let's see a couple of parts. And I
want to thank you for your help because we have
had a couple of technical issues here in the studio.
But I think with your help we got that worked out.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
So thank you.
Speaker 4 (12:32):
Good good.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
I appreciate that I've been in this place a few
times before.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
Yeah, that's right. Okay. But as a few aspects of
this four part plan i'd like to get your reaction to.
I would say that the first one would be establishing
a completely new separate plan for new employees. What's your
reaction to that.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
Yeah, I'm not excited about that. Number one. A new
plan brings new expenses, new administrative costs and activities. I
think if we're going to offer health insurance, we ought
to be consistent in what we offer and we shouldn't
create second class public employees who have lesser benefits than
their coworkers sitting next to them. I don't think that's
(13:14):
the right way for us to move forward on fixing PEIA.
And if there are times when an employer wants to
provide a little additional benefit to somebody who's been there longer,
that's one thing. But to say that you're going to
come to work six months after the guy next to you,
and for the rest of your career you're going to
have a lesser benefit, I don't think that's fair. And
(13:36):
really where the impact is is on the copays and
the deductibles on those new employees, and they are considerably
higher based on this proposal than on the current employees.
And you know, one of the most recurring calls I
receive as a senator, and has been the case for
thirty years, is people call about roads and they want
(13:59):
brush trim back, they want potholes repair, They have concerns.
And one of the realities is we have difficulty hiring
people to work in the Division of Highways, particularly in
more economically prosperous counties like I represent. And so you say, well,
what's the solution to that. The solution is to offer
lesser benefits when you're trying to hire more people. And
(14:22):
the same can be said for our public school teachers.
Even in places like the Eastern Hanhandle have great difficulty
hiring teachers. And one of the hooks to kind of
bring somebody in is a reasonably good, fair, dependable insurance plan.
And then you say, hey, you know, we have sixty
percent vacancies, but oh, by the way, the new hires
(14:45):
are going to have health insurance even worse than the
current people. So I don't like the idea of a
two tiered system creating you know what I would refer
to as almost second class public employees. I think we
out to try to fund what we have. I haven't
seen anything from the administration in terms of what would
be the administrative costs of a second plan and all
(15:07):
the you know, overlap of that, So so I'm hopeful
we don't do that.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Well, what do you think about maybe removing the eligibility
for spouses that have insurance opportunities at their job.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
I think we have to be careful there, because again,
we're trying to create an environment where we attract people
into public employment, and we're no different than any other
large employer where we have great difficulty hiring people and
so I think we have to be careful punishing people
(15:44):
because they're trying to bring their spouse onto the plan,
and maybe maybe where the spouse works, the plan is
much more expensive than the than the the pei A plan,
and all of a sudden, the public employee says, hey,
this doesn't work anymore. You know this five hundred dollars
a month forcing my wife off of this plan that
I'm paying the twenty percent that's required forcing my wife
(16:08):
off here, and the increased costs of her going on
to maybe a substandard plan at her place of employment
or maybe a more expensive plan at her place of employment,
makes it such that maybe I would look for another job,
and then that hurts us. And the other thing too,
is as we force those spouses off of the plan,
any volume discounts that we're receiving for the numbers of
(16:32):
people ensured, we start to lose. So we're forcing people off,
we're putting them in an adverse place. Potentially that causes
our public employee, who we desperately need, to rethink his
decision to stay on with the state. And then at
the same time, we hurt the state by reducing those
numbers of employees and the volume discounts that we receive.
(16:54):
So I kind of see it as a lose lose.
I don't see it as a win win.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Now, what about negotia ciating prescription drug prices or having
more authority?
Speaker 3 (17:03):
Yeah, volume of volume of people helps, and so so
as you forced thousands of spouses off, that hurts you
in terms of your negotiations. Now, one of the governor's
planks UH deals specifically with some of these negotiations for
drug costs, and you know, they might be onto something there,
to be honest, the research I've done is we're doing
(17:25):
that already. So maybe they just want some legal clarification
that what they're doing they can do. But but that
one is that piece is a little bit confusing to
me in that PIA is doing that already. And just
so people understand that the Public Employees Insurance Agency has
(17:46):
what's referred to as the finance board, and think of
them just like a board of directors running that company,
if you will.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
Making those fiscal decisions.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
Yeah, and they and they do some of these things,
and and there there were some other things that they
were doing, you know, leading up to this administration that
I thought were some positive things in the way they
were trying to achieve some economies of scale. And you know,
one of the things too, is the out of state
hospitals are somehow able to negotiate with PEIA their rates
(18:19):
of reimbursement, but our in state hospitals aren't. They have
to take what we provide them. In fact, the Wheeling
Hospital two years ago was ready to raise the white
flag up the pole and say, hey, we're done, We're
not taking anybody anymore. Kroger did it for a while,
you know. And so we've got to kind of get
a handle on these costs of these out of state
(18:41):
hospitals that treat our West Virginia residents. And I'll give
you some real simple numbers to put this in perspective
for you. We had about twelve thousand people in twenty
twenty three who were West Virginia residents covered by PEA,
about twelve thousand that ended up with inpatient hospital state
and the cost to treat those twelve thousand people in
(19:05):
hospital visits amounted to about fifty six million dollars.
Speaker 4 (19:11):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
At the same time, we had two thousand people who
were our West Virginia public employees retirees covered by PIA
who were treated by out of state hospitals and these
are inpatient s days and the cost of that was
about fifty six million dollars. So let me just repeat,
twelve thousand people in state hospitals fifty six million dollars.
(19:37):
Two thousand people out of state hospitals, fifty six million dollars.
We got a problem there. We got to fix.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Join the conversation at one eight hundred and seven to
sixty five eight two fivey five. This is the talk
of the town.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
To talk of the town. Have continued some technical issues.
We'll get those worked out right now, fair and fifty
seven degrees in the University city and increasing clouds today
I have seventy five degrees. In studio, we've got Chuck
Coucoulis with kCi Aviation. Hey, good morning, Chuck, How are you.
Speaker 4 (20:39):
Good morning, Mike doing well?
Speaker 3 (20:40):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
It's a pleasure to have you in the studio here now, Chuck,
the reason that you're here today is it was announced
recently that your organization is going to build a sixteen
million dollar hangar at the north Central West Virginia Airport,
probably one of the largest economic engines here in the
central part of the state. But before we talk about that,
(21:04):
tell us a little bit about your company, because you're
an aviation pioneer here in the state, or your family
is the family?
Speaker 4 (21:13):
Yes, well the family.
Speaker 5 (21:16):
Actually next year, in twenty twenty six, will celebrate seventy
five years in the aviation business in the Bridgeport area.
My dad actually started here in Morgantown right after World
War Two and got his commercial roots here with the
maintenance of flight school program and that sort of thing.
(21:37):
In fifty one, moved down to Bridgeport and we've been
there ever since.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
Wow, So I guess talk about what you know about
those early days in aviation. We were talking a little
bit off the air. You take a look at the
road network and the remote areas of the state. You
can draw a lot of parallels to a state like
Alaska when it comes to you know, it's a lot
more efficient to get around in an airplane.
Speaker 5 (22:03):
Yes, it is, especially obviously the terrain and back in
the earlier days when we didn't have the interstate highways
that connect.
Speaker 4 (22:11):
Us as well as they do these days.
Speaker 5 (22:14):
Airports are very essential to get from here to there,
and they still are. They're very important to the general economies,
even in the small towns to have you know, people
come and go for business purposes, small package deliveries, things
of that nature that you know, sure just part of
our everyday life that most folks don't even think about.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Chuck Coucoulis is with us with CACI Aviation Now, Chuck,
seventy five years, that's long time. What's kept you going
for that time? Has it been passenger transportation, cargo or maintenance?
What's done it?
Speaker 5 (22:52):
Well, we've actually done all of it. We started out
when my father started in fifty one. It was the
fixed base operation, which is the name for basically everything
flight school or charter fuel sales, aircraft maintenance, that sort
of thing.
Speaker 4 (23:10):
And we were we had the old.
Speaker 5 (23:13):
Airlines there with the old DC three's, the Taildraggers, and
watched all that evolve into what it is today. And
we got into when the airport was reconfigured back in
the early sixties. We got into supplementing that airline traffic
into Pittsburgh with twinage in CESSNAS and then that led
(23:34):
into my father being one of the original Allegheny commuters,
which is now the US Airway Network, and so we
kind of got into the pioneering of the regional commuter market.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
Wow, okay, so as that continued to evolve, you're still
doing maintenance as well, is that right?
Speaker 4 (23:52):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (23:52):
Yeah, Maintenance has always been at the core of what
we do, and right now that is the core of
kci's business.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
And I think that leads us in to start to
talk about the North Central West Virginia Airport. I guess
I could talk about it, but I can't do it justice.
Why don't you talk about it?
Speaker 5 (24:14):
Well, we have been there as Casey I Aviation since
nineteen eighty five, and we started out as that fixed
base operation type organization, but having the Pratt Whitney facility
on the airport, my background kind of got honed on
the airline side of things and seeing the kind of
(24:34):
aircraft maintenance that was required to do airline maintenance and
keep those fleets flying. I wanted to translate that into
the corporate market where they weren't getting that kind of
in that level of service, and we've been working toward
that for the years, recent years especially, and we've partnered
up with Pratt Whitney doing a lot of work in
(24:56):
support of what they do there with their engine overhaul
and repair.
Speaker 4 (24:59):
Work.
Speaker 5 (25:00):
We've got cruise that travel all over the country and
parts of the world to do aircraft engine work with them,
and the new hangar is going to be a big
supplement to that fly in capability at the airport.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
Okay, sixteen million dollar hangar. Now, what kind of hangar
does sixteen million dollars buy?
Speaker 4 (25:23):
Not much?
Speaker 5 (25:25):
Now, Actually that is a about an eighty thousand square
foot footprint. We're doing it in two phases. The first
phase is just short of about eight million dollars and
it's going to be a hangar facility that will house
two of the large cabin corporate aircraft simultaneously for engine
(25:47):
changes and another work and some backshop work and all that.
The second phase will incorporate more of our backshop work,
engine work that we do for Pratt and others, and
some engine for parts and logistics support, that sort of thing.
That'll come as a second phase. Hopefully it'll break around
(26:08):
next spring.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Okay, tell you what, Chuck, Let's take a real quick
break and we'll come back and get into some more details.
Fifty seven degrees and fair skies in Morgantown. We'll be
back on Talk of the Town AM fourteen forty f
M one oh four point five w AJR.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Now back to the talk of the town.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
Good Thursday morning, partner Cloudy in fifty seven in Morgantown
in studio we have Chuck Coucoulis with the kCi Aviation.
We're talking about their new sixteen million dollar hangar that
they'll be breaking ground on soon down at the north
Central West Virginia Airport. Now back to some of these
airport operations, Chuck, talk a little bit about the volume
(27:04):
of maintenance that is maybe not just performed by you,
but is done at that facility.
Speaker 5 (27:12):
There is it's actually the aviation aerospace hub of the
state of West Virginia.
Speaker 4 (27:18):
They're probably.
Speaker 5 (27:21):
At least fifteen hundred aviation jobs at the airport or
in the aviation community in the Bridgeport Clarksburg area. And
that's among us Bratt and Whitney, Mitsubishi, Aurora Flight Sciences
which is now part of Boeing, and then some of
the other anciliary companies that are do smaller level support
(27:43):
work for the big guys out there.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Sure people like me think that those are good paying jobs.
They are, Is that right?
Speaker 5 (27:51):
Yes, they are, and it's a good career because it
doesn't get stagnant. It's always if you get into it
from the aspect of where our business and the other
ones that I just mentioned are the nature of the
aircraft and the systems and all that go with it
are always evolving with the state of the art technologies,
(28:12):
so it keeps you on the top of your game
to learn and be part of that evolution and development
as it goes.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
What kind of engines do you work on?
Speaker 5 (28:25):
Typically, Well, the primary engines that we work on we
focus largely on Pratt and Whitney products, and we do
one of our centers of excellence is the Pratt and
Whitney post rental inspection work. They have a pool of
engines that they offer their customers. When the engines come
(28:46):
off their aircraft for repair overhauls, they get the rental
engines and when they come off of that application, we
get them back and restore them to a flight ready
status and they keep We do probably three hundred and
fifty to four hundred of those a year.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
And how many people do you employ right now?
Speaker 5 (29:08):
We're the last account I had. I think if we're
about thirty eight to forty and growing.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
Okay, and I guess how many would you like to have.
Speaker 5 (29:17):
We could probably with the new hangar project, I know
we're going to need over the course of this year
coming up to bring on probably twenty five.
Speaker 4 (29:26):
To thirty new people. He support the work that's going
to be.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
Going on there now, Chuck. I don't know about you,
but I don't know of any other place in the
world where I could go to school and then walk
to the other edge of the school and get a job,
but I think that's the case there.
Speaker 5 (29:45):
We are very fortunate that we have the Piedmont School
the community college there locally, and they do an excellent
job of putting out an aircraft maintenance technician a graduate
it and they actually have a plan to double their
output capacity and build a facility that's going to be
(30:08):
located I think, right next door to our location there
at the new airpark, the airport, and we work very.
Speaker 4 (30:16):
Closely with the staff there.
Speaker 5 (30:17):
We do a couple of scholarship programs and encourage students
we're going to be working on internships and partnering closer
with them to show the kids that I don't want
to say kids, but the young folks there are even
the older folks that go through the program. The opportunities
that we have to offer and that are out there,
and you're right, they can literally look out the window
(30:40):
and see job opportunities right in front of them and
don't have to leave home to get them.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
You know, that's really interesting when we think about a
world today where they tell you, you know, you ought
to talk with people at the placement office, and you know,
we're always zooming and maybe on a micros Soft Teams
call talking with somebody one hundred miles away. And this
also provides an opportunity not only for the students to
(31:11):
get a job at where they work, but they kind
of already know the routine and they know if that's
where they want to be or not sure, and then
gives you a chance to get a look at them
kind of the same thing.
Speaker 5 (31:23):
Yep, Yeah, that works out well. And like I said,
we have we've worked the internship program in the off
seasons when they're not actively in classes to have some
opportunities for them to come around see what we're doing
and have a role in it. We have done quite
a few apprenticeships where on the job training correlates with
(31:47):
their school education to get their licensure because we do
require the FAA certifications of airframe and power plant to
do the work.
Speaker 4 (31:55):
That we do.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
Okay, now give us a timeline on this hangar and
maybe a time that you might forecast in the future
that you'd be looking for extra mechanics.
Speaker 5 (32:10):
Well, right now, as we speak, they're pouring the foundations
and footers to the property.
Speaker 4 (32:17):
We've been on site.
Speaker 5 (32:19):
We've been waiting for all the arrangements to be made
with financing and getting all those backshop parts of it
taken care of.
Speaker 4 (32:28):
We've had our.
Speaker 5 (32:30):
Construction team City Construction is our construction manager. They've been
on site ready to go, waiting for the green light
to get started, and they hit the ground, literally hit
the ground, running and plowing up.
Speaker 4 (32:44):
We're almost the other day.
Speaker 5 (32:47):
I think we are eighty percent to grade for the facility,
the first phase of it, and we're even moving into
the second phase to prep the land. So it's all
ready to go in dovetails. But we're building as we speak.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
Okay, Now, how long is the aviation power plant mechanic training?
What does somebody need to plan for?
Speaker 5 (33:10):
Well, when they go to the formal class work as
Piedmont has to offer, it's about a twenty two month
program because there are contact hours that the FA requires.
If you do a pure apprenticeship program, it's about eighteen
months per license, so that takes a bit longer time,
(33:31):
but you're working as an apprentice doing the work that
you're going to be doing when you get your license.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
Sure, Okay, Now, let's see you said that you came
to the North Central West Virginia Airport in nineteen eighty five,
and I'm going to guess that you didn't think what's
happening now was possible.
Speaker 5 (33:52):
Well, actually, I came a lot longer, sooner than that.
I came after my dad came in fifty one.
Speaker 4 (33:58):
Okay, I call it. I got the disease from birth.
Speaker 5 (34:02):
So I grew up in the family business, and my
playground was the airport. So I've seen it evolve from
you know, the airport was built in nineteen thirty three
and it was a potato patch literally a farm.
Speaker 4 (34:17):
Wow.
Speaker 5 (34:17):
And it became what it is now, which is a
regional airport with a beautiful new airline terminal that's going
to serve the area very nicely and well into the future.
But I've seen it go from the little piper cubs
to the corporate jets to the regional jet airline market.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
What's the future for that facility in your mind?
Speaker 4 (34:38):
Well, we it's almost limitless.
Speaker 5 (34:42):
We are rather land locked in West Virginia, you know,
we have to knock the hilltops off to create a
runway where some folks are blessed with thousands of acres
of flat land. But what we have is plenty adequate
to accommodate the air carriers to get the airline traffic
to the destinations and connections.
Speaker 4 (35:03):
That are important to the area.
Speaker 5 (35:06):
Certainly, the corporate aircraft that we service have plenty of
airport environment, runway environment to come and go.
Speaker 4 (35:13):
We're fortunate to have the control tower.
Speaker 5 (35:15):
And the radar environment to give that extra element of
safety to the flying pilots traffic that comes in.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
Chuck Coucoulis with Kate ciaviation building a new sixteen million
dollar hangar at the north Central West Virginia Airport. And
so once you employ what twenty thirty more, what will
your total head count be then about seventy five or eighty.
Speaker 4 (35:40):
We're going to bump into that.
Speaker 5 (35:41):
And to me, the more the more, the merrier, I
want to see it grow and continue to grow and
a couple of years ago. I started my company as
an employee stock ownership plan, so I gave thirty percent
of the ownership to my employees.
Speaker 4 (35:59):
A couple of years ago.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
Okay, So this.
Speaker 5 (36:01):
Is the benefit that folks would have coming on board
with CACI is you have an opportunity to own a
piece of the company.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
Okay, Well, Chuck, I'll tell you what. We're out of
time today, but let's stay in touch, like to get
you to come back again.
Speaker 4 (36:15):
We love it. Thank you, Mike.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
Absolutely, you take care of yourself right now. Partner Cloudy
in fifty seven, we'll be back to wrap things up.
Coming up after this on Talk of the Town AM
fourteen forty f M one oh four point five w
AJR
This is the Talk of the Town from Morgantown to Klerksburg.
If it's happening, we're talking about it. Call the show
toll free at one eight hundred seven sixty five eight
two fivey five. Now Here is your host for the
Talk of the Town, Mike Notlting.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Well, good Thursday morning, and welcome to Talk of the Town.
I'm Mike Notlting. You'll find me out on x as
your news guy. Producing the program today is Ethan Collins.
You'll be able to find Ethan at eight hundred seven
six five eight two five five. To Metro Newszaki Weathers says,
(00:56):
today things look relatively nice, partly sunny skies and high
of seventy five degrees expected. And taking a look at
the future, I guess the very near future in terms
of our Labor Day weather pattern, everything really is pointing
to an absolutely spectacular Labor Day weekend. This trend will continue. However,
(01:22):
there is a slight cold air mass that is descending
down into the area now that's going to cloud things
up just a little bit today and we'll bring the
possibility of a late evening sprinkle or possibly a very
early morning sprinkle. However, the forecast for game time tonight.
(01:44):
That certainly looks dry and definitely fine. Of course, kickoff
tonight at pony lewis Field, Mohegans are taking on Parkersburg.
That's the WVSSAC High School football kickoff that's sponsored by
the West Virginia Army National Guard. And you'll be able
(02:06):
to get that live right here on WAJR O. Of course,
over on the network, you'll be able to watch that
on the TV, the Metro News TV. Take a look
at a couple of headlines before we get the program
started today. This just in Morgantown man has been charged
in connection with a fatal hit and run in Fayette County, Pennsylvania.
(02:31):
Steven Limro, seventy four years old, if Morgantown's accused of
hitting seventy year old Silvis at the intersection of West
Church and Morgantown Streets on Wednesday. Official says say that
Limro fled the scene, then he returned while that investigation
was ongoing, and he wasn't able to flee the second time.
(02:53):
Pennsylvania State Police were able to take him into custody.
He's been charged with involuntary manslaughter accident involving death fleeing
and reckless driving. He's being held on a ten thousand
dollars bond. He has a preliminary hearing set for September
tenth at ten A m trial continues in Mont County
(03:16):
Circuit Court of Jonathan Ramirez. That is the first degree
murder trial Ramirez accused of in the stabbing death of
twenty six year old Jacob Blow, who was an employee
of lear Field Sports. Ramirez has been held in the
North Central Regional Jail since that crime occurred in January
(03:38):
of twenty twenty four. During his stay, if you remember,
he faced two counts of battery ona law enforcement officer
and entered into a plea deal there and received two
sixty day sentences that ran concurrently for that particular crime.
What we're learning about this particular trial is he came
(04:00):
to Wayne County, West Virginia to meet a young lady,
and when that situation didn't materialize, he came to Morgantown,
where he ended up at the Hampton Inn on Van
Voris Road. He left there, got some beer, came back,
and that's when things started to go south, and he
(04:21):
got into an altercation there at the hotel and was
asked to leave by management. That was when he found
himself in the neighborhood of Milford Street and where that
murder occurred. Joe Nelson is covering that particular trial for
Metro News and WAJR and he's a matter of fact,
(04:44):
on his way down to the courtroom now, and I'm
sure we'll get a lunchtime update from Joe. We'll be back.
Coming up on the program today, we'll spend a few
minutes with State Senator Mike Oliverio. We're going to be
talking about Peia, the governor's recent proposal and how lawmakers
(05:06):
might receive that proposal. That's coming up next on Talk
of the Town AM fourteen forty FM one oh four
point five WAJR. Good Thursday morning, and welcome back to
the program. I'm my old thing right now. Partly cloudy,
fifty seven degrees in the University City today. Metro Newsaki
(05:30):
Weather says increasing clouds and I have seventy four degrees
In studio. We have State Senator Mike Alaverio with us,
and good morning, Mike, how are you hey?
Speaker 3 (05:41):
Good morning to you doing just well. It's one of
my favorite weekends of the year.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Coming up absolutely Labor Day, the change of seasons. Football,
there are so many good things about this season. What's
your favorite?
Speaker 3 (05:54):
Well, I also enjoy the Italian Heritage Festival and your
station had a little special on that about thirty minutes ago,
and that got my mouth watering already with all the
Italian food down there. And it's just a special weekend.
You know, the students are back, football starts, the seasons
start to turn a little bit, it's a little cooler,
(06:15):
and it's just an exciting time, almost the time of renewal.
And I really enjoy this weekend absolutely.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
I've got a speaking of the Italian Heritage Festival. I've
got to call into Wich and we're going to get
Weige on the program, hopefully tomorrow if she's not too busy.
But Senator, we're here this morning to talk about pe
i A and the recent four point plan that Governor
(06:42):
Morrissey released. Now, if you would, I guess, could you
address maybe there's been some criticism to the Governor's office
in terms of the level of communication or lack thereof,
with state lawmakers. What's your take on some of that.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
You know, the governor has typically a legislative liaison that
communicates with you. His current legislative liaison that's working with
the Senate is a former delegate that I served with
years ago in the legislature. You're a really good man,
and we you know, we communicate well. And you know
it's his job to communicate with several of us on
(07:26):
behalf of the governor. So and that's a reasonable expectation.
The governor is a is a busy person, a lot
of responsibility and can't can't communicate with one hundred and
thirty four legislators all the time. So so I think
we get good information through that legislative liaison. Sometimes, we
like anybody else, we like a little bit of love.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
You know.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
We want to hear from the governor when we think
something is especially important in our district or or when
we raise our hand and say, hey, we want more
than the legislative liaison. And on a couple of occasions
governor more he has done. At I had some issues
regarding West Virginia University just at the end of the
legislative session, and the governor did spend some time with
(08:09):
me and talk through some things. He didn't do what
I wanted, but that you know, that's okay. I mean,
you know, I was heard, got to voice the concerns
of my constituents, and that's really the role of the
republic form of government that we have.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Absolutely. Now, I know that you had expressed some concern
about the lack of communication during the sale of the
state run hospitals. Did you get some.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
That one was a little different there, I mean that
one kind of came at us out of the blue.
And the timeline. You know, for several years, some governors
had pursued selling off those state hospitals that provide long
term care services to kind of patients of last resort,
oftentimes patients that were not able to be admitted in
(08:58):
the traditional private sector or long term care setting, and
so they were filling a valuable niche those facilities. And
there were times when some governors in the pasta, Hey,
we're going to sell these off, and we need to
pass a bill to do that. Some legislators would react
very adversely to that, whereas this governor, uh, you know,
began the process, entered into a sale without telling us,
(09:22):
and uh and that concerned us. Now, my colleague Senator
Joey Garcia in Marion County, he really believes that the
administration stepped out beyond the legal bounds of what they're
able to do, and he uh with his lawyer hat on,
not his senate hat, but he is a private lawyer.
He has actually brought a lawsuit against the administration on
(09:44):
behalf of a resident at the Mansion Clinic, saying hey,
you can't sell this without the approval of the legislature.
So time will tell how that plays out. But uh,
but it's not it's not my not my intention to
throw the governor under the bus. And he's not communicating
with us because there has been some communication. I don't
necessarily agree with some of the things he's communicating to us.
(10:07):
And that's my that's my role as a legislator representing
one hundred and ten thousand people here in north central
West Virginia to speak up and say, hey, I understand
what you're trying to do, but I don't think that's
what our folks believe is the right thing to do.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Okay, Now, when we take a look at this four
part plan that the governor released or has talking spoken
to lawmakers about, were you in that circle of folks
that that was getting this plan first hand?
Speaker 3 (10:37):
We've had we've had a group of senators, delegates, and
administration that initially worked on the plan, and I was
not one of those four or five senators of the
thirty four involved in that, but I've been I've been
pleased with you know, the communication we've had since then
(10:58):
and the uh right, I'm sorry, a little technical difficulty here, Okay,
all right, So yeah, no, I understand what it is
the governor wants to do now, and it is kind
of four pillars of what he's trying to accomplish. I'm
just not sure they're the right direction that we need
(11:21):
to go. Regarding our PIA, and just for those listening,
PIA stands for Public Employees Insurance Agency. It is in essence,
the health insurance that provides coverage for our state employees
and included in that you know, vision, motor Vehicles, Division
of Highways, our teachers, and other public employees and so
(11:44):
those individuals, you know, they do their job for the
state and the state offers them health insurance. The state
puts up about eighty percent of the cost and the
individual pays twenty percent, and that is common in maybe
a lot of other workplaces. As state legislators, we are
part time state employees. So we're eligible to get to
(12:06):
receive PIA, but we're not eligible to receive the eighty
percent state subsidy. So if we want it, we can participate.
We just have to pay the one hundred percent of
the cost. And that's something I've never done all the
years I've been in office.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Sure, Now, let's see a couple of parts. And I
want to thank you for your help because we have
had a couple of technical issues here in the studio.
But I think with your help we got that worked out.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
So thank you.
Speaker 4 (12:32):
Good good.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
I appreciate that I've been in this place a few
times before.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
Yeah, that's right. Okay. But as a few aspects of
this four part plan i'd like to get your reaction to.
I would say that the first one would be establishing
a completely new separate plan for new employees. What's your
reaction to that.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
Yeah, I'm not excited about that. Number one. A new
plan brings new expenses, new administrative costs and activities. I
think if we're going to offer health insurance, we ought
to be consistent in what we offer and we shouldn't
create second class public employees who have lesser benefits than
their coworkers sitting next to them. I don't think that's
(13:14):
the right way for us to move forward on fixing PEIA.
And if there are times when an employer wants to
provide a little additional benefit to somebody who's been there longer,
that's one thing. But to say that you're going to
come to work six months after the guy next to you,
and for the rest of your career you're going to
have a lesser benefit, I don't think that's fair. And
(13:36):
really where the impact is is on the copays and
the deductibles on those new employees, and they are considerably
higher based on this proposal than on the current employees.
And you know, one of the most recurring calls I
receive as a senator, and has been the case for
thirty years, is people call about roads and they want
(13:59):
brush trim back, they want potholes repair, They have concerns.
And one of the realities is we have difficulty hiring
people to work in the Division of Highways, particularly in
more economically prosperous counties like I represent. And so you say, well,
what's the solution to that. The solution is to offer
lesser benefits when you're trying to hire more people. And
(14:22):
the same can be said for our public school teachers.
Even in places like the Eastern Hanhandle have great difficulty
hiring teachers. And one of the hooks to kind of
bring somebody in is a reasonably good, fair, dependable insurance plan.
And then you say, hey, you know, we have sixty
percent vacancies, but oh, by the way, the new hires
(14:45):
are going to have health insurance even worse than the
current people. So I don't like the idea of a
two tiered system creating you know what I would refer
to as almost second class public employees. I think we
out to try to fund what we have. I haven't
seen anything from the administration in terms of what would
be the administrative costs of a second plan and all
(15:07):
the you know, overlap of that, So so I'm hopeful
we don't do that.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Well, what do you think about maybe removing the eligibility
for spouses that have insurance opportunities at their job.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
I think we have to be careful there, because again,
we're trying to create an environment where we attract people
into public employment, and we're no different than any other
large employer where we have great difficulty hiring people and
so I think we have to be careful punishing people
(15:44):
because they're trying to bring their spouse onto the plan,
and maybe maybe where the spouse works, the plan is
much more expensive than the than the the pei A plan,
and all of a sudden, the public employee says, hey,
this doesn't work anymore. You know this five hundred dollars
a month forcing my wife off of this plan that
I'm paying the twenty percent that's required forcing my wife
(16:08):
off here, and the increased costs of her going on
to maybe a substandard plan at her place of employment
or maybe a more expensive plan at her place of employment,
makes it such that maybe I would look for another job,
and then that hurts us. And the other thing too,
is as we force those spouses off of the plan,
any volume discounts that we're receiving for the numbers of
(16:32):
people ensured, we start to lose. So we're forcing people off,
we're putting them in an adverse place. Potentially that causes
our public employee, who we desperately need, to rethink his
decision to stay on with the state. And then at
the same time, we hurt the state by reducing those
numbers of employees and the volume discounts that we receive.
(16:54):
So I kind of see it as a lose lose.
I don't see it as a win win.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Now, what about negotia ciating prescription drug prices or having
more authority?
Speaker 3 (17:03):
Yeah, volume of volume of people helps, and so so
as you forced thousands of spouses off, that hurts you
in terms of your negotiations. Now, one of the governor's
planks UH deals specifically with some of these negotiations for
drug costs, and you know, they might be onto something there,
to be honest, the research I've done is we're doing
(17:25):
that already. So maybe they just want some legal clarification
that what they're doing they can do. But but that
one is that piece is a little bit confusing to
me in that PIA is doing that already. And just
so people understand that the Public Employees Insurance Agency has
(17:46):
what's referred to as the finance board, and think of
them just like a board of directors running that company,
if you will.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
Making those fiscal decisions.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
Yeah, and they and they do some of these things,
and and there there were some other things that they
were doing, you know, leading up to this administration that
I thought were some positive things in the way they
were trying to achieve some economies of scale. And you know,
one of the things too, is the out of state
hospitals are somehow able to negotiate with PEIA their rates
(18:19):
of reimbursement, but our in state hospitals aren't. They have
to take what we provide them. In fact, the Wheeling
Hospital two years ago was ready to raise the white
flag up the pole and say, hey, we're done, We're
not taking anybody anymore. Kroger did it for a while,
you know. And so we've got to kind of get
a handle on these costs of these out of state
(18:41):
hospitals that treat our West Virginia residents. And I'll give
you some real simple numbers to put this in perspective
for you. We had about twelve thousand people in twenty
twenty three who were West Virginia residents covered by PEA,
about twelve thousand that ended up with inpatient hospital state
and the cost to treat those twelve thousand people in
(19:05):
hospital visits amounted to about fifty six million dollars.
Speaker 4 (19:11):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
At the same time, we had two thousand people who
were our West Virginia public employees retirees covered by PIA
who were treated by out of state hospitals and these
are inpatient s days and the cost of that was
about fifty six million dollars. So let me just repeat,
twelve thousand people in state hospitals fifty six million dollars.
(19:37):
Two thousand people out of state hospitals, fifty six million dollars.
We got a problem there. We got to fix.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Join the conversation at one eight hundred and seven to
sixty five eight two fivey five. This is the talk
of the town.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
To talk of the town. Have continued some technical issues.
We'll get those worked out right now, fair and fifty
seven degrees in the University city and increasing clouds today
I have seventy five degrees. In studio, we've got Chuck
Coucoulis with kCi Aviation. Hey, good morning, Chuck, How are you.
Speaker 4 (20:39):
Good morning, Mike doing well?
Speaker 3 (20:40):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
It's a pleasure to have you in the studio here now, Chuck,
the reason that you're here today is it was announced
recently that your organization is going to build a sixteen
million dollar hangar at the north Central West Virginia Airport,
probably one of the largest economic engines here in the
central part of the state. But before we talk about that,
(21:04):
tell us a little bit about your company, because you're
an aviation pioneer here in the state, or your family
is the family?
Speaker 4 (21:13):
Yes, well the family.
Speaker 5 (21:16):
Actually next year, in twenty twenty six, will celebrate seventy
five years in the aviation business in the Bridgeport area.
My dad actually started here in Morgantown right after World
War Two and got his commercial roots here with the
maintenance of flight school program and that sort of thing.
(21:37):
In fifty one, moved down to Bridgeport and we've been
there ever since.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
Wow, So I guess talk about what you know about
those early days in aviation. We were talking a little
bit off the air. You take a look at the
road network and the remote areas of the state. You
can draw a lot of parallels to a state like
Alaska when it comes to you know, it's a lot
more efficient to get around in an airplane.
Speaker 5 (22:03):
Yes, it is, especially obviously the terrain and back in
the earlier days when we didn't have the interstate highways
that connect.
Speaker 4 (22:11):
Us as well as they do these days.
Speaker 5 (22:14):
Airports are very essential to get from here to there,
and they still are. They're very important to the general economies,
even in the small towns to have you know, people
come and go for business purposes, small package deliveries, things
of that nature that you know, sure just part of
our everyday life that most folks don't even think about.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Chuck Coucoulis is with us with CACI Aviation Now, Chuck,
seventy five years, that's long time. What's kept you going
for that time? Has it been passenger transportation, cargo or maintenance?
What's done it?
Speaker 5 (22:52):
Well, we've actually done all of it. We started out
when my father started in fifty one. It was the
fixed base operation, which is the name for basically everything
flight school or charter fuel sales, aircraft maintenance, that sort
of thing.
Speaker 4 (23:10):
And we were we had the old.
Speaker 5 (23:13):
Airlines there with the old DC three's, the Taildraggers, and
watched all that evolve into what it is today. And
we got into when the airport was reconfigured back in
the early sixties. We got into supplementing that airline traffic
into Pittsburgh with twinage in CESSNAS and then that led
(23:34):
into my father being one of the original Allegheny commuters,
which is now the US Airway Network, and so we
kind of got into the pioneering of the regional commuter market.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
Wow, okay, so as that continued to evolve, you're still
doing maintenance as well, is that right?
Speaker 4 (23:52):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (23:52):
Yeah, Maintenance has always been at the core of what
we do, and right now that is the core of
kci's business.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
And I think that leads us in to start to
talk about the North Central West Virginia Airport. I guess
I could talk about it, but I can't do it justice.
Why don't you talk about it?
Speaker 5 (24:14):
Well, we have been there as Casey I Aviation since
nineteen eighty five, and we started out as that fixed
base operation type organization, but having the Pratt Whitney facility
on the airport, my background kind of got honed on
the airline side of things and seeing the kind of
(24:34):
aircraft maintenance that was required to do airline maintenance and
keep those fleets flying. I wanted to translate that into
the corporate market where they weren't getting that kind of
in that level of service, and we've been working toward
that for the years, recent years especially, and we've partnered
up with Pratt Whitney doing a lot of work in
(24:56):
support of what they do there with their engine overhaul
and repair.
Speaker 4 (24:59):
Work.
Speaker 5 (25:00):
We've got cruise that travel all over the country and
parts of the world to do aircraft engine work with them,
and the new hangar is going to be a big
supplement to that fly in capability at the airport.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
Okay, sixteen million dollar hangar. Now, what kind of hangar
does sixteen million dollars buy?
Speaker 4 (25:23):
Not much?
Speaker 5 (25:25):
Now, Actually that is a about an eighty thousand square
foot footprint. We're doing it in two phases. The first
phase is just short of about eight million dollars and
it's going to be a hangar facility that will house
two of the large cabin corporate aircraft simultaneously for engine
(25:47):
changes and another work and some backshop work and all that.
The second phase will incorporate more of our backshop work,
engine work that we do for Pratt and others, and
some engine for parts and logistics support, that sort of thing.
That'll come as a second phase. Hopefully it'll break around
(26:08):
next spring.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Okay, tell you what, Chuck, Let's take a real quick
break and we'll come back and get into some more details.
Fifty seven degrees and fair skies in Morgantown. We'll be
back on Talk of the Town AM fourteen forty f
M one oh four point five w AJR.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Now back to the talk of the town.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
Good Thursday morning, partner Cloudy in fifty seven in Morgantown
in studio we have Chuck Coucoulis with the kCi Aviation.
We're talking about their new sixteen million dollar hangar that
they'll be breaking ground on soon down at the north
Central West Virginia Airport. Now back to some of these
airport operations, Chuck, talk a little bit about the volume
(27:04):
of maintenance that is maybe not just performed by you,
but is done at that facility.
Speaker 5 (27:12):
There is it's actually the aviation aerospace hub of the
state of West Virginia.
Speaker 4 (27:18):
They're probably.
Speaker 5 (27:21):
At least fifteen hundred aviation jobs at the airport or
in the aviation community in the Bridgeport Clarksburg area. And
that's among us Bratt and Whitney, Mitsubishi, Aurora Flight Sciences
which is now part of Boeing, and then some of
the other anciliary companies that are do smaller level support
(27:43):
work for the big guys out there.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Sure people like me think that those are good paying jobs.
They are, Is that right?
Speaker 5 (27:51):
Yes, they are, and it's a good career because it
doesn't get stagnant. It's always if you get into it
from the aspect of where our business and the other
ones that I just mentioned are the nature of the
aircraft and the systems and all that go with it
are always evolving with the state of the art technologies,
(28:12):
so it keeps you on the top of your game
to learn and be part of that evolution and development
as it goes.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
What kind of engines do you work on?
Speaker 5 (28:25):
Typically, Well, the primary engines that we work on we
focus largely on Pratt and Whitney products, and we do
one of our centers of excellence is the Pratt and
Whitney post rental inspection work. They have a pool of
engines that they offer their customers. When the engines come
(28:46):
off their aircraft for repair overhauls, they get the rental
engines and when they come off of that application, we
get them back and restore them to a flight ready
status and they keep We do probably three hundred and
fifty to four hundred of those a year.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
And how many people do you employ right now?
Speaker 5 (29:08):
We're the last account I had. I think if we're
about thirty eight to forty and growing.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
Okay, and I guess how many would you like to have.
Speaker 5 (29:17):
We could probably with the new hangar project, I know
we're going to need over the course of this year
coming up to bring on probably twenty five.
Speaker 4 (29:26):
To thirty new people. He support the work that's going
to be.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
Going on there now, Chuck. I don't know about you,
but I don't know of any other place in the
world where I could go to school and then walk
to the other edge of the school and get a job,
but I think that's the case there.
Speaker 5 (29:45):
We are very fortunate that we have the Piedmont School
the community college there locally, and they do an excellent
job of putting out an aircraft maintenance technician a graduate
it and they actually have a plan to double their
output capacity and build a facility that's going to be
(30:08):
located I think, right next door to our location there
at the new airpark, the airport, and we work very.
Speaker 4 (30:16):
Closely with the staff there.
Speaker 5 (30:17):
We do a couple of scholarship programs and encourage students
we're going to be working on internships and partnering closer
with them to show the kids that I don't want
to say kids, but the young folks there are even
the older folks that go through the program. The opportunities
that we have to offer and that are out there,
and you're right, they can literally look out the window
(30:40):
and see job opportunities right in front of them and
don't have to leave home to get them.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
You know, that's really interesting when we think about a
world today where they tell you, you know, you ought
to talk with people at the placement office, and you know,
we're always zooming and maybe on a micros Soft Teams
call talking with somebody one hundred miles away. And this
also provides an opportunity not only for the students to
(31:11):
get a job at where they work, but they kind
of already know the routine and they know if that's
where they want to be or not sure, and then
gives you a chance to get a look at them
kind of the same thing.
Speaker 5 (31:23):
Yep, Yeah, that works out well. And like I said,
we have we've worked the internship program in the off
seasons when they're not actively in classes to have some
opportunities for them to come around see what we're doing
and have a role in it. We have done quite
a few apprenticeships where on the job training correlates with
(31:47):
their school education to get their licensure because we do
require the FAA certifications of airframe and power plant to
do the work.
Speaker 4 (31:55):
That we do.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
Okay, now give us a timeline on this hangar and
maybe a time that you might forecast in the future
that you'd be looking for extra mechanics.
Speaker 5 (32:10):
Well, right now, as we speak, they're pouring the foundations
and footers to the property.
Speaker 4 (32:17):
We've been on site.
Speaker 5 (32:19):
We've been waiting for all the arrangements to be made
with financing and getting all those backshop parts of it
taken care of.
Speaker 4 (32:28):
We've had our.
Speaker 5 (32:30):
Construction team City Construction is our construction manager. They've been
on site ready to go, waiting for the green light
to get started, and they hit the ground, literally hit
the ground, running and plowing up.
Speaker 4 (32:44):
We're almost the other day.
Speaker 5 (32:47):
I think we are eighty percent to grade for the facility,
the first phase of it, and we're even moving into
the second phase to prep the land. So it's all
ready to go in dovetails. But we're building as we speak.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
Okay, Now, how long is the aviation power plant mechanic training?
What does somebody need to plan for?
Speaker 5 (33:10):
Well, when they go to the formal class work as
Piedmont has to offer, it's about a twenty two month
program because there are contact hours that the FA requires.
If you do a pure apprenticeship program, it's about eighteen
months per license, so that takes a bit longer time,
(33:31):
but you're working as an apprentice doing the work that
you're going to be doing when you get your license.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
Sure, Okay, Now, let's see you said that you came
to the North Central West Virginia Airport in nineteen eighty five,
and I'm going to guess that you didn't think what's
happening now was possible.
Speaker 5 (33:52):
Well, actually, I came a lot longer, sooner than that.
I came after my dad came in fifty one.
Speaker 4 (33:58):
Okay, I call it. I got the disease from birth.
Speaker 5 (34:02):
So I grew up in the family business, and my
playground was the airport. So I've seen it evolve from
you know, the airport was built in nineteen thirty three
and it was a potato patch literally a farm.
Speaker 4 (34:17):
Wow.
Speaker 5 (34:17):
And it became what it is now, which is a
regional airport with a beautiful new airline terminal that's going
to serve the area very nicely and well into the future.
But I've seen it go from the little piper cubs
to the corporate jets to the regional jet airline market.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
What's the future for that facility in your mind?
Speaker 4 (34:38):
Well, we it's almost limitless.
Speaker 5 (34:42):
We are rather land locked in West Virginia, you know,
we have to knock the hilltops off to create a
runway where some folks are blessed with thousands of acres
of flat land. But what we have is plenty adequate
to accommodate the air carriers to get the airline traffic
to the destinations and connections.
Speaker 4 (35:03):
That are important to the area.
Speaker 5 (35:06):
Certainly, the corporate aircraft that we service have plenty of
airport environment, runway environment to come and go.
Speaker 4 (35:13):
We're fortunate to have the control tower.
Speaker 5 (35:15):
And the radar environment to give that extra element of
safety to the flying pilots traffic that comes in.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
Chuck Coucoulis with Kate ciaviation building a new sixteen million
dollar hangar at the north Central West Virginia Airport. And
so once you employ what twenty thirty more, what will
your total head count be then about seventy five or eighty.
Speaker 4 (35:40):
We're going to bump into that.
Speaker 5 (35:41):
And to me, the more the more, the merrier, I
want to see it grow and continue to grow and
a couple of years ago. I started my company as
an employee stock ownership plan, so I gave thirty percent
of the ownership to my employees.
Speaker 4 (35:59):
A couple of years ago.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
Okay, So this.
Speaker 5 (36:01):
Is the benefit that folks would have coming on board
with CACI is you have an opportunity to own a
piece of the company.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
Okay, Well, Chuck, I'll tell you what. We're out of
time today, but let's stay in touch, like to get
you to come back again.
Speaker 4 (36:15):
We love it. Thank you, Mike.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
Absolutely, you take care of yourself right now. Partner Cloudy
in fifty seven, we'll be back to wrap things up.
Coming up after this on Talk of the Town AM
fourteen forty f M one oh four point five w
AJR
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