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tus quo. But like Athens, the airport is growing.
Beggerty says it is full and either it has to grow or the
traffic will go somewhere else.
“Companies may be looking for a place to build a
factory that may employ 500-700 people,' fie says.
‘A lot of these companies have millions of dollars in
vested in their corporate planes for transportation. One
of the things they look for are airports, so they can
utilize this transportation.’
Beggerty has also been operating with a budget
that has been in the red fa many years. He wants to
get it operating in the black.
“This will help the airport become self-sustaining,’
he says, “so we don’t have to rely on tax dollars to
operate. We can pay our own way, and that is our
goal.’
A collage of airplanes, aircraft carriers and
airports is all over the bulletin board on
the wall. Dan (“Jus* call me Dan’), who says he formed
a fascination with airplanes when he built models as a
boy, is behind the desk. He has been working at Ben
Epps airport fa six years as a flightline attendant.
“It’s a job you can take a lot of pride in,’ he says.
Dan left the airport and Athens fa a short time
when his wife was offered a teaching job out of the
area. But he says both got homesick and soon re
turned. Dan came right back to Ben Epps.
“The r e’s times when things don’t flow as smoothly
as they could. But it seems like in the thick of it, we’re
all able to pull together and get it done,’ he says. “You
can count on your co-wakers when you know them
like that.’
Dan says he loves to make people glad that they
stopped: “There’s a lot you can offer. I sometimes feel
that a lot of people in different types of wak don’t any
more. It seems impersonal in a lot of places. You might
realize a know what I’m talking about. We like to feel
like customers feel like they were treated years ago. I
think people as a whole have gotten away from that.
They do what’s asked of them, and not any extra.
“I think what keeps us going is the occasional pat
on the back. It kind cf keeps you: ’AM right, I’m going
to keep doing that ri folks appreciate 11 that much ”
The phone rings. A man says he plans to fiy into
Athens and wiil arrive about 9:30 p.m.
Dan replies: “Well be here.’
CyrzLg
C raig Williams has been at the airport for six
years. He is a flightline attendant, and he is
responsible fa crash-fire rescue, which includes any
thing trom a medical problem to a crash. But Williams
says so far he has only dealt with mina problems.
“I’ve seen a lot of neat stuff... a lot of histaical
things... Wal.’War II bombers... fighters... old-timer
pilots,’ he says. “You never know from day tc day. To
me, that’s just neat.’
Williams says, “Its been a lot of hard wak, be
cause of the number of people we’re going to have to
accommodate,’ but he says the airpat is prepared.
“Fa what we had to work with, yeah," he says.
“The government held back on our Olympic money.
So when they released it, we just had to do it all at
once."
The aiginal plan tc remodel the crew' e*ice fell
through. Instead, they have brought in the two tempo
rary trailers. Williams also said the crew wanted tc get
some portable bathrooms, but by the time the money
came in, the bathrooms were gone.
“This is pretty much all we could get.’ he says.
“We just felt we could have had the money a little
sooner.
During the Olympics, he will have to be on his
toes.
“I'm kind of looking forward to it,’ he says. “Well
get to see a lot of airplanes and a tot of people.
Cernsi-ie
C onnie Baggett has been at the airport fa
11 years. She works ac a manager's assis
tant and helps keep the books.
She says the crew went ahead and maue up a list
of all the things they were going to need as if they
I were preparing for two football games. When the gov-
: ernment released their Olympic money, they were
! ready to spend it.
“We may have gone with our second choice to
help fit within the budget we had to work with,’ she
says. She says she's e'lremely proud of the opera
tions crew, whom she has known fa a long time: “They
adapted with smiles on their faces.’
Cfvci^
C hris Lewis got out of the Navy in 1985. The
only thing he was qualified to do was work
on airplanes. His qualifications landed him a job at
Ben Epps. A few years later, he started his own busi
ness as a florist. But after four years, he began to miss
the airplanes.
“Most everybody who quits comes back,’ says
Lewis. “Yeah, you cant beat this job. There’s some
thing new everyday."
Lewis is a flightline attendant and works the main
tenance department.
“Everything that breaks, I get to fix,’ he says
And Lewis says there is always something break
ing: “Always.’
Lewis says that with limited funds from the county
government, he is always inventing new ways to fix
the things that are broken. This same type of otflook
seems to be expressed when he talks of the recent
changes at the airport:
“They were rather drastic. I didn’t quite agree with
all of them, but I understand the necessity.... Actually
it keeps me busier; the day goes by faster, and it’s a
little moie rewarding at the end of the day.’
Lewis welcomes all visitas to the Olympics: “We
do our best to make everybody feel welcome and want
to come back.’ *
J ust about every day, under the airport’s ga
zebo, you can find a member of the Certified
Airport Bums. Omer Fuller is one of them. He’s been
coming to Ben Epps Airport since he was 9 years old.
He waked as a lineman at the airport fa 10 years. At
the age of 70. he still cannot get enough:
’I love airplanes,’ he says. “I love the feeling of
being out here.’
But his view of the Olympics is a little less roman
tic: “It’s a bunch of bullshit; a lot of hoop fa nothing.'
Bob Burton, another CAB, also loves to watch the
planes and meet the people. But he is also a little
apprehensive about the Games: “I think the Olym
pic Games are fine, but that ACOG crowd is the
most selfish bunch of S.O.B.’s I've ever seen in my
life; period.
“They come in here and push people around
and put up fences and block off streets and say,
'You can’t do this.’ And they do all this in the name
of security. And they didn’t even contract with the
city of Athens. They said that Athens is not a venue
fa the Olympics, and therefore 'We're not going to
pay you for your time, and police and all of this at
the airport.' It comes out of my pocket as a tax
payer.’
During the Olympics, Burton says, he is going to
Alaska.
R ay Moae has been at the airport for eight-
and-a-half years.
“I’ve seen quite a bit of it.’ he says. “It gets in your
blood, I guess.’
When the airport directa resigned, he took over
as operations supervisor. Because of his duties, Moae
says, he can really appreciate the workload everyone
has had to put in, especially Tim Beggerty, who he
thinks has done a fantastic job.
“Its starting to show now; everything is coming
together,’ he says. “We're getting a lot of comments.
They’re talking about how much they appreciate our
hard work: even the city manager.
“It makes you feel good to be complimented like
that,’ he says. “Of course, you'll get mae from an in
dividual by being nice to them than you will by being
hard.’
Tuesday July 17, at an airport press confer
ence, Beggerly is highly complimented by many
government officials and others for what he and
his staff have accomplished at the airpat.
With a look of pride, he responds: “I was hand
ing them nails, and boards and Gatorade.’
The evening sun sets just behind a hangar; or
ange rays beam down out of the pink and blue sky
hanging overhead. An American flag and a Geor
gia flag blow in the wind. A dog in a red bandanna
plays with an orange cat named Beastie Bob, right
in front of the airport's gazebo. A Phillips 66 sign
proclaims, “Summer Games 1996: Lei The Planes
Begin.’
Keith Hurwitz
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