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Authority seeks operator for restaurant in airport

MARTINSBURG — The Altoona-Blair County Airport Authority is looking for a restaurant operator again.

After nearly three years of depending on tenant Roger Hull to operate the Kitty Hawk restaurant on the second floor of the airport terminal, Hull recently exercised a clause to terminate the lease.

That led to the May 28 closing of the restaurant, which is reopening Friday, for at least 90 days, under the authority’s management.

While meeting Monday, the authority voted to hire two full-time and nine part-time Kitty Hawk employees to work at the restaurant, which will take on the name of “The Cove Grill” as part of the airport’s operation.

In late May, the authority voted to hire the restaurant’s kitchen manager, Joshua Kulis, and restaurant supervisor, Amanda Briel, when making plans to keep the restaurant open while searching for operator.

Airport Manager Tracy Plessinger said the board’s action reflects the theory that it’s easier to lease a space that’s already in operation.

Authority members indicated that they have been looking for and remain very interested in finding a restaurant operator, a job the airport authority doesn’t want on a permanent basis.

Before closing the restaurant, Hull provided a 60-day termination notice as required in his lease. But that wasn’t enough time to find another operator and keep the restaurant open.

“People couldn’t make a decision that fast,” authority member Drew Swope said. “This gives us some time.”

Plessinger said he expects the restaurant will do enough business this summer to cover the operating costs because summer tends to be a busier time.

Plus, Plessinger mentioned the airport terminal has seen more visitors since late May when Magisterial District Judge Craig Ormsby’s office and court moved to the second floor of the terminal from its former location in Roaring Spring.

The Mirror was unable to reach Hull for comment about his decision to terminate the lease. His action also resulted in closing the airport’s gift shop and Avis car rentals.

When Hull, a Clearfield County resident, took over the airport’s restaurant’s operation in June 2014, the facility had been closed for about two years despite efforts by airport leaders to find a tenant.

At one point, the authority spoke of trying to market the restaurant as a site for catered dinners or dividing the restaurant into office space that could be rented.

Hull offered his support last year when authority members spoke favorably of trying to pursue a liquor license for use at the airport, a move they viewed as beneficial to both the restaurant and airport.

But that pursuit required gathering names on a petition in support of a ballot question for North Woodbury Township voters, and for lack of enough signatures, the question never made the ballot.

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