FRYEBURG — Eastern Slopes Aviation owner Jim Horowitz said Thursday that reports of a disagreement with the Eastern Slopes Regional Airport Authority are "erroneous."
Leslie H. Dixon/Sun Journal
Work at the Eastern Slopes Airport in Fryeburg has been downsized over the past several years due in part to increasing fuel prices.
Eastern Slopes Aviation, a division of Oxford Aviation which operates at the Oxford County Airport, is under the gun by Authority members who were reportedly set to discuss terminating its lease at a meeting Wednesday, according to the Forecaster.
The Authority took no action to revoke Eastern Slopes Aviation's lease, Fryeburg Manager Martin Krauter said. But, he said, the authority has "dissatisfactions" with the Oxford-based company.
Authority Chairman Don Thibideau said Thursday, "I am not in a position to talk. We will deal with it the way we see fit." He
declined further comment.
The airport, which is about 3 miles southeast of downtown Fryeburg, is overseen by a group of representatives from Fryeburg and officials from several surrounding towns.
Horowitz, who operates Oxford Aviation in Oxford and hopes to make a major expansion to the Brunswick Naval Air Station where he seeks to refurbish larger aircraft, said he wasn't aware of any problems with the Authority.
"I don't believe we have any issues," Horowitz said Thursday. "We're enthusiastic and we're working very hard."
Horowitz at times has been at odds with the Oxford County commissioners, in part over a dispute involving mold in the county-owned hangar where he operates an airplane refurbishing business.
Horowitz said Oxford Aviation has not felt the economic recession, but Eastern Slopes Aviation mechanic Kevin Gilbert of Harrison said Thursday that work at the small aviation maintenance shop, where inspections and repairs are made on about 20 to 30 airplanes a year, has slowed considerably in the past four years.
Gilbert said the parent company, Oxford Aviation, runs the aviation maintenance shop with a full-time mechanic, an administrator and an on-call inspector.
"I've been here four years. When I came in they were downsizing," he said.
"We have seen (the effects of the recession) in Fryeburg, but we think it's on its way back," Horowitz said of the Eastern Slopes Aviation division. He said he hopes to implement several new, as yet unspecified, programs at the Fryeburg site.
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