AT THE HELM

Dick Green Courtesy photo

Since he was appointed to the post of executive director of the Pease Development Authority in the summer of 2006, Richard "Dick" Green has not lost his humor, his ethic for hard work or his bluntness.

The former state senator, Rochester mayor and economic development expert has been busy first catching up in an agency with 45 full-time employees (and 45 seasonal ones) and $5 million budget "" and then dealing with very public issues of controversy about operations and management practices at the Port of New Hampshire and dealing with the loss of yet another passenger airline (Allegiant), a recurring event since the PDA was created in 1991 to redevelop the former Pease Air Force Base.

Green, like Pease International Tradeport itself, was not detoured, and in fact rebounded as part of a "challenge" to take Pease to the next level. Ventures caught up with Green for a status report on maintaining and growing the ongoing regional and national job-creation success story that Pease has become.

On continued airport side development:

The two priorities we talk about all the time are recruiting airlines to develop more passenger service and to be a strong booster in the corporate general aviation area.

With Skybus we could have six flights a day out of Pease to Columbus (Ohio), North Carolina and Florida. We are still negotiating with them (Skybus) to become a focus city, a New England hub. If that happens we're ready as an airport for them to start in spring and summer to house planes here and hire people for their operations. We see Pease as becoming a major contributor of their operations.

At the PDA, it's our responsibility to make sure that terminal and facilities that service the public are ready for a possible opportunity. We will have to improve the current terminal if there's a major expansion with a lot more passengers "" we could grow from 300,000 in a year to one million or 1.5 million if we become a hub "" not only for Skybus but possibly for international airlines.

We are reading the tea leaves and know the airline industry is volatile and tentative at best. We believe we are moving in a reasonable way and the board is really working hard to have the ability to make major decisions on parking and the terminals if we need to.

On the business park and port:

We are 85 percent built out and have demolished 11 buildings that can be built on. We have a number of clients we've been dealing with for a long time and have the ability to solve a lot of problems. The golf course (Pease Golf Course) is making money and had a great year "" a lot of work was done to improve it the past season.

The port is still growing up because after five years (when the state turned the port over to the PDA), we haven't figured out what we want to be (Green laughs).

Should it be a working port? I have my opinions and others have theirs. The PDA has done what it has been asked but it's a state facility. The political side is much more difficult to deal with because there are varying degrees of opinion about what is practical: it's only 11 acres. People think we're gonna make millions but we're not.

On the best part of his job:

I guess dealing with issues and problems and looking for ways to offer solutions and recommendations, these are things I enjoy. I enjoy being a public administrator. We've done a good job in bringing revenues over and above expenses.

On the biggest misconceptions about Pease:

Many people think the PDA is some state agency and that they are not really concerned about the little guy. Our mission is to create jobs with good pay and we have 7,000 of those here at Pease. There's a real tax benefit. We pay $3 million to Portsmouth for property taxes and the state $10 million. We are landlords because all the land is leased. It's our job to make sure the facility is maintained and run properly.

People say that the airport side is losing money but the airport side was never intended to support itself on its own. Part of the original requirement with the federal government is that extra revenues from the land side must be reinvested. We look at this as total facility.

On the reputation of Pease:

It depends what circle we're talking about. From my perspective, the business community and political community, it's very good. People who live in the area may have a different attitude "" perhaps the sound from airport or the wetlands, those kind of things. They have a right to that point of view. We've actually disturbed, mitigated less than an acre of land at Pease. We are super conscious of its environmental impact. Around the country we are viewed a huge success story in reforming the former Air Force base into a job creator. People in the area know we have a large impact on the region's economy. In 2005, just the payroll coming out of here alone was $1.5 billion. We are accomplishing our goal, which was to be a job creation machine for the region.