August 12, 2026

List of finalists for director's job down to two

Phil Miller, who heads the search committee, said he thinks the county has two of the top candidates available in the country.

They are Krys Bart, the assistant director of aviation at the San Jose, Calif., airport and Michael Cheston, who's general manager of aviation operations at Portland International in Oregon.

A third finalist, Kent George of Moline, Ill., took the director's job in Pittsburgh.

The next director will make between $93,000 and $140,000 a year.

That's well above the $89,000 Cheston makes in Portland. Bart earns $117,000 in San Jose.

They'll be interviewed by the airport authority board, which will decide the successor to former executive director Robert White who took early retirement in July.

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