In this episode of The Best of Johnston County Podcast, Ed Aldridge returns to discuss his roles on the Johnston County Airport Authority and with the OneCompassion charity. Learn about the economic impact of the airport, its rapid growth, and how OneCompassion is making a difference in the community. It's a fascinating conversation you won't want to miss! 

Tune in to hear how these initiatives are shaping Johnston County's future.

Ed Aldridge: So I've been on the board now for about four years. You're nominated by County commissioners and they decide who's on it. We have an Executive Director, Phil Lanier.

There are seven of us on the board. And we make all the financial decisions about any expenditures and the running the day-to-day operations of JNX Airport. I'll say, one of the most surprising things in the last year, to most people, is that JNX Airport in Smithfield, North Carolina, all year last year was either the third or the fourth busiest airport in this state of North Carolina.

For the most part of the year, we were third, only behind RDU in Charlotte in takeoffs and landings. So I don't think people realize, how busy that airport is.

Jonathan Breeden: Hello, and welcome to another edition of The Best of Johnston County podcast. I'm your host, Jonathan Breeden. And today, we have for a second time on our podcast, Ed Aldridge, works with Riverwild, Johnston County Economic Development Board.

He's also on the board of the airport, and he works with the local charity, OneCompassion. And in this episode, we're going to talk about his work with the airport authority. What the Johnston County Airport does, its economic impact. We'll talk about the charity working with children, OneCompassion here in Johnston County, as well.

We're going to talk about his work with the airport and his work with the OneCompassion project here in Johnston County. I think, y'all will find it fascinating. It's a tremendous charity doing an awful lot for people here in Johnston County.

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Welcome Ed.

Ed Aldridge: Hey, how are you doing?

Jonathan Breeden: All right.

Ed Aldridge: Good to see you again.

Jonathan Breeden: Yeah, that sounds good. So let's start with, I know we need to move forward, but to everybody who listens to our podcast, what's your name? What do you do? Where are you

from?

And I've never had to commute into Raleigh every day for a job. A good thing about being self employed. And every time I have to go up there and I have to drive back, either to go up there in the traffic or come back in the afternoon, the traffics, I think if I had to do this every day, I'd move. Yeah. You know what I'm saying?

So anyway, previous episode, we talked about the development and all the things that River while it's doing in the community. But in this episode, I want to talk to you about the airport authority. You're on the airport authority board. I don't think people realize that the airport is a huge economic engine for Johnston County.

It brings in a lot more money than it spends. So let's talk about that. What is the airport board and when did you get on it?

Ed Aldridge: So I've been on the board now for about four years. You're nominated by County commissioners and they decide who's on it. We have an Executive Director, Phil Lanier.

For the most part of the year, we were third, only behind RDU in Charlotte in takeoffs and landings. So I don't think people realize, how busy that airport is.

Jonathan Breeden: I had no idea. I mean,

Ed Aldridge: you,

Jonathan Breeden: You think about I mean,

Ed Aldridge: Even our commissioners had no idea.

Jonathan Breeden: I mean,

Jonathan Breeden: That is shocking to me.

Ed Aldridge: you know,

Jonathan Breeden: I fly a fair amount going around, I was in Charlotte airport this weekend.

Ed Aldridge: Majority of the year, yes sir. There were months last year where we had between 9 and 10,000 takeoffs and landings a day. sorry, a month. That was our monthly average, was 9-10,000 at times.

Jonathan Breeden: Oh my goodness. I had no idea. I knew it was growing, but good gracious.

Ed Aldridge: It is tremendous growth down there, and we're trying to figure out how to manage the growth. We are currently at about 5,500 feet on our runway length. Some of the times, that is one of your major limiting factors on what site type of aircraft you can bring in and out. I will say that the board has done a tremendous job over the last few years of trying to figure out the balance of general uh, aviation.

And even this, they all get treated fairly.

Right.

Jonathan Breeden: And the airport is owned by the County.

Ed Aldridge: Correct.

Jonathan Breeden: I think people don't realize that, it's a County asset. Like the courthouse is owned by the County. And its purpose is not to make money. It is not for profit entity, correct?

Jonathan Breeden: Do y'all charge to land or their landing fees?

Ed Aldridge: So, you can see all of our fees online. There's different fees. There's tie down fees, different things like that. But it's like I said, we do have very limited number of places where we can create revenue. There's say so's where if you want to run a business out there, it's kind of a yearly business permit.

We haven't been big fans of takeoff and landing fees, as some other airports have done. But with the dynamic of today's economy, there's a lot of things we've had to look at and weigh recently. And as an airport board, ultimately, it is our goal to keep as many fees and everything down as low as possible. Because again, we're not here trying to make money. We're trying to create the best atmosphere and the best airport in this area for our clients.

Ed Aldridge: at this point in time with the growth in, Johnston County,

Jonathan Breeden: Right. But I mean, there is a plan to extend that runway. And I mean, they're gonna have, it's gonna be environmentally difficult. But there's a plan. I don't know when it's gonna happen, but there is a plan that there's a long

conversation Right to expand the runway.

Ed Aldridge: Yeah. We would love to eventually maybe get it to about 6,000 feet. You can change it 6,000 as another break point where you can get different sized aircraft in and out separately.

5,500 works well for us right now, and what we're currently doing out there. But we're also looking at our midfield development. We've had to do about a 10 or 20 year planning out there. And our whole midfield, where we would add new T-hangars, which is for smaller aircraft. But also corporate aircraft would be out there, as well.

So we really have been focusing on a large 20 year planning out there.

Jonathan Breeden: People can own those hangars and then they pay property taxes. Just like you pay property taxes on your house.

Ed Aldridge: You pay property taxes on the airplanes too.

Ed Aldridge: There's also another you know, people like, well, y'all get the money.

We actually do not get the money off the property taxes. The property taxes on the aircraft go to the County. So the commissioners get that money. Now, they may in-turn decide to fund certain things and help us, but the property tax for all the aircraft out in that area. And you're talking some of the aircraft out there or multiple million dollars.

So it can be a considerable amount of money and property taxes, as well.

Jonathan Breeden: It's a secret money maker for the County. These airplanes, and the sales taxes, and stuff. And then of course, you've got Duke Life Flight there. And there's those jobs, and then there's Aero somebody, they, run flights there too. I don't know exactly what they do.

And there's been some protesters saying, they run torture flights. I don't know if I buy that, but 60 minutes was trying to do a story about it. I mean, Are they still there? Aero contractors?

Ed Aldridge: Yes. They're still a great tenant. We've had zero problems out of them whatsoever.

Jonathan Breeden: And at one point I know, there was, there's a lawsuit between Blue Line and the airport that has been settled happily. Everybody I think is happy. I was happy to see that, because we need Blue Line. We need Trey waters and what he's doing, because that is short term education to get people to making a lot of money in a short period of time, 6-12 months out there.

So he does some, mechanic type stuff, the flight school, like you can go there and, get a short term training and make a lot of money in a short period of time. And that's what we need. know what I'm saying? We need more of that in this County. And I'm glad that lawsuit got worked out and that he's going to stay.

Our staff out there does a good job, the entire board. really. Everybody's on a similar page of understanding and managing this growth and stuff like that. I can't say enough about Ken Starling, our chairman, has done a tremendous job as a pilot in understanding the aviation business. So we have a very good mix of aviation experts along with business experts, and we even go so far as we have a former fire chief out there, Bentley Powell.

So we, cover the safety aspect. We've got a good mix on that board. And I think, everybody's of similar mind about growing that airport for the greater good of Johnston County. Well, I mean,

Ed Aldridge: I will say as of the last few years, again, going back to our state legislators have been tremendously generous.

Again, can't say it enough. Larry Strickland, Donna White, Howard Penney in the house in North Carolina, and now Benton Sawrey in the Senate have done a great job about helping us draw funding to the airport out there to help fund our growth and stuff. But yes, a lot of it. Now, I will say this about, I've learned more about airports.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, And it's like any other federal bureaucracy and everything everybody's got to be treated equally. And somebody says, I wasn't treated fairly. And they file a complaint and there was an investigation. And I mean, it just gets to be mess. don't know. You got a lot more patients than I do because a lot of that stuff is just ridiculous.

I mean, Some of it is just ridiculous. Yeah. I mean, I mean, A ridiculous would be a compliment to some of the FAA rules and regulations that are out there.

Ed Aldridge: And we, while I understand it from a safety perspective, the feasibility of some of it, it just seems to really handcuff you as far as your growth.

And what should you think, okay, this should take us about 18 months to do this project. And I'll go ahead and tell you that project is going to be 60 months minimum.

Ed Aldridge: Not a shovel of dirt moved.

Right.

Jonathan Breeden: Oh yeah, I just kept reading about this project. I'm like, At some point when I get to current, this project's going to have happened and it hasn't happened.

Ed Aldridge: The struggle to see the proverbial brick and mortar out there is real. It is arduous and takes quite a while.

Jonathan Breeden: And when you see the Blue Line aviation building, the County owns the land it's under, but Trey Waters and Blue Line own the building that it sits on.

Ed Aldridge: And it is a depreciating asset. I don't remember the exact terms of that lease. Eventually, the County will own the building, as well.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. All right. So he leases the building from the County.

Ed Aldridge: Correct.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. I thought, he owned the building. And he happens to sit on land that he leases to put his building on.

Ed Aldridge: I really need to look at that lease to see because that lease was done before I got there. But eventually, the County owns the building and everything.

Okay. Again, each day that thing is depreciating and depreciating. And the County will eventually own the building.

Ed Aldridge: There was that look.

Jonathan Breeden: And he had a proposal, but I don't know if he's going to do it.

Ed Aldridge: Yeah. I don't know, that property didn't work out for Trey. Trey's a good guy. And he's always looking at growth and things like that. He's even looked at growth in other states and things like that. Like I said, there was some disagreement there at one point. But since I've got on the board, I'll be honest, Trey has been nothing but amenable to me. Always quick to meet with you and accept the phone call. I think, we've been able to work through our differences and move in a positive direction. And I do feel like his business there adds a lot to our account.

Jonathan Breeden: Oh, it adds a ton. And I was so happy to see it get worked out and him decide to stay because it's such a tremendous asset.

You know that from being on the Economic Development Board, and I was on the JCC board for a while, for four years. I mean, That's what we need. We need short term workforce development training for these businesses. That's what these businesses want. And that's what we need to be able to get. And that's what the citizens need, as well.

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Jonathan Breeden: So anyway, we can talk about the airport all day and night. It's fascinating. And hopefully, we'll maybe get him to have Phil on, and he can talk a little bit more about the airport too, on another episode of The Best of Johnston County. You do so much in this community.

We can talk about all the things that you've worked on, but I want to talk about the OneCompassion charity that you've been working with the last few years. Tell people what it is, what it does, and how they can get involved.

But as the business grew and flourished, and Reid was from this area, born and raised in the Clayton area, he really thought that saving the world was just a genuinely great idea. But at the end of the day, we make our bones and we make our living in Johnston County. So Reid's focus, he wanted to save the world, but let's start in Johnston County.

So OneCompassion, Reid started with his wife, Jaclyn. They started OneCompassion. And our primary focus is the give back of Johnston County. Families, communities in need, multiple ways to plug in. We had OneCompassion up and going for a couple of years. And then, we were very fortunate to hire a young lady named Jenna McKeel.

We have a lot of our partners and vendors that we encourage to come in and adopt these families with us so you can go shop and understand that need and go out and deliver. We do energy assistance for families in need. We have some work with some of our partners, go out and build handicap ramps.

I don't think we have one specific. you know, Our goal this year is to find the need in Johnston County where there may be a bit of a gap where coverage is not right, whether it's from a church or governmental or some other entity. And that there's a place for OneCompassion to plug in there and help families in need.

Jonathan Breeden: So,

Ed Aldridge: if,

Jonathan Breeden: somebody listening to this podcast knows of somebody that has a need, how would they reach out? Is there an application process? Yeah. With OneCompassion, is there a, web, is there a form? What do you do?

Ed Aldridge: Jenna McKeel does all the vetting. She has got a couple of young ladies that work with her, and she really does all the vetting. You can always go to our company website, staywild.com. And go there, and look up OneCompassion. And Jenna McKeel is the person that you get in touch with, and she'll sit down and chat with you, what is the need.

And often, Some of the times, it's not something we can do. But we may have other partners that we work with, whether it's Harbor House or Habitat. There are different places that we may plug in where we can say, we can't help with this, but we've got a partner. So she does a great job of vetting and getting people married up and plugged in together that really matched the needs.

Jonathan Breeden: It's fun. I love drive shack. We don't have to go play the bad ball. You just hit the next one. It's awesome. I love drive shack.

Ed Aldridge: We have a great time and our partners and everybody got to be on a couple of floors together there. And in one day this year, our vendors and our partners were so generous and donated in excess of $400,000 in one day for OneCompassion to give back, and all that money stays in Johnston County.

And our give back is just wherever the need is. We don't have a specific, this is what we do. Whatever the need is in Johnston County, if someone were to lose their home this afternoon, and they needed somewhere to live or clothing, OneCompassion tries to jump in places like that. Can we plug in with the local church that has an additional need? Is there another 501c that needs some help with something?

And we encourage our vendors and partners to get involved. Writing the check sometimes is a necessary part of that to fund some of this. But also, just giving up your time is very important in OneCompassion also.

Well, right. And OneCompassion is, an excellent group in Johnston County.

Jonathan Breeden: You talked about Harbor House. For those of y'all don't know, Harbor House is a domestic violence shelter in Johnston County that also provides places for domestic violence victims to go, free of charge. They also offer crisis counseling and stuff like that. That's a great group, as well.

There's a lot of great groups in Johnston County. OneCompassion is one of them, serve the need. Harbor House great. Um, Clayton Area Ministries Clayton Area Ministries, with their food.

Ed Aldridge: uh, St. Ann's Church is another large partner of ours where our farm division has donated over 20,000 pounds of beef last year, to Clayton Area Ministries, St. Ann's and other local places.

Jonathan Breeden: Right. And both Clayton Area Ministries and St. Ann's have food. I don't know if you'd call them,

banks,

food banks, It's food banks, Yeah, I think it's got food for like food banks where people can go and get food if they need it, no questions asked.

Many years ago, I helped Clayton Area Ministries. And I always try to give to everything St. Ann's does from there. I sponsored a golf tournament a few weeks ago. St. Ann's has the International Food Festival in the fall. I always try to sponsor that, because I know all the great things they're doing.

It's tight out there.

Ed Aldridge: It was amazing when the first year or two, when I went to hand out things at Christmas, how many people were in need just a few miles from our office. And you would think as booming as Main Street and Clayton is or certain areas, the Cleveland area is booming like crazy. But it's amazing to come to this area and go to a home where people really are struggling, and to be able to make a difference for somebody.

And that's what it's about for us, to be able to plug into our community and our home, and make a difference here local.

Right. So, does OneCompassion have its own website or it's just part of StayWild.com?

It's part of staywild. com and you can go to staywild, com and look up OneCompassion. Like I said, Jenna McKeel runs it.

Then we try to vet them appropriately to make sure we get the funds and whatever the needs are to the right folks.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. Well, that's great. That's great. And I've seen some of the work that OneCompassion has done. And it's truly remarkable. And there's a lot of people doing a lot of great things in Johnston County. And there's a lot of need in Johnston County.

And I think some people, You know,

So anyway, we'd like to thank Ed Aldridge for coming on, and being a guest on this edition of The Best of Johnston County podcast.

As we mentioned earlier, please like, follow, subscribe this podcast wherever you're seeing it. And give us a five star review down at the bottom. Until next time, I'm your host, Jonathan Breeden.

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