Granite Shoals Airport name for Bob Sylvester
By Glynis Crawford Smith
The Highlander
The Granite Shoals City Council on Tuesday, May 23, resolved to name the city airport after its longtime manager, the late Robert T. “Bob” Sylvester.
Now to be known as Granite Shoals Bob Sylvester Airpark, the municipal field, bounded by Forest Hills, Mystic, Green Forest and Sherwood Forest drives, is to be formally changed to a Federal Aeronautics Administration (FAA) public designation.
“That will allow pilots to land without city manager permission,” said City Manager Ken Nickel. “Pilots will be able to turn on the lights for night landings, as well as using it in the daytime.”
Sylvester, a U.S. Army Air Corps navigator during World War II, had been active as volunteer engineer and manager of the municipal airport since he and his late wife, Betty, moved to Granite Shoals in 1982. The city's Airport Committee was revived after his death March 13, 2014, leading to repairs and plans for more active use of the field.
The council resolution called Sylvester “a stalwart support of the Granite Shoals Airport...who volunteered his time and considerable skills to various city projects.”
The term 'Airpark' was chosen as an acknowledgement that the airport is “a proud part of the parks system of Granite Shoals,” the resolution also said.
Oaths of office were administered to city council members confirmed in the May 6 General Election. They were Mayor Carl Brugger and council members Anita Hisey, Place 1; Jim Davant, Place 3, and Todd Holland, Place 5. The council members all were unopposed in the election.
Brugger was re-elected by 228 votes (61.68 percent) of 368 votes cast to Mike Steenbergen’s 141 votes (38.32 percent).
Cost of the election was $1,900, according to City Secretary Elaine Simpson, noting that 370 of the 2,298 registered voters in the city cast a ballot: “That was about $5.16 per vote.”
The council unanimously elected Jim Davant mayor pro tem.
Granite Shoals Police Chief Gary Boshears introduced a new patrol officer to the council.
“Thomas Broyles comes to us from the Marble Falls Police Department,” said Boshears.
City Attorney Brad Young was instructed to return to the June 13 meeting of the council with possible language for a November ballot to re-affirm use of the $3 million in bonds voters previously approved for street and road rehabilitation.
An agenda item repeatedly on council agendas concerning possible encroachment of a retaining wall owned by the Spivey Family onto park land was laid to rest. Subsequent surveys indicated the piece of property off Green Acres Drive was so minute that normal fluctuations of the lake rendered it legal.
