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Tempers flared Tuesday night in a standing-room-only session of the Baxter County Quorum Court as a controversial ordinance to dissolve the county’s Airport Commission narrowly failed in a 6-3 vote, with one abstention.
Following the two-hour heated discussion and failed vote, commission members and many of their supporters immediately departed the courthouse, leaving the Quorum Court to continue with its remaining agenda items.
The heated meeting, which marked the first session of 2025 for the newly seated Quorum Court, saw County Judge Kevin Litty attempt to replace the commission with a five-member advisory board just two weeks after Circuit Judge Andrew Bailey ordered cooperation between Litty and the commission.
While there was some initial confusion about whether the vote passed or failed, Judge Litty announced on Wednesday morning that a vote to dissolve the commission takes a supermajority vote of the full Quorum Court to pass. JP Dirk Waldrop was not present during the meeting and JP Walker abstained from voting.
A total of eight votes is needed to pass the ordinance to dissolve the commission. The vote on Tuesday was 6-3 in favor of kicking the commission to the curb, with one abstention. The ordinance narrowly failed to pass.
Yes votes: Griffin, House, McDonald, Davis, Edge, Frank
No votes: Nault, Payne, Steiner
Abstain: Walker
While the commission survived round one of this fight, the court took Tuesday’s meeting as its first reading of the ordinance and is set to move forward with two special meetings next week on Monday and Wednesday. Monday’s meeting will be a reading only with no public input. Wednesday’s meeting will allow for the third reading and public comment.
Both meetings will take place at 5:30 p.m. at the Baxter County Courthouse.
On a side note, with over one and a half hours of dialogue during Tuesday’s meeting, we have opted to segment this story to try to capture as much as possible that was said during the meeting. This article is not in chronological order. The Observer recommends that the public head over XL-7’s YouTube page to view the full debate. The video can be seen below.
County prosecutor breaks down legal position on lease
During the start of the meeting, Baxter County Prosecutor David Ethredge provided extensive context about the legal implications of what the court was being asked to do Tuesday evening.
Ethredge’s office provides legal representation to the Baxter County Quorum Court in most instances. He and his office represented the county in court against the commission.
“The question was posed to my office: does Baxter County or the Quorum Court, which is the legislative body elected by the citizens of Baxter County, have the authority to dissolve a commission that it created?” Ethredge explained. “In our research of the law, in our review of looking at the opinions of the Arkansas Attorney General, and from speaking with the Arkansas Association of Counties’ attorneys, Baxter County Quorum Court is an entity that created the commission. That same power allowed you to create the commission also allows you to dissolve it.”
Ethredge then focused on the commission’s lawsuit.
“Everyone here is aware that the Baxter County Airport Commission has brought litigation against Baxter County to try to enforce what they believe are their powers and authorities. As recently as this afternoon, I was involved in a conference call with the circuit judge who’s hearing this case. They were asking for authority to basically enjoin this elected body from moving forward with this ordinance tonight. Judge Bailey denied that request for injunction.”
After explaining his role in the process, Ethredge made clear that it was not his position to tell the members of the court how to vote, but only to inform them that they had the power to dissolve the commission. Ethredge also said that he was highly involved in working with Judge Litty on the case and that his main concern was litigation that the county was facing and could potentially face in the future, since that litigation would be taxpayer-funded.
Later on in the meeting, Ethredge revealed that if Hasselwander were to sue the county over the lack of a written lease and a potential eviction, then Ethredge would no longer be able to represent the county, which would have to use taxpayer funds to hire outside attorneys to defend the county in court.
Etheredge said that his office covered the cost of the commission’s suit at no charge to taxpayers this time around. The airport commission also did not rely on taxpayer money to hire their attorneys and instead used the airport’s income to cover costs.
“In 2017, the Baxter County Airport Commission met and made a determination,” Ethredge said. “And there’s minutes of that meeting. In that 2017 meeting, it was determined and voted on that Baxter County Airport and Baxter County would allow Brad Hasselwander or one of his entities to build a hangar out at the airport. There was an amount specified as far as a term of years. There was an amount specified as far as per square foot from the lease payment. There was determinations about how that was going to take place.”
“At that same meeting the previous County Judge was there and approved, and again, I’m not here to say that those were good terms, bad terms or whatever terms, but it was agreed that individual could build a hangar at the airport. Subsequent to that meeting, a hangar was constructed. Sometime in 2020 – that hangar was occupied by Brad Hasselwander or one of his entities.”
“After he took office, there was a conversation between Judge Litty and the airport commission about the need for a lease to be generated for the airport to have as it relates to that hangar. One of the questions that’s been raised, and it’s been said, there is no lease. I’m sure I’m not the smartest guy in the room, but I will promise you, that if this goes to court and it’s litigated there’s going to be a judge that determines that a lease exists.”
Ethredge was then cut off by a member of the public who shouted that it was his opinion.
“It’s not my opinion sir, I promise you. I appreciate your comments, but I’ll just say to you. There’s a lease that exists because there’s a building out there the funds were put into – there was money paid to the Baxter County Airport to build the hangar from Mr. Hasselwander. My concern when this was brought to me, was not about all these other things. My concern is what does it cost the citizens of Baxter County to litigate this if there’s not a written lease.”
“If there’s not a lease, it’s going to be very clear, and as it was brought to the county, we want to evict this person, Baxter County is going to get sued. The airport commission may get sued, but they don’t have any funds, so Baxter County is the one who’s going to be sued in that situation – my concern is what happens to that cost of litigation. My office does not provide a legal representation to the county at that time. The Arkansas Association of Counties insurance does not do that.”
“Baxter County has to hire council to represent them. Because based on what I have seen, I’ve had it reviewed by eight different lawyers who probably got over 100 years of legal experience, they all say there is a lease that’s out there. The county gets stuck paying out for their attorney, but potentially paying, because it’s a contract action, the attorney fees of the individual bringing litigation against us.”
The public weighs in
After hearing from Etheredge, Litty opened the floor to just four people to speak at first. Two in support of dissolution and two against. A first in the time that the Observer has been reporting on the court.
Al Beers, a pilot with 44 years of experience and a longtime businessman in Baxter County and Mountain Home, provided detailed testimony about his experiences with the commission from 2010 to 2023.
“First, I want to thank everybody for their time and dedication to come to this court and be part of this,” Beers began. “I want to welcome the new justices and thank you judge for giving me the moment to speak. A little bit of background, I’ve been flying for about 44 years. I’ve been involved in this airport since 2010. In ’23, I removed myself from this airport and no longer actively use the airport except to have my aircraft come and pick me up and leave.”
Beers, who previously owned the FBO “Big Air” at the airport, detailed his significant investment in the airport: “I put about almost a million dollars into a building out there. With pride, to try to build something for Baxter County to get it something to have as a hub for the aviation community. I’ve had my tugs of war with the committee out there. We’ve always, one saw one way, one saw the other, but we always found a way to work out differences.”
He then described deteriorating relations starting in 2020.
“I started running up against the current commission because they decided I was charging too much for gas out there for aviation fuel. And I should not be charging what I was charging. I was no different than everybody else with the exception of Flippin, which was 10 cents a gallon cheaper to me, which the current commissioners refused to buy fuel from the county they commissioned and fly to Flippin and buy their fuel there. They were not supporting the airport. At that point, I felt like they didn’t have the right to govern this airport. Their rights, the moment they decided to take their business elsewhere was abolished.”
Beers explained the commission’s demands and their impact on his business.
“The reason they were upset is they wanted me to spend two hundred thousand dollars and put a self-service fuel out of it. I would not have been opposed to doing such if it had an ROI to it– return on investment. But there’s two individuals that’s done this at this airport prior to this. Some of the individuals that were trying to force me to do such are the individuals that failed at it before.”
Airport Commission Chairman Dr. Stephen Vester admitted to being a penny pincher when it came to fuel and said that a self-service station was eventually installed by another individual. Vester claimed that the station was doing well during the meeting.
Trey Ressler, an employee of Beers who previously managed the airport, also offered his perspective on the commission’s delayed actions.
“I ran the airport six years or so out at the county airport. During the entire time that’s in question here, that the lawsuit’s over — I was there at every single one of the commission meetings at the airport,” Wrestler said. ” A lot of things went on. You can read the lawsuit if you want to get more details. The bottom story is, I mean, the commission that is seated right now, the majority of them have been on that commission for the last three to four years. They had about three to four years to do something about this leases and now they’re actually doing something about it, trying to force the hand and do something. Why did they wait three to four years?”
Ressler also raised concerns about the commission’s appointment process.
“As I watch this commission change over the last several years, the last decade almost. It seems they were always appointing people that were supporting their agenda. And Dr. Vester chaired it the entire time when from right after, when he took over, he was still the new chairman. They took a long time to do anything about it. This lease that’s in question, should have been something that was handled years ago, before Judge Litty was put in place. Now they’re coming, they’re actually doing something about it. I don’t know why they took so long, but I feel like they were waiting on some people on their agenda to do that. As Mr. Beers said, when we made the decision to sell the FBO because of the way the airport was trying brunt force us out of there, is essentially what they were doing. They were going to put it in and compete against us, the people that put our money up and use the county’s money to compete against us. That’s not fair. That’s the agenda that this commission has. “
During the meeting, Commissioner Sally Hall claimed that the commission did not learn about the lease issue until 2022.
Baxter County Democrat Chairwoman Mary O’Shields weighed in after Wrestler spoke, calling for transparency over what was actually going on between the airport and the commission.
“I think that citizens of this county are entitled to know what is going on. I would like to recommend that there be public forums, where there can be discussion, more information than was provided by the attorney, which was very helpful. There are too many people in this county that aren’t sure what’s going on with this, but it seems a little unsettling, you know, we have a judge that’s made one determination and then suddenly that’s kind of changed. The people I speak to, there seems to be a lot of confusion and concern about what’s happening at the airport. This is a revenue producer for this county, and I think that we’re entitled to know what’s going on.”
Vester misses the mark
While some members of the public were allowed to weigh in on Tuesday night, most of the discussion took place between members of the court, Judge Litty and the commission.
Chairman Vester was the first to speak on the commission’s behalf at the meeting, and while many were hopeful that the chairman would make a strong case for keeping the commission, Vester instead focused on rebutting comments made by Al Beers before debating Litty over details in the lease that Hasselwander had signed.
“There was a list of expenses that was spent, provided by Mr. Hasselwander and you gave him credit for every bit of it,” Vester said. “I would simply say, how did you come up with that number? Did you do your due diligence and check on what those amounts were.”
Litty replied that Vester had received the same list of expenses as he did.
“I got one sheet of paper that showed one set of expenses,” Vester said. “Did you look for receipts?”
Litty replied that Hasselwander had turned in his canceled checks to the attorney’s office.
“What about some of the amounts that our account is being asked to pay for,” Vester continued. “Such as a refrigerator, dishwasher, fireplace, custom woodwork and custom rockwork.”
“We didn’t credit him for the fireplace,” Litty said.
“I believe sir that you did,” Vester pressed.
“It may be on that list, but he did not get credit for it, OK,” Litty pushed back.
“According to the contract, he does. It’s either one way or the other.”
“I think we marked it out – we’re talking about $700-800,000 spent on that hangar, right,” Litty said.
“That’s the total price. Mr. Hasselwander put up about $220,000, that was for construction and so forth. The rest of this, and by the way, here we go, here’s the receipts. If you want to look to see what that money was spent for, here, here is your number. But the judge didn’t look at this. He provided one sheet of paper and by my math here, it’s all in the contract.
Gerald Gaige, a passionate aviator in Baxter County who has been working tirelessly to try to save the commission and find a resolution to the fight, expressed his frustration over Vester’s performance briefly after the meeting before writing his thoughts to the Observer in an email Thursday morning.
“From their presentation – the commission does not deserve to continue. But that is wrong,” said Gaige.
Litty defends himself again
After public comments had opened up, Litty took a moment to share his perspective on his interactions with the airport commission and the struggles that he had faced when dealing with them.
Litty started by holding up the meeting minutes from 2017 and stating that the terms of the lease were spelled out there.
“On page two, the terms of the lease are spelled out here,” Litty said. “This commission had the legal rights to do it then as it has the legal rights to do today. No change. I agreed with that. The court case decided that. I knew that before the court case came out because I read the law. There was a couple of employees and an attorney that was involved with Hasselwander that was on the commission. That were employees of Hasselwander at the time. They abstained from the vote. They didn’t vote. Like it or not. It’s legit – and this commission, along with the former judge at the time, had been on a one-lane road and Kevin Litty decided after two years of poking and prodding and being embarrassed, it was time to make a turn. So, I signed the lease based off of these minutes.”
“When I took office in January of 2023, this commission came at me swinging,” Litty explained. “Come back with the county wanting me to amend or void Chris Freeman’s lease. Joe Bodenhamer had signed his lease in 2009, a 30-year lease. I’m sorry, I wasn’t going to touch it. And under this man’s here advice, said Kevin you’ll get sued if you try to void his lease. So, after six, eight months of bickering with our commission, we moved on to something else. They decided the lease was good until 2030.”
Litty then touched on the commission’s lack of progress in collecting fees.
“The airport manager came to me because they’re having trouble collecting the ground lease out here at the airport. Mr. David Clevenger hadn’t paid his ground lease since 2020. I made two phone calls to this man and had a check on my desk the next week for $5,000. Then again I’m stepping up as the county judge to do their job for them.”
Litty also addressed the FAA funding situation.
“I’ve talked to Gary Loftis a week ago today with the FAA. Our funding was suspended because this commission would not sign the lease, I signed the lease and our funding was reinstated. They knew why it was suspended but they let it sit there being suspended because they would not agree to the lease. I agreed to one. It’s reinstated. Mr. Loftis is going to give me a date soon. He’s going to come up and visit with us. There’s a couple of things we need to talk about but as a rule of thumb he is not concerned about the terms.”
“I’m looking to do an advisory board because we as a county government cannot continue the lawsuit, the bickering, you know, what’s gone on for two years. I didn’t come to this decision overnight. It wasn’t a knee-jerk decision. I’ve sat here and I’ve tried to work through this, although I don’t think they will agree to that. What caused the problems is that I didn’t agree to what they wanted me to agree to. I think every person in here has the right to his opinion, but had I agreed to some of the plans that this commission wanted me to put my name on, the county was going to get sued.”
Commissioner Hall mounts a better defense
Sally Hall, the commission’s secretary, challenged several of Litty’s assertions:
“I am Secretary of the Baxter County Airport Commission and anyone that knows me knows I don’t operate with the way that the rhetoric has explained to us,” Hall stated. “I have talked to, tried to talk to most everybody here. We have suggested that you listen to the March 2024 and the October 2024 audio, you will hear that the animosity, the aggression is not from the commission. We have offered up a compromise on the lease issue and we did not learn about the lease issue until 2022 just before Mickey left office.”
The audio Hall is referring to is of two commission meetings in which Litty lost his temper. Litty was not the only person in his room to lose his temper and members from both sides used explicit language during the meeting. Litty has publicly apologized for losing his cool and his expletives.
The commission, in its lawsuit, went on to call Litty a “despot” and “County Property Czar,” while also making other allegations, including a claim that Litty allowed his friends to place corn at the end of a runway to hunt deer with. That allegation turned out to be a misrepresentation of the facts.
In actuality, no deer corn was placed near the runway and Litty only allowed one citizen, who he was not acquainted with until that citizen approached his office, to hunt on the county-owned property adjacent to the airport. While hunting, the citizen found corn feeders belonging to an unknown hunter and reported them to Litty.
While Hall may have not cursed or yelled at Litty during the meetings she mentioned, some of her fellow commissioners did. Hall, as a commissioner, also signed off on the use of the terms “despot” and “County Property Czar” along with her fellow commissioners when filing their suit. Chairman Vester attempted to claim that the commission did not use that language when the Observer first reported on the lawsuit, but later recanted.
After detailing the timeline of discovery for the lease issue, Hall focused on the issues that had been raised by the FAA.
“We included Judge Litty in a meeting with the FAA and the FAA is the one that has a problem with this lease. And this has jeopardized our funding once. The funding has been suspended already. However, now we have a discrimination investigation that has come to light. It was filed on December 30th, we got noticed that it was based on unfair rates on the airport because of the 15 cents in the subject lease and the rest of the tenants are paying remarkably more than that.”
“One of the grant assurances, that is the strings attached that are tied to the federal funds we get, is that we have fair rates throughout the airport and that we have no preferential treatment. Well, that lease violates that. The thing that has got us so upset is that Judge Litty has said many times that the FAA won’t pull our funds. Well, it’s been suspended once and now the discrimination flag has been thrown and it is in jeopardy again.”
JP Lisa House interrupted Hall to state that she had asked Litty to call the FAA and confirm that the lease was up to snuff, and that funding would not be pulled.
“We got a response,” House said. “You are not going to lose your funds, everything is fine. So, why are you telling people that?”
“I’m telling people because a lease was established. That’s one of the grant assurances that every rental property has to have a lease. Now since that, the discrimination investigation is going on and that is what has put our funds in jeopardy.”
It should be noted that Litty announced that a friend of one of the commissioners had filed the complaint with the FAA and implied that the commission really wasn’t looking out for the county because it was making complaints to the federal organization.
Litty also addressed Hall’s concerns over discrimination and noted that airport lease rates aren’t truly enforced in Arkansas due to a lack of manpower from the FAA. Litty said that while researching the topic, he discovered that airports all over the state had varying degrees of lease rates ranging from 15 cents to 45 cents per square foot. Litty did admit that the FAA likes to see leases stay around the same level for everyone at the airport to avoid discrimination.
“I haven’t seen that we are in jeopardy,” House said. “By you saying that you’re painting a different picture.”
House discusses toxicity around airport issues
While she may be new to the court, JP House did not hold back from expressing her thoughts during Thursday’s meeting.
“I’ve served 18 boards in my life and if you can see the venom that’s here,” House said. “And I know you guys are the majority here, but there’s a lot of people that are also for decommissioning and when you cannot get along, and we are taxpayers, and a lot of us pay a lot of tax dollars in this room. If you cannot get along and we can’t talk like adults and get things done like they should, we’ve got a big problem. We’ve had problems in all kinds of our governments in this town lately. My question is, you’ve known about this lease. Why all of a sudden are we talking about Mr. Hasselwander like this is the only reason we’re decommissioning or want to decommission? It’s not the only reason.”
“In the minutes, it talks about a lease. Every board I served on, if there’s anything in the minutes, that is legal. That is a legal binding tender,” House said.
“Kevin took this on two years ago when he was elected. I was elected in May. I didn’t have opposition in November. I’ve learned about this since May. I’ve heard all the rhetoric in the background and it’s just, I can’t see us moving forward with all this anger, resentment, hate. A person visited me the other day and brought me some papers. The hate and venom that came from this person’s mouth about our judge blew me away,” House continued.
“Didn’t know how I felt about it, but that’s all I’m going to say – if we cannot get along, if we can’t work together, this is going to go down a spiral. And we have a great airport. We have so many options for our airport to go even further but this is going to cause trouble.”
