Retired AEGON CEO named to C.R. Airport Commission

CEDAR RAPIDS -- Retired AEGON USA President and Chief Executive Officer Patrick Baird has been appointed by Mayor Ron Corbett to a three-year term on the Cedar Rapids Airport Commission.

Baird will fill the seat vacated by Commission Chairman Dan Theis, whose term expires Thursday. Theis chaired Monday's commission meeting and received a plaque recognizing his service on the panel since January 2003.

Commissioner Joshua Schamberger has been reappointed to a full three-year term by Corbett. Schamberger was appointed in January 2010 to finish out the term of former Commissioner Helen Arnold.

The Cedar Rapids City Council will take up Corbett's appointment of Baird and Schamberger at Tuesday's meeting.

With Theis leaving the airport commission, a new chairman will be elected at the July 25 meeting. Commissioners Dee Baird, president of the Cedar Rapids Area Chamber and Priority One, and University of Iowa General Counsel Carroll Reasoner are the two longest-serving members of the commission.

Also at Monday's meeting, the airport commission approved a resolution selecting Mead & Hunt Inc., a Minneapolis architectural and engineering firm, to assist in the development of The Eastern Iowa Airport's next master plan. The airport will negotiate an agreement with Mead & Hunt, which will develop the plan with local input over an 18- to 24-month period.

The Federal Aviation Administration will pay 95 percent of the cost for the master plan and The Eastern Iowa Airport will pick up the remaining 5 percent. The airport recently received a $285,000 grant from the FAA to help pay for the master plan update.

The master plan, which looks at five-, 10- and 20-year benchmarks, was last updated in 2004 at a cost of $275,000.

The airport commission on Monday also approved a 0.5 percent salary increase for nonbargaining unit employees. The pay raise, which mirrors a similar agreement approved by the Cedar Rapids City Council for nonbargaining unit employees of the city, was effective June 18 and will be reflected on employees' July 8 paycheck.

The benefit package for nonbargaining unit airport employee also mirrors a similar agreement with city employees.