Purpose of this Board

• Operate and maintain the Auburn-Lewiston Airport. Conduct strategic planning and implement projects and improvements necessary to maintain and improve the infrastructure of the airport.
• Provide for continued access by the cities of Auburn and Lewiston, as well as the surrounding communities to the national airspace system.
• Encourage the economic growth of the airport by attracting new businesses to the airport and surrounding airpark(s).
• Develop policies that encourage the economic self-sufficiency of the airport.
• Stimulate aeronautical development and expansion at the airport, as appropriate to users’ needs and the needs of Auburn, Lewiston and the surrounding communities.
• Define and set into motion: policies, projects, and programs that will increase airport viability and result in increased airport and community growth.
• Manage the existing Auburn-Lewiston Airport, and its primary property situated on the Hotel and Lewiston Junction Roads, Auburn, which consist of land, buildings, easements, fixtures, equipment and tools.
• Manage all other property both real and personal, which are part of, or used at the existing airport facility, together with all leases, bank accounts, accounts receivable, and all other intangible property.

Airport Director Rick Lanman has spent a very large portion of his life on or near an airport, most recently serving as the Airport Manager for Mena Intermountain Municipal Airport in Mena, Arkansas. A retired Marine, Rick has also held leadership positions at airports in Illinois and Kansas since leaving a five-year faculty position at Southern Illinois University Carbondale in Carbondale, IL. He believes that his wide-ranging experience makes a seasoned aviation professional. 

Rick holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration and Bachelors of Science in Aviation Management from Southern Illinois University. He is also an Accredited Airport Executive (AAE) of the American Association of Airport Executives. In addition to the AAE designation, Rick has completed the AAAE’s Airport Certified Employee – Operations course, qualified as a Form 5010 Master Record Safety Data Inspector for non-commercial airports for the Federal Aviation Administration, trained as an NOAA Advanced Weather Spotter, and completed the training requirements for Airport Security Coordinator as well as Wildlife Hazard Manager. He is active with the Airport Cooperative Research Program, actively serving on a couple of different research panels and continues to teach for Southern Illinois University through the Web-based and Off-Campus Education Programs.