They say necessity is the mother of invention. It seems as
though the need for the airport to rebound from fiscal as well as
other challenges sparked the imagination of its leader.

Bradford Regional Airport Director Tom Frungillo received the
“Innovative Award” at the 26th Annual Pennsylvania Aviation
Conference Awards luncheon Thursday at the Woodlands Inn &
Resort in Wilkes-Barre. Sharon Daboin, Pennsylvania Department of
Transportation’s deputy secretary for aviation, presented Frungillo
with the award.

“I was pleasantly surprised,” Frungillo said Tuesday night.
“It’s nice to get state recognition.”

Daboin said that when Frungillo took over the airport eight
years ago, he faced a number of financial and operational
challenges. Frungillo took on those challenges and looked into ways
to add revenue sources for the facility.

Among Frungillo’s successes are adding revenue sources such as
sales of oil and timber from airport property and a commitment from
the Pennsylvania National Guard for a $6 million facility on
airport grounds.

Daboin also noted that under Frungillo’s direction, the airport
recently completed a $1.7 million public water and sewer project in
support of the National Guard and for future development of the
airport.

While he accepted the award, Frungillo said he did not do the
work alone. He also cited the airport authority, advisory
committee, Rep. John Peterson, R-Pa., and airport employees for
making the award possible.

“There’s a lot of people behind me here,” Frungillo said. “We
are working together … it’s a group effort.”

That includes Lee-Simpson Engineers of DuBois, the airport
consultants, who also received a consulting award at the luncheon.
Ed Nasuti accepted the award on their behalf.

“That was a really neat thing,” Frungillo said. “It’s a great
engineering firm. We have a great team into place.”

Frungillo said three or four awards are given out annually at
this conference and vary each year.

“I think it brings a lot of notice to what we’ve accomplished,”
he said. “It was really this region” that was lauded.

Frungillo was also recently appointment as chairman of the
Essential Air Service Subcommittee. EAS ensures that airports that
received commercial air service before the deregulation in 1978
continue to receive it.

This is the latest accolade the airport has received. Earlier
this year, the airport was given the Large Business of the Year
Award by the Bradford Area Chamber of Commerce.

The airport has also received national publicity in the New York
Times and Wall Street Journal.