New Braunfels Muni Stuck With $113,000 In Bills

Once bitten... twice shy. The fallout continues following the February 3 shutdown of Silver State Helicopters... and one south Texas community says it will be a lot more cautious about who it trusts in the future.

New Braunfels City Manager Mike Morrison told the Herald-Zeitung newspaper Monday the city will no longer extend significant lines of credit for fuel sales at New Braunfels Municipal Airport (BAZ), after being stuck with a $73,677 bill for a line of credit extended to SSH prior to its declaration of Chapter 7 liquidation.

"We’ve taken steps to make sure it doesn’t happen in the future," said Morrison. "We recognized that it was not a sound business practice and have changed our policies to safeguard against it happening again."

The fuel credit was extended to Silver State from late-November 2007 through mid-February. As ANN reported, the nationwide helicopter training and charter outfit shut its doors on Super Bowl Sunday, and filed a petition for Chapter 7 the next day. New Braunfels is but one of over 3,000 creditors seeking compensation in the court case.

In addition to the fuel bill, Silver State also racked up outstanding lease payments for a control tower at BAZ, and the hangar it occupied since arriving at the airport in 2005 -- plus unpaid utility bills and various fees. In all, the city is owed $113,289.80, according to the newspaper.

For the moment, the contract control tower -- necessary to safely handle the large volume of rotorcraft traffic while SSH was in operation -- is still open, costing the city about $4,000 per week.

The city voted February 25 to retain a Las Vegas-based law firm to represent its interests in federal bankruptcy court.

FMI: www.silverstatehelicopters.com, www.newbraunfelsairport.org