Yeager Airport customers will be able to use Uber to go to and from the Charleston airport in the near future, airport and ride service officials said Thursday.
Uber and Yeager Airport have reached a tentative agreement to provide service at the airport. Kanawha County Commissioner Ben Salango, who helped negotiate the deal, announced the contract at Thursday's regular commission meeting. Salango, who was appointed early this month to fill former commissioner Dave Hardy's seat, said one of the most frequent questions he has received so far has been about Uber service at the airport. So he contacted the airport and the company to try to negotiate the deal, he said.
"I think Uber is pretty important for economic development," Salango said at the meeting. "I use it all the time, all over the country. As long as where I go Uber's there, I use it. I wanted to make sure we are able to use them to and from the airport."
Salango said area business leaders have expressed concern that when they fly business associates in, those visitors are not able to use Uber at the airport.
An Uber representative said the company is sending the contract today, Salango said.
"As soon as the ink's on the paper, they will start providing service," he said.
Under the tentative contract, Uber would pay the airport $3,200 a year to support operations and enforcement, both an Uber spokesman and Terry Sayre, airport director, said.
"We are encouraged by recent discussions with Yeager Airport officials and Commissioner [Ben] Salango to ensure Charleston residents and visitors will have access to reliable and affordable transportation options at the airport," the spokesman for Uber wrote in an email to the Gazette-Mail Thursday. "We look forward to having a final, official contract in the coming days, with Yeager joining the more than 50 U.S. airports where Uber has operating agreements with our airport authority partners."
Sayre said the airport started negotiations with Uber in April 2016.
Sayre said he hopes to have Uber running at the airport as early as today or Saturday. Airport officials have always wanted Uber but they wanted a fair deal, he said. Sayre said the proposed contract fee is more than what the airport had originally proposed Uber pay.
C&H, the city's only taxi service, pays the same $360 per car annual fee that limo and hotel shuttle services pay, Sayre said. C&H pays $1,080 a year total for its three vehicles, Sayre said. Uber's fee is for numerous cars, so it's more than what the cab company pays, he said.
Sayre said he thinks Uber will be a great benefit for customers, especially those traveling late at night and early in the morning.
"I'm just glad this is overwith and it's one more problem solved," Sayre said. "And I want to thank Commissioner Salango for his help. He's been very beneficial in this negotiation. I'm glad he stepped in and helped us solve this problem."
The airport will put up parking signs for Uber today, Sayre said.
Uber has been running elsewhere in Charleston and in Morgantown since July 2016, after a law took effect allowing the ride service to operate in the state.
In other business, the Kanawha County Commission:
n Heard the results of an audit of county records by Perry and Associates for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2016. Randy Nelson and Bill Wilkinson, representatives of the CPA firm, said the county's audit had "no findings," which means it has significant problems to correct.
n Decided to vote March 16 about a potential raise for county employees.
n Voted to send a letter to Delegate Ron Walters expressing their disapproval of House Bill 2605, which would require the Public Service Commission to create a plan to consolidate the state's emergency communications centers into no more than six centers within four years.
John Rutherford, a former Kanawha sheriff and current executive director of the county's Metro 911 center, said the bill is a bad idea for public safety. Local 911 centers have a lot of local knowledge that is useful when dispatching emergency services, Rutherford said. For instance, dispatchers know the common names for places in town and are able to recognize the voices of the emergency responders working. Rutherford used the example of the SportMart in Charleston, which closed years ago but still is referred to by that name, he said.
"If you give the 911 center to a place that's not in Kanawha County where the dispatchers don't live here, they won't know where to send help," Rutherford said. "It's such a terrible idea, and we could go on for hours."
Reach Lori Kersey at lori.kersey@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1240 or follow @LoriKerseyWV on Twitter.