Vinton County airport paving begins as tourism office plans hiring
Workers had already started milling at the Vinton County Airport as commissioners also weighed a new tourism-office hire, putting two county development bets on the table.
Vinton County leaders spent Tuesday morning weighing two moves with immediate practical impact: paving work that had already begun at the county airport and a planned hiring step at the tourism office in McArthur.
At Vinton County Airport in New Plymouth, workers from Shelly Company were on site as milling got underway on Runway 9-27, a mill-and-fill rehabilitation that county bid documents described as a 3,500-foot by 75-foot runway. The project calls for a 3-inch nominal asphalt overlay in two 1.5-inch lifts, along with crack filling, shoulder restoration and new runway markings. County bid reporting put Shelly and Sands’ price for the work at $1,416,660.
The paving matters beyond the runway itself. The airport is a county-owned asset tied to access, emergency use, and the county’s effort to make Vinton County easier to reach for visitors, pilots, business travel and service providers. A non-mandatory pre-bid meeting for the project was scheduled for April 3, 2025, at the Vinton County Airport Terminal Building, 66285 Airport Road, underscoring how long the county had been lining up the job before work started.
The airport has also been part of a broader tourism conversation. In April 2024, the Vinton County Pilots and Boosters Association told commissioners it wanted the airport, about six miles from town, to become more of a Hocking Hills tourism destination with expanded services. That push gives the paving project a bigger public purpose: it is not just maintenance, but part of how the county presents itself to outside traffic and potential spending.
Commissioners also discussed the Vinton County Department of Tourism and the plan to bring in another staffer at its office at 104 West Main St. in McArthur. The staffing move comes after a major reset in county tourism governance. In July 2024, commissioners suspended three-percent lodging-tax payments to the former Vinton County Convention and Visitors Bureau and began forming a new tourism board.
The tourism department has since moved into a restructuring and capacity-building effort aimed at strengthening operations, improving visitor experiences and supporting sustainable economic development. In February 2026, commissioners unanimously hired Aidan Reagh as executive director from a field of 18 applicants, and Keirsten Yates shifted from office manager to cultural tourism manager. With the airport project moving ahead and tourism staffing still evolving, county officials are trying to improve both the physical gateway into Vinton County and the office that sells the county to the rest of the region.
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