Contributed Article
Veteran commercial pilot Charles Taylor has been named airport director at Marion County Airport.
Taylor has been involved in the aviation agricultural application industry and airport operations for more than 40 years.
Taylor, who is a native of Latta in Dillon County, succeeds longtime Marion County Airport manager Margaret Pittman. He took over operations at the airport Oct. 9 after his appointment was announced by Marion County Interim Administrator Chavis Watford.
Taylor met with nearly two dozen members of the Marion County Pilots Group shortly after his appointment and promised he would work hard to improve the airport and to listen to the pilots’ concerns. He said one of his top priorities would be to renew the airport connection to the greater Marion County community and to its schools. Taylor and his father Horace Alexander Taylor were aerial applicators in both South Carolina and Florida. For more than 40 years he flew extensively in Marion, Dillon and Marlboro Counties as an agricultural crop sprayer. Earlier in his career Taylor joined with his father to renovate and renew services at the airport in Clewiston, Fla.
The Marion County Airport runway has been closed throughout the summer and early fall of 2023 for a repaving project. Taylor said the target date for reopening the airport is Nov. 6 and that pilots would find the new asphalt surface to be first class. Runway length has been extended 500 feet to approximately one mile in length, he said.
“That will help us bring in more aircraft of different types including more business aircraft and the increased fuel sales will help our financial bottom line,” he added.
“I will work for our administrator and county council to bring the airport up to 21st Century standards,” Taylor said.
“I want people to know that they are welcome at the airport and that everybody on the airport team will be working hard every day to ensure that all our citizens, particularly young people who might have an interest in aviation, can come out and see our facilities.”
Taylor concentrated on the helicopter aerial application business for most of his career, working in South Carolina, Florida, Oklahoma, Minnesota and Arizona. Prior to being named airport director Taylor worked for Marion County on beautification projects and was responsible for countywide mosquito control.
Taylor said, “I’m really happy to be in this job and will do everything I can to supporting our interim administrator in putting forward a number of proposals to better incorporate the airport into the county’s economic development plan. This is a job I really want to do for Marion County and I promise to work hard every day to make our airport something special for aviators and the general public,” Taylor said.
