Okaloosa County BOCC — August 18, 2015 — ACAC Member David Barrett

Tuly 25, 2015 Please accept this letter of introduction and background as I am volunteering for a position on the Destin Executive Airport Compatibility Advisory Committee [ am originally from Marietta, GA and graduated from Marietta High School(1969), and I have a BBA from the University of GA (1973) in Risk Management. After one year in the corporate world I chose to work for myself. In 1974, along with a friend, I started an independent insurance agency. The agency grew successfully, and at the end of 1981, I was ready for a new challenge. I sold my interest in the insurance agency to my parinef, and I began building houses in Cobb County Georgia in Arvida developments. I enj oyed a rewarding building career until October 1989, when I purchased the first of two marinas that T owned for the following 20 years. The marinas were located on Lake Allatoona in Cherokee County Georgia, and this lake is owned by the Army Corps of Engineers. had a very successful relationship with the Army Corp for the duration of my ownership. Working in accordance with the master plan that I developed, both marinas were expanded and upgraded on a constant basis. I manufactured covered docks in various sizes, introduced and/or improved all of the infrastructure including buildings, roads, parking lots, dry stack storage buildings, launch ramps, pump out stations, underground storage tanks, fuel delivery systems, marine repair facilities, wave barrier systems, electrical service on land and water, and all of the administrative/office function. During my tenure as a marina owner/operator, I was approached by a group of local businessmen who wanted to start a bank. I served as a founding director of the bank from the organizing phase, through raising of capital and formation. Once the bank opened, I served as a director on the loan committee, eventually as chairman. I retired from the board shortly after moving to Destin. Aviation Background: I began flying and received my pilot’s license in early 1986. My training took place at McCollum Airport in Kennesaw, Ga. The airport is located just a few miles from Dobbins Air Force Base, and, until 1995, it was an uncontrolled field. I'm sure you can imagine the similarities with Destin — military traffic very nearby, air traffic of all sizes and speeds “sharing” the pattern, flight instruction from a couple of different schools operating almost constantly in the pattern, and a growing community that needed the airport but cursed its noise. Expansion of operations brought a control tower to McCollum, and the airport was very quickly so much more organized and safe. I continued my training in a Cessna 152 to high performance, complex, instrument flight, and I traded the 152 for a Piper Lance. This was the plane that I started flying to Destin 20 years ago. I flew the Lance as far as San Francisco, CA and back, and I was in this plane the morning of September 11, 2001, when the attack in New York City occurred. I was forced to land in Jackson, MS, and four days later I was allowed to leave. In order to fly more safely and faster, I traded the Lance for a B58 Baron. The security of twin engines made weather and night flying more comfortable, and I flew the Baron a few years until having a cabin class aircraft became important. I traded the Baron for a Cessna 421 which I flew for only a year. I traded the 421 for a Cessna Conquest, and I enjoyed the turbo prop for several years. My missions changed about 6 years ago, and I no longer needed the seating capacity of the conquest, so I traded for a Piper Meridian which I still own. I have over three thousand hours, most of which are instrument hours. I have been flying weekly into Destin for the past 20 years, and I have been based at DTS since 2007. Over the past 29 years I have flown coast to coast several times, from Canada to the Bahamas, into very busy areas such as New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Miami, Washington DC, and Atlanta, and I have been to a do