City officials are mourning the death of Vance Brand Airport Manager David Slayter, who passed away Friday, Sept. 3.
Slayter, 51, was manager at Vance Brand since December 2017, according to a statement from the city of Longmont.
“I will miss David’s sense of humor and the expertise he brought to our airport operations but most of all, we will miss his kind heart,” said City Manager Harold Dominguez in the statement.
Slayter sought to quickly respond to resident complaints about noise from Mile-Hi Skydiving planes soon after he took over as airport manager, according to a story in the Longmont Times-Call.
Slayter told the TImes-Call that dealing with the general public involves efforts “to just make sure they're being acknowledged and being heard.” Before he took the job in Longmont, Slayter worked as executive director for Houma-Terrebonne Airport in Houma, La., where he dealt with complaints about offshore helicopters, the Times-Call stated.
Slayter was a “jack of all trades” when it came to aviation jobs, the Times-Call said. He responded to aircraft emergencies as a firefighter, worked in flight operations for Frontier Airlines in Los Angeles and spent six years as an aviation program manager and aviation legislation liaison for the state of Louisiana.
Slayter told the Times-Call in March 2015 that as Vance Brand Airport Manager “I want to make a positive difference; I want to make a positive impact, and if I can do that, that’s what makes me happy.”
Services for Slayter will be held at the Hixon Brothers Funeral Homes, 2701 Military Highway in Pineville, La., on Saturday, Sept. 11 at 2 p.m., according to the city statement.
The city is working contingency plans for interim airport management, and will have more information in the coming days and weeks, the statement said.
Questions on airport operations can be directed to the city manager’s office at 303-651-8601.
