Grayson County commissioners take up new manager for North Texas Regional Airport

Grayson County commissioners were set to confirm Kyle Holtz as manager of North Texas Regional Airport at their Tuesday, Sept. 29, meeting, according to the meeting agenda. The agenda listed Oct. 5 as his first day. The planned change follows a September in which county officials reported the airport's main runway closed for new lights and markings. In the same month, commissioners approved the county's participation in a state airport-maintenance program for fiscal 2027.

GvilleTX could not confirm the outcome of the Sept. 29 vote from a published county record.

County officials described the runway closure at the Sept. 1 commissioners meeting, the meeting video shows. They said the Texas Department of Transportation project costs about $4 million and adds new lighting and markings. On Sept. 8, commissioners approved the county's participation in TxDOT's Routine Airport Maintenance Program for fiscal 2027. At that session, an official told commissioners that an overlay of the main runway is tentatively expected in 2029.

The staff directory at Concord-Padgett Regional Airport in Concord, N.C., lists Holtz as its fixed-base operator manager. At a Jan. 6 work session, he presented the airport's rules and minimum operating standards to the Concord City Council, the minutes show. He also presented a proposed change to a state-funded project to rehabilitate an apron and taxilane.

Commissioners acted on the hire before the confirmation item reached the agenda. On Sept. 15, they approved up to $10,000 for the new airport manager's relocation, the meeting record shows.

Under the county's earlier arrangement, one person held two jobs. An employment agreement that took effect Jan. 1, 2023, made William L. Magers director of North Texas Regional Airport and executive director of the Grayson County Regional Mobility Authority.

The county has used the state maintenance program before. Commissioners voted 5-0 in September 2025 to take part in it for fiscal 2026. TxDOT says the program started as a 1996 pilot. Today the state pays most of the cost of eligible upkeep, and the local sponsor pays a tenth. The state does not repay routine operating costs or work by county employees, and funded work must finish within the same state fiscal year.

In April 2025, commissioners also backed a TxDOT grant request for a taxilane to link Taxiway A with the airport's south apron. A construction payment record for work through Jan. 17 showed the taxilane and south-apron rebuild more than nine-tenths complete.

The airport's annual report takes its economic-impact estimates from a 2018 TxDOT statewide study. The same study credited Gainesville Municipal Airport in Cooke County with more than six times as many supported jobs as North Texas Regional. It also gave the Gainesville airport nearly seven times the total economic output. Both estimates count direct airport activity plus the spending that this activity causes elsewhere. Neither estimate measures what either airport earns today.