Donated baby food for payless Transportation Security Administration agents sits on a table in a board meeting room at the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport on March 27, 2026. The airport solicited public donations of food and other goods to help the agents who have not been paid in six weeks because of the partial federal government shutdown.
The search for a new Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport leader officially began Friday amid potatoes, apples, corn flakes, spaghetti and toothpaste.
Oh, and salsa and toilet paper and Huggies.
There is an explanation.
Passengers flying out of the airport in Pittston Twp. have avoided the long lines and waits that passengers have endured at much larger airports during the current partial government shutdown.
The airport’s 40 to 45 Transportation Security Administration agents haven’t escaped the fate of their larger-airport colleagues.
TSA agents here also kept working without pay starting on Valentine’s Day. When the agents missed their first full paycheck in mid-March, airport officials reacted immediately.
“We had spoken to the local folks here and ... the TSA managers and ... it seemed like their feedback that they were getting was that people were getting, squeezed (and) that they were at a point where they, really could use some help,” interim airport executive director Stephen Mykulyn said.
The drive for help
On March 18, Dana Monahan, the airport’s marketing and communications director, called for public donations of food, home supplies, beverages, gift cards and other goods.
The public quickly responded and donated goods piled up on and under long tables in the airport board meeting room.
“Tables were covered,” Mykulyn said. “Because the outpouring of support was just incredible. People were bringing in stuff all over the place.”
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Donated canned food for payless Transportation Security Administration agents sits on a table behind a viewing screen in a board meeting room at the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport on March 27, 2026. The airport solicited public donations of food and other goods to help the agents who have not been paid in six weeks because of the partial federal government shutdown.
Borys Krawczeniuk / WVIA News
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Donated apples for payless Transportation Security Administration agents sits on a table in a board meeting room at the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport on March 27, 2026. The airport solicited public donations to help the agents who have not been paid in six weeks because of the partial federal government shutdown.
Borys Krawczeniuk / WVIA News
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Donated potatoes for payless Transportation Security Administration agents sit on a table in a board meeting room at the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport on March 27, 2026. The airport solicited public donations to help the agents who have not been paid in six weeks because of the partial federal government shutdown.
Borys Krawczeniuk / WVIA News
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Donated canned food for payless Transportation Security Administration agents sits under a table in a board meeting room at the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport on March 27, 2026. The airport solicited public donations of food and other goods to help the agents who have not been paid in six weeks because of the partial federal government shutdown.
Borys Krawczeniuk / WVIA News
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Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport board officials prepare for a meeting March 27, 2026, amid donated goods meant for payless Transportation Security Administration agents. The airport solicited public donations of food and other goods to help the agents who have not been paid in six weeks because of the partial federal government shutdown.
Borys Krawczeniuk / WVIA News
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Donated food for payless Transportation Security Administration agents sits on a table in a board meeting room at the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport on March 27, 2026. The airport solicited public donations of food and other goods to help the agents who have not been paid in six weeks because of the partial federal government shutdown.
Borys Krawczeniuk / WVIA News
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Donated food for payless Transportation Security Administration agents sits on a table in a board meeting room at the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport on March 27, 2026. The airport solicited public donations of food and other goods to help the agents who have not been paid in six weeks because of the partial federal government shutdown.
Borys Krawczeniuk / WVIA News
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Donated food for payless Transportation Security Administration agents sits on a table in a board meeting room at the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport on March 27, 2026. The airport solicited public donations of food and other goods to help the agents who have not been paid in six weeks because of the partial federal government shutdown.
Borys Krawczeniuk / WVIA News
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Donated food for payless Transportation Security Administration agents sits on a table in a board meeting room at the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport on March 27, 2026. The airport solicited public donations of food and other goods to help the agents who have not been paid in six weeks because of the partial federal government shutdown.
Borys Krawczeniuk / WVIA News
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Donated canned soups for payless Transportation Security Administration agents sits on a table in a board meeting room at the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport on March 27, 2026. The airport solicited public donations of food and other goods to help the agents who have not been paid in six weeks because of the partial federal government shutdown.
Borys Krawczeniuk / WVIA News
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Donated food for payless Transportation Security Administration agents sits on a table in a board meeting room at the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport on March 27, 2026. The airport solicited public donations of food and other goods to help the agents who have not been paid in six weeks because of the partial federal government shutdown.
Borys Krawczeniuk / WVIA News
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Donated food for payless Transportation Security Administration agents sits on a table in a board meeting room at the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport on March 27, 2026. The airport solicited public donations of food and other goods to help the agents who have not been paid in six weeks because of the partial federal government shutdown.
Borys Krawczeniuk / WVIA News
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Donated beverages for payless Transportation Security Administration agents sit on a table in a board meeting room at the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport on March 27, 2026. The airport solicited public donations of food and other goods to help the agents who have not been paid in six weeks because of the partial federal government shutdown.
Borys Krawczeniuk / WVIA News
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Donated food for payless Transportation Security Administration agents sits on a table in a board meeting room at the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport on March 27, 2026. The airport solicited public donations of food and other goods to help the agents who have not been paid in six weeks because of the partial federal government shutdown.
Borys Krawczeniuk / WVIA News
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Donated food for payless Transportation Security Administration agents sits on a table in a board meeting room at the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport on March 27, 2026. The airport solicited public donations of food and other goods to help the agents who have not been paid in six weeks because of the partial federal government shutdown.
Borys Krawczeniuk / WVIA News
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Donated toiletries for payless Transportation Security Administration agents sit on a table in a board meeting room at the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport on March 27, 2026. The airport solicited public donations of food and other goods to help the agents who have not been paid in six weeks because of the partial federal government shutdown.
Borys Krawczeniuk / WVIA News
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Donated household paper products for payless Transportation Security Administration agents sit on a table in a board meeting room at the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport on March 27, 2026. The airport solicited public donations of food and other goods to help the agents who have not been paid in six weeks because of the partial federal government shutdown.
Borys Krawczeniuk / WVIA News
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Donated pet food for payless Transportation Security Administration agents sits on a table in a board meeting room at the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport on March 27, 2026. The airport solicited public donations of food and other goods to help the agents who have not been paid in six weeks because of the partial federal government shutdown.
Borys Krawczeniuk / WVIA News
Two days later, agents could step into the board conference room and select goods to tide them over until Congress gets its act together and passes a funding bill to pay them.
“It's been heartwarming, the amount of support that has been coming in for the TSA workers,” Mykulyn told the board members as they met Friday.
Others have tried to help, too. Board chairman Chris Chermak said Fidelity Deposit and Discount Bank is offering agents up to $10,000 interest-free loans to help. On Monday, U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan dropped off pizzas.
The Senate passed a bill to pay the agents early Friday, but the bill remained bogged down in the House later in the day. President Donald Trump signed an executive order to pay the agents Friday. Its effects remained unclear, but multiple media outlets reported Friday that the Department of Homeland Security could start receiving paychecks as early as Monday.
Just back from a trip to Kentucky to visit her daughter, airline passenger Nadine Beer of Drums said Friday she can’t imagine working without pay and called the agents "amazing."
“I don't know how they do it,” Beer said. “I mean, some of them have said to me that they know they're going to get bonus, but I don't know. They must have either a spouse or a partner. Because if they were single and alone, how would they do it?”
TSA says thank you
During the board meeting, Mykulyn read an email from Michael Kichline, an assistant federal security director generalist who manages TSA agents for the local airport and the one in the Lehigh Valley.
Borys Krawczeniuk
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WVIA News
The Transportation Security Administration checkpoint at the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport on March 27, 2026.
Kichline said the donations encouraged agents to keep doing their jobs despite the lack of a paycheck.
“The generous contributions of food, personal items in the pantry you provided for us, the meals contributed by the airport stakeholders and businesses and the food/gas gift cards donated by businesses and individuals have helped sustain my folks,” Kichline said.
Three TSA agents on duty declined to comment on the shutdown or donations. They said only a manager could answer questions and he wasn’t available.
After returning a dolly that employees presumably used to ferry away goods, one agent answered briefly when asked if the donations helped.
“Oh yeah,” she said.
Looking for new leadership
Surrounded by tables covered with donated goods, the board officially appointed Mykulyn interim executive director and hired ADK Consulting & Executive Search to help find a new executive director to replace Carl Beardsley Jr. Beardsley took a sabbatical leave for undisclosed reasons in November and isn’t returning. Mykulyn, who remains the airport’s engineering director, said he still isn’t sure if he will apply to keep the job permanently.
Chermak pointed out ADK helped find Beardsley, who led the airport to record passenger departures in his 11 years as director.
ADK senior consultant Sia Schatz cited the firm’s experience and concentration on finding airport executives.
“All of us at ADK, we're all in the airport industry,” Schatz said. “Myself and all my colleagues, we speak airport, we get it, we understand what you're looking for.”
The firm thoroughly vets many candidates but starts by producing a brochure to inform applicants of the opening, she said.
“And we use that (brochure) as a method to let people know that this wonderful opportunity exists,” Schatz said. “We talk a little bit about the community as well as the position, because you're not just hiring an airport executive director, you're hiring that person and their family, and so you wanted to make it as attractive as possible.”
She expects the search to take three months.
“Probably July, I think you could realistically see a new executive director here at the airport,” Schatz said.
Earlier in the meeting, the airport reported a 6.1% February decline in airport departures compared to last February.
It was the sixth decline in the last seven months.
Borys Krawczeniuk, one of the most experienced reporters covering Northeast and Northcentral Pennsylvania, joined WVIA News in February 2024 after almost 36 years at the Scranton Times-Tribune and 40 years overall as a reporter. Borys brings to WVIA’s young news operation decades of firsthand knowledge about how government and politics work, as well as the finer points of reporting and writing that embody journalism when it’s done right.
