There will be a party in the Bay Area on July 1.

That’s when the celebration will be held marking the grand opening of the new $17 million terminal at Southwest Oregon Regional Airport.

At Thursday’s board meeting, Coos County Airport District Chairman Mike Lehman and commissioners, Helen Brunell Mineau, John Briggs, Joe Benetti and Clair Jones, agreed that should be the date for the event and that the governor and legislators should be invited, and they expect at least 1,000 people.

“We’ll cut the ribbon and serve cake,” Brunell Mineau said, adding that there should be live music, too.

Airport Executive Director Gary LeTellier said the terminal will open for business the following day. He said they’ll have to work on raising the funds to pay for the celebration. The time for the party will be announced.

Thursday’s meeting, held at the airport, began with a crash.

Gordon Young, the cameraman for Channel 14 Broadcast Services, Inc., who was filiming the proceedings, collapsed on the floor about 20 minutes after it started.

At about 7:50 a.m., Young, 69, of Coos Bay, fell forward, knocking over his camera, hitting Sandy Clark, who was there to give a presentation. Young remained on the floor for several minutes after the fall, the camera with a broken tripod leg next to him.

North Bend Fire Department personnel responded within minutes. Young told an emergency medical technician he had not eaten breakfast. Clark said she was fine, except for a bump on her head, but Young, who had a visible mark on his forehead, was taken by ambulance to Bay Area Hospital in Coos Bay. A Bay Area Hospital nursing supervisor said Thursday afternoon that Young had been treated and released.

Clark, director of sales with the Younger Agency, an advertising and marketing firm based in Reno, was there promoting an advertising display plan for the new airport terminal in North Bend.

The Younger Agency currently handles display advertising at the Mahlon Sweet Field Airport in Eugene, the Reno-Tahoe International Airport and the Boise Airport, and is kicking off a program for the Magic Valley (Twin Falls) Regional Airport. At each airport, the contract specifies what percentage of the revenue earned goes to the airport and the agency. In Eugene, it is 55 percent going to the airport and 45 percent to the agency, sliding to 60-40 in years three to five of the five-year contract.

For the local airport, the agency is proposing a combination of four digital and scrolling screens, plus other media sources, including banners, a kiosk and a wall mural, with a total of 13 advertising sources. The estimated cost for these items comes to $68,770.

But, materials provided by the agency say that annual advertising revenue to the airport could raise from the current $26,000, to $41,850 in three years, even with a 50-50 revenue split between the airport and the agency.

Commissioners voted to enter a contract with the agency to purchase equipment, with LeTellier appointed to manage the program. Benetti and Jones were selected to form a committee to decide on the best placement of the equipment into the terminal. Further discussion will take place at a future board meeting.

Briggs, the only commissioner opposing the idea, said he thought the proposition was not economical.

“You build it — they will come?” he asked the commissioners. “No. It’s not going to happen.”

In other news Thursday, the board:

n studied change orders in a contract with Skanska U.S.A. Building, Inc., for building the terminal that amounted to $362,909. Lighting on the curved ceiling had proved problematic, according to Project Manager Cliff Newton. Custom-made canopies, or bases, will cost the district more than $6,000. Moving the entry sign due to Pacific Power placing a large switch enclosure at the original location, came to $5,838. The largest costs were: construction of a vending area, $25,548; expansion of the lower parking lot and connecting it to an upper parking lot, $120,000; and seating at the airport, $119,217. Brunell Mineau said she chose metallic blue for the color-coating of seating in the terminal’s waiting areas; and

n voted to approve spending up to $10,889 on additional office furniture for the terminal, which was the lowest bid.