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Airport hangar, terminal project to proceed, Authority chairman says
By Lynn Hotaling
Though a lack of a quorum prevented Jackson County’s recently-restored Airport Authority officers from conducting business Tuesday (April 26), it didn’t stop them from announcing the status of their expansion plans: full speed ahead.
Chairman Tom McClure, missing from the Authority since January and restored to his seat April 13 by a court order, said the Authority would “pick up where it left off.”
Jim Rowell, replaced as secretary-treasurer in February and restored two weeks ago, passed out minutes from a Dec. 2 Authority meeting – the last one chaired by McClure.
“These minutes are not for approval but for information,” McClure said.
With that, the chairman announced that bids on the hangar project, approved to be advertised at that December session, would be readvertised a week from Sunday.
“The Aviation Division of the Department of Transportation wants us to move ahead,” McClure said. “Money is there that must be committed in a month or two or we’ll start to lose it. We’re not going to lose it.”
Plans are to build a hangar complex that will house 16 airplanes in nested T-hangars and add terminal space. Cost of the project was estimated at $1.2 million in December.
McClure outlined funds available to build the new space.
Yearly DOT allocations for 2002-04 are already available for a total of $450,000, he said, and 2005’s $150,000 will be added in July for a total of some $600,000 that can be used, though that money will require a 10 percent match. In addition, McClure anticipates a $400,000 grant that should be forthcoming in month or so, and those funds do not require a local match.
McClure estimated the Airport Authority would have about $1 million by July and would be able to borrow any additional funds because the $150,000 annual allotment from DOT may be used for debt service.
The chairman also announced a $12,000 grant from AdvantageWest that the Authority had received in December.
“That’s our plan, and it’s already approved and authorized by the board,” McClure said. “We’re not going to get any more support from the county; we’ll have to make it on our own, but we can do that.”
McClure said he and Rowell had succeeded in having the authority’s bank accounts restored to their names and had paid architect and engineering fees that were past due. The fees were paid once, but the checks didn’t clear after the officers elected in February changed the Authority’s bank accounts, Rowell said.
The floor was opened to discussion between the three Authority members present – Eldridge Painter was the third – and the eight or nine people who attended the session.
The question was raised as to whether any of the remaining three Authority members – Commissioner Eddie Madden, Chip Hall or Gary Buchanan – would attend meetings.
“We certainly hope so,” Painter said.
“All of them were called,” McClure said. “I hope they’ll participate.”
One audience member said he had never understood what was going on with regard to county commissioners’ Jan. 12 decision to remove McClure from the Authority.
“Get in line with the rest of us,” McClure said. “The feedback we’ve gotten from the public shows the public’s with us on this.”
McClure was referring to the chain of events that began Jan. 12 when commissioners, with no public discussion, voted to remove him from all appointed county positions.
Commissioners subsequently named Canada firefighter Ed Riley to fill McClure’s seat. During elections in February, Buchanan and Riley were named chairman and secretary-treasurer, respectively.
In a telephone conversation Tuesday night, Madden told The Herald he planned to avoid Authority meetings until the court makes a final ruling on the lawsuit brought by McClure, Rowell and Painter.
Though Judge Ronald Payne’s injunction restored McClure to the Authority and Rowell as an officer, a trial is still pending on the suit. Payne’s ruling indicated he had based the injunction on the likelihood of the plaintiffs (McClure, Rowell and Painter) prevailing at trial.
Rowell then thanked the media representatives present for reporting on the Authority and members’ differences.
“Without them there would be no dialogue at all,” Rowell said
Discussion then turned to House Bill 1051, introduced in late March by Rep. Phil Haire (D-Sylva), that would enable Jackson and Macon counties to create a regional airport authority.
Rowell told the group of language in the bill that would dissolve the two existing authorities if a joint Jackson-Macon airport authority were formed. It also states that assets would revert to Macon County if the regional authority was subsequently dissolved.
Haire introduced the bill based on a request from Jackson County commissioners conveyed by a phone call from Madden, said Rowell, who added he had asked for a copy of the letter commissioners sent to Haire only to be told there was no letter.
Rowell also said Commissioners’ Chairman Brian McMahan had been quoted as saying a regional airport in Macon County would be good because jets could land there if the runway were extended.
Rowell disputed that claim, saying that even if Macon’s runway were extended, only small, private jets could fly into the airport.
Rowell also said he’d heard that Jackson County’s commissioners had already pledged $175,000 toward Macon County’s runway project, an allegation denied that same evening by McMahan, Madden and Jackson County Manager Ken Westmoreland.
When reached by telephone Tuesday evening, McMahan told The Herald commissioners have not appropriated any funds for the Macon County Airport and have not discussed doing so.
He said the resolution that was forwarded to Haire asks the General Assembly to allow Jackson and Macon to form a regional airport authority, but that it would be enabling legislation only and would not be binding.
McMahan said the bill is being revised and that it is not his intent to disband the existing Jackson County Airport Authority.
“I don’t see (the bill) as a way to eliminate the Airport Authority,” he said. “I’m not looking in any way to kill the current authority.”
When asked when and where discussion of the resolution that was sent to the Legislature occurred, McMahan said it was probably done through comments outside board meetings during one-on-one conversations between commissioners.
With regard to how the request was communicated to Haire, McMahan said he thinks a written resolution, based on one sent over from Macon County, was adopted and sent to Raleigh and that Haire was notified of the request by telephone.
McMahan said a regional airport in Macon County could be a positive for economic development because corporate planes could land there. He emphasized that Jackson County currently is only exploring the option of joining with Macon to operate a regional airport.
Madden was not so definite with regard to the future of the local airport authority.
“It remains to be seen what’s best for the Jackson County Airport Authority,” Madden said, adding that the bill under consideration is enabling legislation only and does not bind Jackson County to any course of action.
Macon County would have to dissolve its existing authority to form a new one because the authority holds title to the Macon County Airport, Madden said.
When asked if Jackson County’s Airport Authority holds title to the local airport, Madden said that it does.
County Manager Westmoreland seemed more certain that a local authority would be superfluous if a regional one were formed.
“If a regional airport authority does come into existence, I don’t think either Macon or Jackson wants to participate in two airport authorities,” Westmoreland said. “Macon intends to dissolve theirs – with the blessing of their airport authority.
“The whole idea makes more sense. You could throw millions and millions at the Jackson County Airport, but it can’t be properly upgraded to properly serve the county or the region,” Westmoreland said, adding that Macon County’s airport does have the potential to be upgraded and serve as a regional facility.
Westmoreland said he anticipates the Legislature voting on the regional authority bill this session and that he expects it will pass before June.
Sen. John Snow (D-Murphy) has introduced a similar bill in the Senate, Westmoreland said.
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