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Local officials support regional airport
By Derek Hodges and Lynn Hotaling
Jackson County leaders voted unanimously Monday (May 2) to continue toward establishing a regional airport in partnership with Macon County.
Commissioners in March asked Rep. Phil Haire (D-Sylva) to introduce legislation in the N.C. General Assembly to allow the creation of a regional airport authority by Jackson and Macon counties, which Haire did in a bill introduced March 23.
“We have come to a point where we as a board need to decide if we want to continue in this direction,” McMahan said. “We have to tell Phil (Haire) by the end of the week what we want to do.”
Commissioner Eddie Madden, also a member of the Jackson County Airport Authority, voiced his support for a joint venture with Macon.
“It seems to me, as a board member and a member of the Airport Authority, that this board would be wise to invest taxpayer dollars in an airport that actually has some economic value,” said Madden, adding that the Jackson County Airport is inadequate in that it can only serve the needs of single-engine planes.
“That limits the economic benefit to the county. (The Jackson airport) really has no economic benefit to the business community,” Madden said.
Expansions that would have to be completed on the mountaintop runway to allow for more traffic would be nearly impossible, according to Madden.
“We could never achieve (a runway that could accommodate small jets) at the Jackson County Airport unless we were willing to spend $40 million,” he said.
Joining forces with Macon County would have numerous benefits to the county, Madden said, because the Macon airstrip has room to expand to the 5,000 feet necessary to land larger aircraft.
“The facilities there are much better than what we have,” said Madden, who owns an airplane that is currently hangared at the Macon airport.
Responding to questions and rumors he said were circulating around the community, Madden said county officials haven’t been controlling the majority of Jackson County operations to this point, leaving that to the local Airport Authority. Madden did not attend the Authority’s most recent meeting and told The Herald last week that he did not plan to attend until a March lawsuit filed by three Authority members – Chairman Tom McClure, Secretary-Treasurer Jim Rowell and Eldridge Painter – is resolved.
“It would be my suggestion that this board join with Macon County,” Madden said.
Commissioner Conrad Burrell questioned the level of the county’s involvement in the local Airport Authority.
“We’re not putting anything into (the Jackson airport) now, are we?” he said.
If the local airport is abandoned by the Authority, then Jackson County could still be responsible for its operation under Federal Aviation Administration rules, Burrell said.
“If (the airport) reverts, we still have to operate it; that’s my understanding,” he said.
“I would suggest that we go ahead and get the bill active again and get it passed,” said Commissioner Joe Cowan.
Alluding to a landfill contract dispute that officials in the two counties settled in February, Commissioner Roberta Crawford said she has reservations about the regional airport idea.
“I do enter into another contract with Macon County with a little bit of discomfort,” she said.
“And they with us, probably,” Cowan said.
“My suggestion is, to this board and to the taxpayers, that if we can successfully receive state and federal money for (the Jackson County) airport, we should do it. Frankly, right now it’s an embarrassment,” Madden said.
Madden told commissioners he would encourage improving the current airport, but later said he felt the county shouldn’t be a part of any future work on the facility.
“If the current Airport Authority feels like they can continue to operate the airport, then we should give them that opportunity. We should get out of the business of operating or potentially operating an airport,” Madden said.
McMahan explained that the current draft of the legislation is only a modified version of a bill used to create a regional authority elsewhere in the state. That draft calls for dissolving the Jackson and Macon airport authorities, he said.
“That language would have to come out,” McMahan said.
While only the two counties are named in the current action, McMahan said he wants to see other local governments come into the airport project.
“I would hope that we could have some other partners come in to make it truly regional,” he said.
On a motion by Cowan, commissioners voted unanimously to ask Rep. Haire to move the bill out of committee and on to the House floor.
Jackson officials have not presented their plans for a regional airport at a meeting of the local Airport Authority, and, according to an April 29 report in The Franklin Press, Macon County’s commissioners have not received approval from their airport board either.
Though Jackson County Manager Ken Westmoreland told The Herald last week that Macon County – with the blessing of its Airport Authority – intends to dissolve its existing authority, The Franklin Press story indicates that the resolution to form a regional authority was first presented to Macon’s airport board last week. According to the report, the matter was tabled.
Macon Airport Authority Vice Chairman Harold Corbin confirmed Tuesday to The Herald that Macon commissioners did not ask their Airport Authority for input until after Haire had introduced the bill.
And at least one Macon official expressed reservations similar to Crawford’s. Referring to the recently-ended Jackson-Macon solid waste dispute, Macon planning board member Jimmy Goodman asked, “Why do we want to get involved with that bunch again?” according to the Franklin newspaper.
When reached Monday, Haire told The Herald that much remains to be settled before the joint airport bill can become law.
“It’s all still up in the air,” he said.
The controversy over a proposed regional airport is the latest skirmish in the “air wars” that have plagued Jackson County since commissioners – with no public discussion – removed McClure from his Authority seat in January..
Commissioners subsequently named Canada firefighter Ed Riley to fill McClure’s seat, and during elections in February, Gary Buchanan and Riley were elected chairman and secretary-treasurer, respectively. McClure, Rowell and Painter filed suit March 21, seeking an injunction that would restore the Authority as it was prior to commissioners’ action to remove McClure.
Though Judge Ronald Payne’s April 13 ruling restored McClure and Rowell as Authority officers, a trial is still pending.
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