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Commissioners request airport feasibility study
By Lynn Hotaling
In the wake of several landslides near the Jackson County Airport, county leaders have asked for an airport assessment.
Commissioners voted unanimously Sept. 6 to ask the N.C. Department of Transportation’s Aviation Division to conduct a feasibility study that would update one done in 1997.
During discussion, Commissioners’ Chairman Brian McMahan said there have been a lot of questions about the Airport during the past few months.
“We want to know what is feasible,” McMahan said. “The study will give us a clear image of (the condition of the Airport).”
County Manager Ken Westmoreland said Tuesday that DOT has agreed to do the study, which will examine the Airport in the light of current circumstances, including the viability of a regional airport facility involving Jackson and Macon counties.
One purpose of the study will be to compare the feasibility of the existing Airport with the feasibility of a shared airport with Macon County.
A more recent study, completed last year by airport consultants Talbert & Bright, who prepared the 1997 report, was described by Westmoreland as a “master plan update” and was not discussed during the session.
Commissioners’ Sept. 6 discussion of the Airport was initiated by Westmoreland, who told county leaders about the Pruett slide and said additional material could come down the slope at any time. Commissioner Joe Cowan also expressed concern about the recent mudslides.
As reported in The Herald’s Sept. 1 edition, an intense, localized downpour dumped massive rainfall on the Little Savannah watershed, which includes the Airport, on Aug. 22. The heavy rain, which has been estimated at 5 to 6 inches in an hour, brought a river of mud down the mountainside and over the driveway shared by the homes of R.L. and Brian Ammons off Ben Cook Road. It also apparently triggered additional movement of an older slide, located on Dewayne Pruett’s property, which is accessed from Ben Cook Road’s second entrance.
Westmoreland said Tuesday that he has not inspected the Pruett slide himself and referred questions to Robbie Shelton, Jackson County’s erosion control officer.
“It looked OK to me,” Shelton said Tuesday of the Pruett slide. “It appears to be stabilized – it’s not in imminent danger of coming down.”
Shelton also described another slide on the Little Savannah side of the Airport on Bill Crawford’s property.
“(The storm) washed some rocks down on his property,” Shelton said.
According to Shelton, a large gully had opened up on Crawford’s property in 1977, shortly after the Airport was built. The Aug. 22 storm washed down some of the material that had been used to repair the earlier damage.
The intense storm caused damage throughout the Little Savannah and Hog Rock areas, Shelton said.
“The Airport contributed – just from the fact that it’s constructed – but there’s a lot of damage (from that storm) even where there’s not an airport,” Shelton said.
That assessment concurred with one given two weeks ago by geologist Rick Wooten of the N.C. Geological Survey, a part of the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
Wooten examined the Pruett slide on Aug. 30, during the final stages of rainfall associated with Hurricane Katrina.
No additional material moved during those storm-related downpours, and the geologist said he saw no evidence that another slide would occur in the immediate future.
Jackson County Airport Authority Chairman Tom McClure said he’s baffled by the fact that commissioners make decisions concerning the Airport without any consultation with the Authority.
“They’re acting like the Airport Authority doesn’t have anything to do with the Airport,” McClure said Tuesday. “I just don’t understand it. Why don’t they talk to us?”
With regard to the upcoming feasibility study, McClure said he doesn’t know what it will show.
“(Jackson County and Macon County) are two different airports – you can’t compare apples and oranges.”
McClure said that the 1997 study has already been updated by the same consultants who prepared the report – at a cost to the Authority of $137,000 for a study that was mandated by NCDOT’s Division of Aviation.
“The Federal Aviation Administration required us to update the old study, pass a height ordinance and pass a set of operating rules,” McClure said. “We didn’t want to do (the study) – we didn’t want to spend the money.”
According to McClure, the 2004 study incorporates and updates the 1997 document.
Turning his attention to the recent slides, McClure said they were the result of one torrential storm.
“I don’t understand why people don’t accept the fact that we had a huge amount of rain in a short period of time,” he said.
The Airport, which was constructed amid opposition and opened in 1976, lost 500 feet of runway to a 1977 slide. Jackson County had to buy out several land owners after their property was condemned.
Controversy has again plagued the airport this year.
Commissioners in January voted to remove McClure from his seat, triggering a March lawsuit by McClure and current Authority members Jim Rowell and Eldridge Painter.
Judge Ronald Payne granted an injunction in April, restoring McClure to his seat and reinstating Rowell as secretary-treasurer, pending a trial. Payne said at the time he granted the injunction based on his view that McClure, Rowell and Painter were likely to prevail at trial.
Meanwhile, commissioners petitioned Rep. Phil Haire (D-Sylva) to introduce a bill in the N.C. Legislature that would enable the creation of a joint Macon-Jackson airport authority. That bill passed in July, along with a bill sponsored by Sen. John Snow (D-Murphy) that prohibited the Jackson County Airport Authority from entering into any contract prior to Sept. 1.
Snow’s bill halted the Authority’s plans to move forward with a $1.2 million construction project that would add hangar space at the Airport.
Three Authority members – Chip Hall, Gary Buchanan and Commissioner Eddie Madden resigned between April and July, leaving only McClure, Rowell and Painter still serving.
Commissioners have declined to appoint replacements, citing the ongoing litigation as their reason.
The legislation that gives commissioners the power to join with Macon County to create a regional airport also permits each county’s leaders to disband their current airport authorities after either holding a public hearing or placing the question on the ballot. The possibility of closing the local airport was mentioned during commissioners’ Sept. 6 session.
Reporter Derek Hodges contributed to this report.
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