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Authority OKs budget, considers airport future
By Lynn Hotaling
After several months of inactivity, local airport officials Aug. 28 approved a budget for the next fiscal year and engaged in a public discussion of the airstrip’s future.
Though state statutes mandate a budget be in place by June 30, Jim Rowell, secretary-treasurer of the Jackson County Airport Authority, said the past year of litigation and other circumstances had delayed the normal process.
Presented by Rowell during a hearing that preceded the regular meeting, the Authority’s budget for the upcoming fiscal year, which lists $95,900 in revenue and $78,250 in expenditures, was approved unanimously. Major revenue items in the document are a projected $35,000 in fuel sales, $12,600 from the Ramcell lease and $15,000 from hangar rentals. It also lists $33,000 labeled “other income.”
On the expenditure side, the budget includes a projected $36,000 for fuel, $6,500 in insurance, $7,500 for professional services, $6,500 for repairs, $1,500 for telephone, $3,000 for utilities, and $12,000 in contingency.
The budget does not include any contribution from Jackson County, which stopped allocating funds to the Airport after Commissioners’ 2005 decision to remove Authority Chairman Tom McClure from his post.
That action triggered a March 2005 lawsuit against the county. Filed by McClure, Rowell and Authority Vice Chairman Eldridge Painter, the complaint was decided in favor of the Authority, and McClure was reinstated. Jackson County has appealed the decision, and commissioners have retained the services of Raleigh attorney Jeff Gray (brother of Herald Publisher Steve Gray) to represent them in the state Court of Appeals.
Controversy has continued to swirl around the Authority, most recently in the form of a bill introduced by Sen. John Snow (D-Murphy) that changed the way members are appointed to the Airport’s governing body. Until July, commissioners appointed Authority members from candidates recommended by Airport officials; the new legislation, which becomes effective in January, allows commissioners to appoint anyone they choose and provides that one member can live outside of Jackson County.
Once budget matters were decided, discussion at the Aug. 28 session turned to Snow and what some in attendance perceive as his vendetta against the local airport, which was constructed some 30 years ago atop Berry Ridge near Cullowhee.
It was stated that Snow had said on the floor of the Legislature that his intent is to close the Airport because the “runway is falling off the mountain.”
When contacted last week, Snow said he didn’t think that’s what he’d said and that he doesn’t have the authority to close the airport anyway.
“Everything I did was at request of the Jackson County Commissioners,” he said, adding that the legislation was supported by state Rep. Phil Haire of Sylva.
According to Snow, the only action he took on his own was to initiate a bill that prevented the Authority from moving ahead with a planned expansion project last summer – an action he took on behalf of the taxpayers of North Carolina, he said. Snow was also instrumental in persuading state Department of Transportation officials to freeze funding allocations to the local Airport. That funding freeze was still in effect as of July, according to Snow.
As to any comments he made in Raleigh in regard to the Airport, he said the remark he made was that he didn’t want to “throw money down a snake hole.”
Snow’s November opponent, Republican Ken McKim of Highlands, was present at the Authority’s Aug. 28 session and expressed support for the facility.
“As a Senate candidate, I see the Airport as a proven economic development tool,” McKim said. “Hopefully, come Nov. 7, there won’t be state-level opposition to this airport. I’m excited about keeping it here.”
The Authority is scheduled to meet Tuesday, Sept. 19, at 5:30 p.m. at the Airport.
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