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County gives $61,585 in match funding to Airport Authority
By Justin Goble
County officials voted 4-1 Monday (Sept. 8) to give members of the Jackson County Airport Authority $61,585 in matching funds.
Commissioners Brian McMahan, Tom Massie, William Shelton and Mark Jones voted in favor of the measure. Joe Cowan was the sole “no” vote.
The funds are needed so the JCAA can receive around $554,263 from the N.C. Department of Transportation’s Division of Aviation, which administers federal aviation money.
DOT requires a 10-percent local match for airports to receive their money.
According to officials with the JCAA, the DOT money will go towards building retention ponds and lining ditches at the airport, which were called for in a slope stability study conducted by W.K. Dickson consulting firm out of Asheville. Those projects are expected to cost $607,100.
In putting forth a motion on the funding, Massie said those improvements are needed at the site in order to protect the public. That’s why the county has a responsibility to provide that funding, he said.
“There are repairs up there that we have neglected for years,” Massie said. “We need to remedy them.”
Cowan, however, reaffirmed his stance against funding for the airport.
“My position on this has been very clear,” Cowan said. “We shouldn’t spend money on Berry Mountain Ridge Runway, known as the Jackson County Airport, when less than one-one-hundredth of the county residents use it. It’s only beneficial to a handful of people. It’s like if the Crest View Foundation, in trying to promote physical fitness, gave me money to put a swimming pool in my backyard and asked me to invite 20 people over to the house to use it. If I came in here and asked for match money, they’d laugh me out of here.”
The recent study finished by W.K. Dickson was completed in response to two lawsuits that name the county and the JCAA as defendants.
Those lawsuits, which were filed in 2006, contend that slope failure at the airport atop Berry Ridge near Cullowhee threatens their homes and property.
According to county Manager Ken Westmoreland, the match money will come from contingency funds.
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