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WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2008 BARROW JOURNAL PAGE 3A Airport lighting system may not happen Airport continued from 1A BY SUSAN NORMAN D espite a warning that county funds likely would not be available for the project, the Barrow County Airport Authority voted Tuesday to pursue its own funding ave nues for installation of an approach lighting system at Northeast Georgia Regional Airport. Authority members said the “medium-intensity approach light system with runway alignment indicator lights (MALSR)” has been in the county's plans for eight years and is urgently needed for the safety of pilots and for the long-term economic viability of the county-owned Northeast Georgia Regional Airport. However, the Federal Aviation Administration demanded in a meeting two weeks ago an almost 250 per cent increase in local funding for the project. And with as many as four of the seven authority members like ly to be replaced after the Barrow County Board of Commissioners gets a new majority Jan. 1, Tuesday’s vote may not go very far. Authority member Don Holliday, who also is a past chairman of the BOC, said if the authority doesn’t come up with the matching funds, the airport in June 2009 would lose $528,000 in federal fund ing for the project and likely never get it back. “According to the FAA, we would probably never get funded for a MALSR system,” Holliday said. Under the arrangement with the FAA, the federal agen cy also would maintain the system, saving the county $50,000-$60,000 a year, he said. Holliday said county vot ers previously have agreed to spend $500,000 in sales tax revenues on airport improve ments. “There’s $500,000 approved by the citizens for the airport to be spent on a priority basis by the county commission,” he said. “If the county com mission wanted to make the system happen, they could make the system happen with out asking taxpayers to pay any more money.” But BOC Chairman-elect Daniel Yearwood told the panel that SPLOST revenues are down and that the county probably would not have any money to contribute toward the MALSR. Yearwood resides near the airport and was propelled into power this year by an orga nized group of citizens oppos ing any additional investment or expansion of the airport. Sammy Everett, the author ity’s chairman, said the ILS/ MASLR project did not begin with the authority. “We are following direc tions from previous (county) administrations,” he said. Even with no further author ity action, the glide scope por tion of the ILS is going in, Everett said. Lee Barnett, the panel’s vice chairman, said it troubles him that the authority is in the position of not completing the entire ILS project. “This is a safety issue,” he said. “That is what this airport authority is about. We’re half way doing it. It troubles me greatly.” On a motion by Holliday, the authority voted unani mously, with Jerry Thompson absent, to attempt to secure at least $350,000 from a bank that previously agreed to loan that amount as the matching funds for the project. “We will proceed to pursue $350,000 and the next admin istration can do what they want to do,” Everett said. Barrett said the authority over the past eight or so years has helped the airport turn around. “I don’t want anyone to think this airport is a burden to this county; it's an asset to the county,” Barnett said. “I hope the new administration coming in will keep this in mind and continue to promote this airport. Otherwise, it will be a crying shame.” Tuesday's meeting was the last regular meeting of the authority in 2008. However, a called meeting will be held at noon on Tuesday, Dec. 23, to pass the budget. In other business, the air port authority voted to: •Cancel plans for hangar construction, including ground preparation. •Enforce a lease agreement with an airport tenant who has refused to pay for a full year of water service. Fire trucks continued from 1A “That’s when I approached the mayor and council about purchasing the new truck, and now we won’t have to deal with this for another 25 years.” Mattison said his staff would transfer from the old truck much of the small equipment needed to outfit the new one, Mattison said he thinks it's good for both the city and county departments to have ladder trucks. “Hopefully, we won’t be in competition. Hopefully we will work together” Mattison added. “We're proud they have one, and if they ever need two ladder trucks at one location, we’ll have two. And if we have some building where we need two ladder trucks, we’ll have them. So it’s good we can share with each other.” COUNTY CONCERNS While Winder is outfitting its new truck, the county is more reluctant to spend money on that right now. In a Dec. 5 memo, county administrator Keith Lee recommended to the board of the commissioners that the county delay $58,840 in capital expenditures, includ ing $26,000 to purchase a four- page list of equipment for the new ladder truck. If the newly formed board in January goes along with that recommendation. Post said his department would use some equipment already on hand and purchase the rest of the needed equipment with fire department operating funds. He said the truck was ordered a year ago and is part of his strategy to raise the county’s ISO classification. The city’s last ISO review was in 2007, which it received a Class 3 rating. In 2001, the county received a lower Class 5 rating and it hasn't been reviewed since then. “I think we can get it down to a 4 or a 3,” Post said. “We’re getting the new 911 center. We will be building a training center at the new fire headquarters. We’ve got the new ladder truck. That’s my goal, to bring ISO back to the county and review us and lower our insurance rating so the insurance premiums for residents and commercial busi nesses also can be reduced.” Post said the ladder height would enable county firefight ers to more effectively fight fires in structures taller than one story. “If you have a 20-foot wall and your nozzles are on the ground, you are not able to provide an effective fire stream to the fire you can’t see.” The ladder also will make it possible to rescue stranded people and will better protect the lives of firefighters. “We recently had a two-story house fire off Hwy. 11 and the fire was all in the upper floors of the building,” Post said. “If we’d had the ladder in service at the time, we could have utilized it instead of putting people inside with the roof collapsing.” Plans by the county to expand the airport runway led to a firestorm of controversy late last year and throughout 2008. The issue was a major debate in county elections last summer, elections that saw a number of incumbents voted out of office. The ILS matter the author ity discussed Tuesday has been a lingering part of that debate. The “instrument landing sys tem” is viewed by some critics as just another part of county plans to make the airport into a larger facility. COUNTY CONTACTED LAST MONTH Outgoing county commission chairman Doug Garrison said he was contacted about a month ago by phone about a party interested in purchasing the airport. He said he told com pany representatives he was going out of office at the end of the year and that any decisions on such a move would come under a new admin istration. He said he met with the firm, but that there was no offer on the table. During Tuesday's authority meeting, airport director Glen Boyd said his staff was provid ing information to Propeller Investments and that if an offer were received, it would be presented to both the authority and board of commissioners. Boyd said he was contacted in late November by an economic development person who had an interest in the airport. “We presented the airport and they presented their firm,” Boyd said. The airport manager called the idea to priva tize the airport “unique.” “The proposal they are considering is very unique and involves the possibility of privatiz ing the airport,” Boyd said. “Clearly, there are many issues that would need to be dealt with in order to make this an acceptable concept - the FAA, county commissioners and airport authority will all need to be satisfied with the proposal.” Garrison also said that his administration would not take any action on the idea before the first of the year. The chairman said the facility is owned by the county’s airport authority, but that he didn’t know the legal obligations of the county government that might be involved in any potential sale. The chairman said that while it might be a good move for the county to privatize its air port, making the facility taxable and relieving the county’s debt obligation for the adjoin ing industrial land, he didn’t know the scope Propeller's plans, other than it was apparently for some kind of “light” passenger service. LAST WEEK Early last week, Garrison alluded to the pos sibility of the county privatizing the airport by selling it. Garrison’s remarks came during his farewell comments to the board and were not part of the meeting's official business. Nevertheless, the comments caught the attention of activists who have been oppos ing county plans to expand the airport beyond local general aviation use. Friday morning, Concerned Citizens of Barrow County, an airport activist group that has been following the issue, put out a call to members about the county’s discussions, saying they “potentially could become a tireless nightmare for all citi zens that work and or live in Barrow.” The CCBC email said the group was con cerned that the county might attempt to do a quick deal before Jan. 1 when new people take their BOC seats. The new BOC will likely replace a majority of airport authority members after Jan. 1, say those close to the situation. MEETING LAST WEEK Yearwood said he was invited to meet with some of Propeller’s leaders last week. Yearwood said that he, along with Linda Moore, Barrow County Chamber of Commerce’s vice president for economic development; David Smith of the Winder-Barrow Joint Development Authority, which owns industrial land next to the airport; and county administrator Keith Lee met with officials with the firm on Dec. 9. Yearwood, who was elected last summer and takes office Jan. 1, said he told the company that he couldn’t commit to anything. “I told them to make a package and I would present that to the board and the citizens of Barrow County,” he said. Yearwood said it was his understanding that the firm wanted to offer some kind of regional passenger service with planes up to 737 in size. Outgoing county commissioner Bill Healan said that he didn't know anything about the discussions until this week after Garrison’s remarks Tuesday night. Healan, who has been critical of the county's earlier airport expan sion plans, said the facility doesn’t currently have the kind of infrastructure to support any thing beyond general aviation use. The run way, he said, would have to be totally rebuilt to handle larger aircraft. LONG CONTROVERSY Airport expansion plans have been contro versial in Northeast Georgia for the last 20 years after the City of Atlanta made a high profile bid to build a second Atlanta airport in the area. A 10,000-acre site was targeted in Jackson County in 1989, but a firestorm of protests put a stop to that effort. Business leaders from nearby Athens-Clarke County have long promoted the idea of a regional airport in Northeast Georgia, although that county’s airport has had a difficult time keeping one regional carrier in place. Area business leaders created a regional airport group in the 1990s, but it has not been active in recent years. The issue in Barrow County began in 2005 when the airport changed its name from Winder-Barrow Airport to Northeast Georgia Regional Airport. In 2007, the county bought 250 acres for expansion and condemned another 16-acres later in the year. In addition, the FAA announced in 2007 it was funding a $1 million study on building another airport to serve the Atlanta area. Controversy about those moves ensued and the Barrow BOC adopted a resolution in late 2007 that said the facility would not become a second Atlanta airport. But discussion over extending one runway to 7,000’ continued into 2008. Allegations over insider real estate deals around the air port were rampant during the 2008 elections and the airport expansion controversy played a large part in the overturning of a majority of the BOC, including the election of Yearwood as chairman. Read then recycle this newspaper Service Loan & Tax R U Sick & Tired Of being Sick & Tired? Crawl N, Walk N, just get N 2 RAGLAND CHIROPRACTIC CENTER 82 West Candler St. Winder, GA 770-867-2115 CHRISTMAS TREES! Don’t Lose Out On Those Holiday Sales. For that extra cash, we are now making tax refund loans! Call or come by today! Stop by and let us prepare your income taxes this year! 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