Tue, Nov 25, 2008
More Money Needed After $2.3 Million Investment
Ohio's Warren County Board of Commissioners has been hustling to
bring the local airport into compliance with FAA standards, but it
may have lost a race with a recession.
The Cincinnati Enquirer reports about $2.3 million has been
spent in the last two years to clear trees and demolish buildings
that lie within what should be the buffer zone for runway 1/19 at
Warren County Airport (I68) near Lebanon.
Because of inattention to zoning laws, development has
encroached on the airport. Many of the buildings were reportedly
built without permits.
As a result, night landings became "really a thrill," to quote
local pilot and Airport Authority President Bill Simmons. The
runway is equipped with four-light precision approach path
indicators, but Simmons notes, "...you wouldn't see the trees until
you picked them up in your landing lights."
The FAA is willing to reimburse the county up to 95 percent for
the required improvements if they're completed on schedule. Simmons
says about 70 percent of the work is complete. The airport has
asked for another $1.9 million in the 2009 budget to finish the
job, but the county, like most, faces intense budgetary pressures
in the recession.
Commissioners are expected late this month to approve a final
2009 budget calling for the smallest increase in spending in more
than a decade.
County Commissioner Pat South says,"We hope the FAA will
recognize that we are proactively going after this, but because of
the circumstances of the economy, some things might take longer
than we'd like."
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