Airport study committee established
WASHINGTON – Although each of the county commissioners has a different idea of how the Washington County Airport and potential surrounding development should be managed, they did agree Thursday to set up a committee to study the issue. Commissioner Bracken Burns wants to see a new authority created to oversee the airport and a potential nearby business park. Commissioner Diana Irey is not opposed to the creation of a new authority for the airport and says a business park in the area of the airport definitely needs to come under the guidance of an authority. Commissioner John Bevec doesn’t want to see any new authorities created, but agrees that a business park should most likely be overseen by one of the existing authorities.
“All day yesterday the commissioners went back and forth looking for a compromise on this,” Bevec said.
The compromise came in the form of a resolution to form a study committee to look into current operations at the airport and to consider whether an Airport Authority or other program is needed to advance the operations and long-term development of the airport.
A study by the Washington Industrial Development Corporation recommends that an airport authority be established, but Irey and Bevec said the study didn’t go far enough. While similar-sized airports outside of Pennsylvania were studied, the airports of other fourth class counties in Pennsylvania weren’t compared, Irey said. In addition, the study did not include current users of the airport.
Several current users of the airport offered their views during public comment, including George Stark, the president of the Washington County Flyers.
“I think we cold have an airport that can move ahead without the county giving up control of the airport,” Stark said.
Stark feared the establishment of an authority with members appointed by each of the commissioners could make the authority too political and not knowledgeable enough about airport operations.
David Friend of Cheyenne Air Services, said when he was looking for a location for his business 12 years ago, he looked at two other counties before selecting Washington. He said he picked Washington because of how easy it was to set up his business at the airport.
“We were in business within six months. As a businessperson, I can tell you that you can’t do much better,” Friend said.
Joan Jessen, the vice chair of the Washington County Planning Commission also spoke out opposing the formation of a new authority.
“It is not because of a lack of support for the airport,” Jessen said.
“In our opinion, the airport is well-managed. In our opinion, the county would not benefit from the creation of an authority. Only through the power of appointment would the county have any say in the operations of the airport.
“We are all well-aware of the land that can be used for a business park or industrial park and we feel it would be appropriate for to turn the management of that land over to an authority such as the Washington County Redevelopment Authority,” Jessen said.
Jeff Kotula, executive director of the Washington Industrial Development Corporation, spoke in favor of creating an authority.
“The potential of the Interstate 70 West Corridor has been identified through numerous studies already completed,” Kotula said. “However, all of these studies concluded that major hindrances for development along this corridor continue to be a lack of quality infrastructure and interchanges as well as the disconnection of the airport.
“While the WIDC has no intention of managing the operations of the airport, we do support the creation of an airport authority that is directed by a board with significant aviation and business experience focusing on development by serving as an independent, autonomous operation governed by law with the ability to obtain significant resources to encourage growth,” Kotula said.
Burns said there are distinct advantages to having both the airport and an adjacent business park managed by a new authority.
“The advantage is to put together around a table a group of people whose sole purpose would be the development of the airport,” Burns said.
Burns said he doesn’t want to see the airport and business park separated, since that could put them in competition with one another instead of enhancing one another.
Irey said there is another advantage to establishing an authority instead of having direct county management.
“Our basic job here (as county commissioners) is to administer the taxpayers’ dollars. Should the average taxpayer pay for the airport?” Irey said. “I think we need an authority for the primary reason of developing an industrial park around the airport.”