Jan 10, 2003 By Steve Ostrosky 4 min read

WAYNESBURG – A Franklin Township couple angrily confronted the Greene County commissioners Thursday, asking them for answers about the county’s plans for expanding the county airport. Linda Varner and her husband, Larry, have followed news accounts in the last year that reported the county commissioners are interested in expanding the airport’s

runway from 3,500 feet to 5,000 feet.

She requested copies of a feasibility study and an environmental-impact study and asked if they were completed to justify the need for a longer runway.

“If these studies are done, I need copies for my attorney,” she said. “Have you thought about the impact on the adjacent properties?”

Commission Chairman Dave Coder said that, aside from several letters from the state Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Aviation, the county has taken no action on the property.

Those letters have stated that the county must clear trees in an 8-acre easement the county purchased from Linda Varner’s parents when they owned the farm in the 1970s.

“I’m concerned about the safety issue with those trees, and I hope we are making progress,” Coder said.

Ann Bargerstock, county director of planning and development, said the trees have presented a hazard to navigation and must be removed, or the county will have to reduce the runway by 500 feet. She said the feasibility and environmental-impact studies are the same document, but the county has just begun to seek proposals from firms to conduct those studies.

Larry Varner said he met with Coder and Commissioner Farley Toothman in 1996 about the trees on his property and said he was told then that the commissioners had no intention of spending money to improve the airport. He and his wife both asked if the county plans to take their property by eminent domain.

“Why would you do that to our property and screw our lives up?” he asked.

Coder said the county is focused on the issue with the trees, and he wants to see that matter resolved quickly. Bargerstock said the county has resolved to issue a declaration of taking for the Varner property, which is the preliminary step before any other legal action to take the property can begin.

Solicitor David Hook said the county has filed with the court no eminent domain document concerning the Varner property.

The Varners’ daughter Jennifer Shriver said in researching the EverGreene Technology Park on the Internet, the park’s Web site indicates that plans call for a runway extension at the airport to enable corporate jets to land there. Larry Varner asked why the county commissioners and industrial development authority would want to pursue a park like EverGreene, given the work force in Greene County.

“Why don’t you bring common jobs to this area,” he said. “That’s what the people here are geared for.”

Coder said the points the Varners brought up would be topics of discussion if and when the county has the funding to pursue the airport expansion. Toothman was absent from the meeting.

In other business Thursday, director of elections Frances Pratt updated the commissioners about the forthcoming Statewide Uniform Registry of Electors (SURE) system that will be implemented later this year.

A representative from the Department of State and from the software company that developed the system met with Pratt and county budget/information technology director Scott Kelley last week to go over the system and assess what Greene County’s election and registration office was already using to register voters.

Pratt said the county will have the system in place by September, with its first real test to come in the Nov. 4 general election. She said she was encouraged by the state’s efforts to give every county a consistent registration system, especially when the state will cover the cost of implementation.

“I was impressed with their presentation, but as for the system’s effectiveness, only time will tell,” she said.

The commissioners voted to award a contract to Lone Pine Construction of Bentleyville, which was the low bidder at $339,220, to replace Bridge 71. They appointed J. Allen Blaker, Douglas Kerr, Valerie Gapen and Brenda Giles to the county’s tourism board and appointed Lisa Wise and Dr. Daniel Church to the county Human Services Advisory Board.

In reorganization matters, Coder was re-elected chairman, with Toothman as vice chairman.

Beginning in February, the commissioners will hold agenda meetings on the first and third Wednesdays of the month at 11 a.m. and will hold regular meetings on the first and third Thursdays at 10 a.m. in the commissioners’ meeting room.

The commissioners will next meet Jan. 22 and 23.