Thursday, January 12, 2012

Clark airport agrees to $600,000 settlement in land case

About three weeks after losing a condemnation case on land taken for a runway expansion, Clark County Regional Airport officials have settled a second, disputed condemnation for more than $600,000.

The settlement with developer Jesse Ballew will require the airport to pay $338,885, including land costs and legal and appraisal fees, in addition to the $239,300 it already has paid Ballew for 18.8 acres near Bean Road, north of the airport.

Ballew also will be able to get tax benefits for contributing an additional $191,339 in the value of the land to the airport.

The agreement “will be better for the community” than going through a protracted lawsuit, Ballew said. He added that he thinks the runway expansion will help the community by making the airport usable by larger airplanes.

Jack Vissing, the airport’s lawyer, said the agreed judgment was filed in Clark Circuit Court on Jan. 6.

The deal resolved a dispute between the airport and Ballew on the value of the land, which is near the developer’s Sellersburg Industrial Park. The airport has taken the property and other land nearby so it can move Bean Road, allowing room for a 1,500-foot extension of the 5,500 foot main runway.

Appraisers initially valued the land at $236,000, the agreed judgment says, and then Ballew hired two appraisers who valued the property at $797,679 at its highest and best use — for industrial development.

The airport lost a similar condemnation case on Dec. 14, when the Indiana Court of Appeal upheld a Clark Circuit Court verdict valuing about 73 acres owned by Margaret Dreyer near Bean Road at $865,000 instead of the $200,000 the airport paid.

“The case with Dreyer’s land is a train wreck,” Vissing said, referring to the court of appeals decision.

Vissing said he and airport officials decided it would be better to settle with Ballew rather than risk another trial.

Melodee McNames, the airport’s manager said, the airport also was able to discuss the Ballew case with the Federal Aviation Administration, which agreed a settlement would make sense and that it may be able to help with the additional payment to Ballew.

Airport consultants are gathering information now to amend the federal grant used to pay for Ballew’s property, McNames said.

But to request more funding to help with the Dreyer payment, the airport will have to file a new grant, and it could take a couple of years to receive the funding unless some other airport is unable to use a grant it has won, McNames said.

Tony Molinaro, an FAA spokesman in Chicago, said the agency can sometimes provide additional funding for land acquisitions when local airports need more financial help than they requested initially. Such cases, he said, are decided “on a case by case basis,” so its impossible to predict what will happen in the Clark County cases.

Alan Conner, a member of the board that oversees the airport, said the agency has no money to pay Dreyer or Ballew, since its annual budget of about $225,000 is barely enough to meet operating expenses. Because the airport is a department of county government, the county will be responsible for the payments if they can’t be obtained quickly from the FAA, Conner said.

“When you are underfunded and understaffed, you can expect mistakes,” Conner said.

The airport, which has only one full-time employee, has been seeking more support from county government or approval to operate as an independent authority, which could raise more money for investment and to hire an executive director.

John Mead, Dreyer’s lawyer, said he plans to file a motion in Clark Circuit Court on Friday asking that county government be declared responsible for paying the judgment. That would require the county to find the money in its accounts or impose a special property tax for one year to raise the money, Mead said.

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