Firm hired to fortify case with Federal Aviation Administration

In an ongoing effort to qualify for federal dollars to fund airport improvements, Wilmington Air Park officials have hired nationally known airport planners to help make a case for eligibility.

The air park must be named a National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems (NPIAS) airport to get federal funds to pay for upgrades. But the county airport on North Curry Road already is NPIAS-eligible and a year or more ago the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) told the Clinton County Port Authority the two airports are too close to both be NPIAS-eligible.

Since then, the FAA has indicated it has not excluded the possibility of NPIAS for the air park, and the federal agency has said it will continue to consider it — but without making assurances one way or the other, Clinton County Port Authority Executive Director Kevin Carver reported Thursday to the Port Authority board.

“What we are doing is attempting to work through and work around the FAA’s restrictions without jeopardizing anybody else’s status who’s currently in the NPIAS,” said Carver, in a clear reference to Clinton Field on Curry Road in Clinton County.

The FAA’s circumstances concerning the air park’s wish to be named a NPIAS airport can be compared, Carver said, to the adoption of a young child. The FAA’s approval would involve “a very, very long agreement” between the federal government and the air park, with the federal government essentially agreeing to financially help the air park maintain a certain standard.

According to Carver, the question now is how much of the air park is the FAA willing to adopt?

The FAA has indicated to air park officials that it hasn’t seen a clear and compelling argument that all of the airport ought to be included within the NPIAS “because we aren’t currently using most of the airport,” Carver said.

“So, they’ve asked us to very specifically define which parts and pieces of the airport that we want them to consider to be eligible for the NPIAS,” he added.

Carver said that’s why he and others recommended to the Port board that it engage a professional airport planning firm to assist in the process “so we don’t wake up a year or two — if we are fortunate enough to get approval to enter NPIAS — and wish we had included something else, too.”

The Clinton County Port Authority executive director continued, “The delicacy here is, I believe, the less we ask for the FAA to approve into the NPIAS, the higher our probability becomes of being accepted into the NPIAS.”

Returning to the adoption analogy, Carver said that, for the FAA, approving at least part of the airport in the air park is like “putting one more mouth at the table, but no more food [funding].”

Consequently, the FAA is being “very careful and very cautious,” and the Port Authority should be careful and cautious, as well, said Carver.

RW Armstrong is the firm retained at $20,000 for airport planning services.

Source:   http://wnewsj.com