Susan and Les Bradley want to know when their trees will fall.
The
Kenai residents live on Float Plane Road at the edge of the Kenai
Municipal Airport, and the Federal Aviation Administration mandates that
the city limb or remove almost 2,000 trees obstructing the airport’s
runway.
“Right now we’re in limbo, because we don’t know what’s
going on with the tree removal,” Les said at Wednesday’s Kenai city
council meeting.
Trees in the Bradley’s and 13 other privately
owned properties are obstructing the runway’s flight path, said Mary
Bondurant, airport manager. Kenai has avigation easements on eight of
the properties, but the city will need to work with the remaining
property owners before it can cut their trees, she said.
“Ideally all the runway protection zones, the property around that area should be owned by the airport,” she said.
Bondurant
acknowledges that the project is sensitive, but the city can set no
date for tree cutting on those private properties yet, she said.
The
majority of the 1,992 trees, however, sit on city and airport owned
property, she said. And at Wednesday’s meeting, council awarded a
contract to Gage Tree Service to trim or fell obstructing trees. The
contractor estimates the project cost at $340,800. The project will
begin after July 15 and end by Sept. 30.
FAA requires the airport
maintain a 40-to-one departure surface. Any trees protruding into the
zone must be trimmed five to 10 feet.
The project targets 1,213
trees for removal and 779 trees for partial cutting on city and airport
land. It will also clear cut and seed 7.5 acres in the airport’s
fencing.
The Bradleys were concerned about the buffer strip of
trees separating Float Plane Road and the airport. The contractor will
trim the tops of the trees parallel to Float Plane Road and city lots
123 173 and 174, and the city will plant lower-growing trees to maintain
the buffer before the topped trees are finally removed, according to
project documents.
Source: http://peninsulaclarion.com
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