HAMILTON - The latest
work on the new Hamilton Airport plan is taking longer than expected.
But recent changes in that review mean the future of the airport should
be completely resolved when that process is finished.
For the
past year, Ravalli County commissioners have worked to finish the long
term plan for the airport, a plan which has been stuck on the runway for
nearly a decade.
At the start of this year, it appeared the
county might finally be in a position of having the plan ironed out by
summer. But as we move into fall, the long review of the Environmental
Assessment is still underway. That's because the FAA wanted the county
to include the new Airport Layout Plan as part of this review.
"Well
the Airport Layout Plan, our current one, has been existing, and our
anticipated Airport Layout Plan was presented. But they first said, the
EA first said, don't include that, we'll talk about that later. Then
they came back and said, well, let's get this all done at once. if you
will aid the layout plan before we have the public hearing it will all
be under consideration simultaneously and you won't have to do it
twice," said J.R. Iman, Ravalli County Commissioner.
The county
had already developed the new layout plan, which includes the
commissioners' preferred "4B" option for a new 5,200 foot runway,
converting the existing runway into a taxiway. So it just needed to be
plugged into the current document.
""And so, they have a review
period. And then hopefully it just delayed our public hearing until late
this fall, or very early next year," said Iman.
It's been two
years since the county decided to "re-boot" the airport planning in an
effort to get the scheme ironed out once and for all. Iman says it would
have been good to have finished the review earlier. But now, he says
the current process will bring everything together for one hearing, with
the findings presented to the FAA for approval all at once.
"I mean it's been 7-8 years, but the good part is it's only six months more. But we are coming to the final hearing," said Iman.
Story, Video and Photo: http://www.kaj18.com
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