Braden Airpark (N43) will stay open

Lehigh-Northampton Airport Authority members Tuesday decided to keep Braden Airpark open until the authority can find someone else to take it over.

The decision, applauded by the small plane pilots who use the 80-acre Forks Township airfield, brings an end to nearly two years in which the cash-strapped authority threatened to sell the land to a developer or even mothball Braden to avoid putting more money into it.

In the end, the authority's Braden Ad Hoc Committee realized it simply can't afford to sell or close the 76-year-old community airport. The best financial option is to keep it open, even if that means losing money annually.

"We have to keep it open while exploring other options," said Marc Troutman, authority chairman. "It's time to move on without allowing this to consume the whole board."

Technically, the decision will need a final vote by the full board, but the committee's decision was unanimous. Board passage is expected to be a formality.

That's good new for pilots, who have been fighting to keep the airport open since Authority Executive Director Charles Everett Jr. told the board it should consider selling the money losing airport. Everett has said in addition to the $160,000 a year in debt payments the authority makes on Braden, it also loses $50,000 to $70,000 a year in operating expenses.

"We're thrilled that they've removed the dark cloud that's been hanging over Braden," said Robert Brown, a member of a group of pilots trying to save it. "We're still here to be their safety net. They should take advantage of our willingness to operate and improve Braden."

Pilots argue that before the authority refused to give longtime Braden operator, Moyer Aviation, a long-term lease last year, it was home to 70 pilots and brought in $55,000 a year in lease payments from Moyer. But with its future uncertain, the number of pilots has dropped to 31 and it costs the authority about $4,000 per month — beyond debt payments — to keep it open.

The decision for the authority to keep running it came after an impassioned plea by several pilots who attended the special meeting at the Lehigh Valley International Airport.

"I grew up at [Braden]. My son will be 16 next summer and he wants to take his first flight there," said Tom Fox, of Palmer Township. "Please keep this airport open."

The uncertainty over Braden rose as the authority decided in 2012 to consider selling off unnecessary assets to raise money to help it pay off a $26 million court judgment against it for seizing a developer's land in the 1990s.

Braden was deemed to be an expendable asset as the board looked for a way to avoid at least some of the more than $200,000-a-year costs of keeping it open and the $500,000 in capital improvements that need done in the next few years.

The board considered selling Braden, taking a $1.75 million bid from a pilots group that wanted to keep it open, and a $3 million bid from New Jersey developer J.G. Petrucci, who proposed closing it for business development. But the pilots' offer wasn't enough for the authority to pay off its $3 million Braden bond debt, and while the Petrucci bid would have been enough to pay off that debt, it wasn't enough to repay up to $2.9 million in state grants that would have to be returned if the airport was shut down.

That left the board with the three options. One would have the authority continue running the airfield for the 31 pilots who still use it, while paying $160,000 in debt payments.

A second option was to mothball it at an annual loss of about $179,000 a year until the authority completes its $10 million sale of airport land in Allentown, and then reinvesting in and reopening Braden later. But that was deemed not financially sound because it's unclear how soon the state would demand its grants be repaid, and whether the airport could even come back after closing.

The third option would have allowed the pilot's group to run Braden. Pilots say they have the support of Northampton County, where County Executive and County Council members have said they may be willing to help pay for the $400,000 to $500,000 worth of capital improvements that would include adding 300 feet to the 2,000-foot runway.

In the end Tuesday, because the committee could get no commitment from Northampton County for the money, authority members chose option one, while leaving out hope option three remains a possibility. Ideally, they said, they'll arrive at a deal that will allow the pilots to lease or buy it, with help from some county funding.

That may get pilots to return, making it possible for the airport to be profitable again, pilots say.

So, after 18 months of sometimes heated talks, the authority arrived where it started. Why?

"Because there is no other option," board member Bob Buesing said.

- Source:  http://www.mcall.com