A private investment firm from New York has been in contact with Barrow County leaders about the possibility of buying the Northeast Georgia Regional Airport and making into a regional facility for “light” passenger aircraft. No offer has been made and the discussions are in the very early stages, said those close to the situation.
Plans by the county to expand the airport runway led to a firestorm of controversy late last year and throughout 2008. The issue was a major debate in county elections last summer, elections that saw a number of incumbents voted out of office.
The latest twist in the ongoing airport saga came Tuesday night when outgoing board of commissioners chairman Doug Garrison alluded to the possibility of the county privatizing the airport by selling it. Garrison’s remarks came during his farewell comments to the board and were not part of the meeting’s officials business.
Nevertheless, the comments caught the attention of activists who have been opposing county plans to expand the airport beyond local general aviation use. Friday morning, Concerned Citizens of Barrow County, an airport activist group that has been following the issue, put out a call to members about the county’s discussions, saying they “potentially could become a tireless nightmare for all citizens that work and or live in Barrow.”
The CCBC email said the group was concerned that the county might attempt to do a quick deal before Jan. 1, when new members take their BOC seats. The new BOC will likely replace a majority of airport authority members after Jan. 1, say those close to the situation.
But Brett Smith, one of the principals of Propeller Investments in New York, said Friday that the firm had been evaluating several sites in Georgia and that Barrow was just one of several locations being looked at. He said no site studies had been done and that the discussion was just preliminary in nature.
Smith also said his firm would “not do anything without the support of the community.”
COUNTY CONTACTED LAST MONTH
Garrison said the firm contacted him about a month ago by phone. He said he told company representatives he was going out of office at the end of the year and that any decisions on such a move would come under a new administration. He said he met with the firm, but that there was no offer on the table.
Garrison also said that his administration would not take any action on the idea before the first of the year. The chairman said the facility is owned by the county’s airport authority, but that he didn’t know the legal obligations of the county government that might be involved in any potential sale.
The chairman said that it might be a good move for the county to privatize its airport, making the facility taxable and relieving the county’s debt obligation for adjoining industrial land, but that he didn’t know the scope Propeller’s plans, other than it was apparently for some kind of “light” passenger service.
MEETING THIS WEEK
Incoming BOC chairman Danny Yearwood said he was invited to meet with some of Propeller’s leaders earlier this week. Yearwood said that he, along with Linda Moore, Barrow County Chamber of Commerce’s vice president for economic development; David Smith of the Winder-Barrow Joint Development Authority, which owns industrial land next to the airport; and county administrator Keith Lee met with officials with the firm Tuesday night.
Yearwood, who was elected last summer and takes office Jan. 1, said he told the company that he couldn’t commit to anything.
“I told them to make a package and I would present that to the board and the citizens of Barrow County,” he said.
Yearwood said it was his understanding that the firm wanted to offer some kind of regional passenger service with planes up to 737 in size.
Outgoing county commissioner Bill Healan said that he didn’t know anything about the discussions until this week after Garrison’s remarks Tuesday night. Healan, who has been critical of the county’s earlier airport expansion plans, said the facility doesn’t currently have the kind of infrastructure to support anything beyond general aviation use. The runway, he said, would have to be totally rebuilt to handle larger aircraft.
LONG CONTROVERSY
Airport expansion plans have been controversial in Northeast Georgia for the last 20 years after the City of Atlanta made a high profile bid to build a second Atlanta airport in the area. A 10,000-acre site was targeted in Jackson County in 1989, but a firestorm of protests put a stop to that effort.
Business leaders from nearby Athens-Clarke County have long promoted the idea of a regional airport in Northeast Georgia, although that county’s airport has had a difficult time keeping one regional carrier in place. The business leaders created a regional airport group in the 1990s, but it has not been active in recent years.
The issue in Barrow County began in 2005 when the airport changed its name from Winder-Barrow Airport to Northeast Georgia Regional Airport. In 2007, the county bought 250 acres for expansion and condemned another 16-acres later in the year. In addition, the FAA announced in 2007 it was funding a $1 million study on building another airport to serve the Atlanta area.
Controversy about those moves ensued and the Barrow BOC adopted a resolution in late 2007 that said the facility would not become a second Atlanta airport.
But discussion over extending one runway to 7,000’ continued into 2008. Allegations over insider real estate deals around the airport were rampant during the 2008 elections and the airport expansion controversy played a large part in the overturning a majority of the BOC, including the election of Yearwood as chairman.
