Feb 21, 2020 3 min read

When the Washington County commissioners in December approved a list of $6.9 million worth of projects to be funded by the local share of gambling revenue from The Meadows Racetrack and Casino, $2.6 million for the Washington County Airport expansion wasn’t on it.

But the board on Thursday unanimously agreed to add the allocation, the largest-single project in the 12 years since slot-machines and table games were added to the harness-racing track near Washington.

The $2.6 million is a match of money granted in 2013 through the state Transportation Commission.

“We’ve been working on this that long,” said William McGowen, executive director of the Washington County Redevelopment Authority, which oversees operations of the county airport and administers the local share account.

The redevelopment authority calls this phase of airport expansion the Northside Development Project. It includes site work, grading, extension of an existing access road, light and other infrastructure and enabling private entities to construct, at some time yet to be determined, four hangars that would each measure 120-by-100 feet.

The money will also be used for filling slopes to increase the width of the runway safety areas as required by the Federal Aviation Administration.

McGowen considers widening the runway safety areas to be “a critical step in advancing plans” to lengthen the 5,004-foot runway to 5,500 feet.

The state Bureau of Aviation, which has committed $4,525,000 to the Northside Development project, requires matching funds of $2.6 million from the county. McGowen said the match includes $641,000 unspent from a previous $1 million local share allocation in 2014.

The money for the airport, in North and South Franklin townships between Route 18 and Interstate 70, became available because other allocations made more than five years ago did not come to fruition, McGowen said. He gave as major examples the countywide economic development strategy update and inventory, $202,000, and Catfish Creek flood control property acquisition, $825,000, plus amounts from smaller projects.

“You have to spend it within five years or it goes back in the pot,” McGowen said. “In some years, it makes the next year’s allotment go up.”

In a memorandum to the commissioners, McGowen noted, “The airport master plan and the economic feasibility analysis concluded that in order for Washington County Airport to grow and service its market, it would need to increase/add revenue-producing facilities.

“The proposed development will not only permit existing aviation businesses to expand and add jobs, it will also provide an opportunity to attract new aviation businesses to our region.”

Commission Chairman Diana Irey Vaughan said Jeff Kotula, chairman of the panel that evaluates projects proposed for local share funding, contacted members of the committee via email about the airport Northside Development project.

The committee recommended it to the commissioners, who in turn forward the request in the form of an amendment to the most recent list to the state Department of Community and Economic Development for final approval, which generally occurs in the summer.

“Not once have we ever gone against the recommendations of the local share committee,” Irey Vaughan said Wednesday.