Jan 10, 2016 3 min read

Plans to create commercial property at Greene County Airport, a project long in the works, could become a reality by the end of the year.

The county last week advertised for bids to construct a new intersection on Route 21 at Murtha Drive that will serve as the new entrance to the airport. Work is expected to begin this spring, when the final parts of the project, a parking lot and internal access road, also will be put out for bid. The county hopes to complete all infrastructure for the project when construction season gets underway.

The project was under consideration for nearly a decade and was first proposed in an airport master plan prepared for Greene County in 2007 by L. Robert Kimball and Associates, a Pittsburgh engineering firm. That study determined extending the length of the runway to accommodate larger airplanes was too costly, but said improvements could be made to make the airport property more useful.

The study proposed demolishing the old hangers on the south side of the property and building new hangars, both of which were done in recent years. The study stated demolishing the old hangars also would make the land facing Route 21 available for commercial development.

Some time in the past, the commissioners decided not to sell the property that would be open for commercial development, but instead to lease it to generate revenue to make the airport more self-sufficient.

The commissioners also have chosen to fund the project using mostly state and federal grant money, which probably contributed to the long wait in the project’s completion. The county now has more than $2.5 million in grant money to complete the work.

We look forward to seeing the project finished and don’t consider the delay an issue. We remember a time after the 2008 recession when all new retail and commercial development pretty much ground to halt, and the prospect of any kind of revival seemed a painfully long way off.

Some also said the county shouldn’t be in the property management business and its development and maintenance of commercial land with public funds only gives it an unfair advantage over private development in the area. That might be true, but it also is true that many examples could be cited in which government money has been used to stimulate growth. Look no further than the land across the airport’s runway where EverGreene Technology Park was built. It happened with the help of federal and state grants. It’s now thriving on its own and attracting new companies and businesses.

On a much broader scale, one could also look to the $787 billion federal stimulus that was was approved by President Obama in February 2009, just as the Great Recession was gathering force. The stimulus may not have stopped the recession dead in its tracks and immediately returned the country to prosperity, but it prevented the Great Recession from getting even greater, and perhaps becoming a not-so-great depression.

If private development is the answer in Greene County, where is it? We’re still waiting for the construction to begin on the proposed Applebee’s restaurant.