Audience angry at council’s tied vote on grant for airport

Gasps of dismay and disbelief were heard from the audience when the Eastport City Council voted 2-2 on a motion to take out a $275,000 three‑year line of credit that would pay for a Federal Aviation Administration‑required engineering study for the municipal airport as part of a $5.2 million FAA grant that requires no match. The engineering report costs would be reimbursed by the grant, not including the interest. Councillors Scott Emery and Hailley Bradbury voted against the loan, and councillors Jeanne Peacock and Rocky Archer voted for it. Councillor Peter Small was not present at the meeting. The council will revisit the loan and vote again at its October 9 meeting.
Speaking in support of the loan were a number of audience members. Former Councillor Mary Repole explained that the city's comprehensive plan lays out the importance of the airport to the city and the need to maintain it. Restaurant owner Bob Delpapa said that the council "would be nuts if you don't approve this." When resident Jon McNerney asked Councillor Emery what he would do with the airport if the grant is not used, Emery replied that he didn't think the city had any business having an airport. "I think it's a joke," he said, to audience members' laugh of disbelief. McNerney replied that the city had two draws to attract corporations wanting to do business in the city: the port and the airport.
Tides Institute & Museum of Art Director Hugh French said, "To see a grant of the $5.2 million magnitude is rare and extraordinary. I assume the city approved the grant application, and if you turn it down it would be incredibly foolish." He added, "Eastport is losing population still. We need to have everything here to attract and retain people." He said that while the island city is special, so are many other places with closer and better infrastructure to attract new residents and visitors. "We have to fight like hell to keep and attract people here," he said. "If you turn this down, it will be extraordinarily short‑sighted." Loud applause broke out at the end of French's statement.
Business owner Linda Godfrey pointed out that the considerable attention Eastport has received through the writings of James and Deborah Fallows of The Atlantic magazine, authors of Our Towns, and an upcoming HBO documentary. They originally chose to come to Eastport because it had an airport. The couple have been documenting communities around the country that are reinventing themselves after difficult economic declines. They only went to communities that had an airport that could accommodate their small plane.
A couple new to Eastport, who are closing on a house and are looking forward to life Downeast, told the council that one of the reasons they chose the city was because of the airport.
Airport Manager Steve Trieber, who is a volunteer, said that if need be the airport's volunteer community could probably come up with the interest payments. He and his wife, Deb Nelson, pointed out the importance of the airport to commercial business; to emergency management plans for an island that has only one road in an and out; to the use of LifeFlight and other specialized volunteer health‑related flight services and more. Nelson said that when the construction crew comes to work on the resurfacing work, they use local facilities: lodging, restaurants, gas station, grocery store and more.
Trieber noted the difficulty he has had in obtaining an itemized city report on the airport that shows income and expenses, which, based on calculations he did a few years back, had put the airport in a tiny bit of balance‑sheet black. However, the manner in which Trieber spoke suggested that city Treasurer Traci Claroni was somehow to blame for the lack of a city accounting of the airport, which provoked the ire of Assessor Robert Scott, who defended her in no uncertain terms. Trieber then said, that to be fair, his understanding was that the city's accounting system, TRIO, wasn't able to create reports on the airport's numbers.
Bradbury and Emery agreed that having such a report would be useful to have at the October meeting. Argir said that he would work with Claroni to create something for the council to look at. Bradbury's concern appeared to be with the 20‑year commitment to airport maintenance required by the grant cycle.

Grant without match is rare
An FAA grant that does not require a 5% city match is very rare and was procured for the city by Senator Susan Collins and was applied for by former City Manager Elaine Abbott with the approval of the city council. The grant would be used to resurface the runway and conduct drainage work on the edges; replace or install the beacon, approach path and runway endway indicators. The last time the runway had construction work done was in 1991, when it was lengthened. At the time it was considered to have a 20-year lifespan. "There have been no improvements since then," said engineer Suzanne Sheppard at the city's September 4 infrastructure meeting.
Engineers with Hoyle, Tanner & Associates were present at the September 4 meeting to outline the funding model. They explained that the usual FAA grant model allows for splitting the grant in two, to pay for the necessary engineering studies. The no‑match grant does not allow for a split. The result is that the city would need to take out a loan of about $275,000 to pay for the study. While the city would be reimbursed once the project was completed, Argir was not sure if the city would be reimbursed for the interest on the loan amount. The engineers stressed that the no‑match grant would most likely not come up again, and the regular FAA funding model would not be available for another 5- to 10-year funding cycle.