County airport plan doesn’t fly

After eight years of planning discussions, the Town of Machias has decided to no longer pursue sponsorship of the proposed Downeast Regional Airport. At a September 9 meeting, the board of selectmen ultimately voted against building an extension to the existing airport in Machias, leaving it as a functioning airport.

Town Manager Betsy Fitzgerald says of the voting and the conversations at the meeting that led to the vote on the existing airport, "By default this means that Machias doesn't want to pursue the regional concept of an airport." However, she says, "I will need to go back to the board because their decision will affect the existing airport. The FAA [Federal Aviation Administration] will require that we do some work on it." The list includes extending the runway, adding lights and putting some work into the facility's building. The funding for the FAA requirements will need to be researched, she says, because much of that work had been put on hold while the municipality looked at the regional airport concept.

The need for a regional airport that meets FAA National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems standards was identified at the regional level in 2001 when Eastern Maine Development Corporation drafted a Cutler Navy Base reuse study and found that the existing Machias airport could not be expanded to this standard because of boundary constraints. The interest at the time was in an airport that could "accommodate the type of aircraft commonly used by corporations." A new Level I regional airport was discussed, meaning that it would adhere to a number of standards that do not currently exist at Washington County's airports and that it would be considered part of a national transportation system of links. Those standards would include a 5,000-foot runway that would be year-round, all-weather and 24-hour accessible. At the time of the original plan, a Jonesboro site was considered, but that proposal met with strong opposition.

In the spring of 2009, a new location was identified by a consulting company that conducted the environmental draft report. The site, a parcel of land on Diamond Ridge Road that straddles Marshfield and Northfield, raised a number of concerns at a public hearing held in Machias on May 12. Questions about the need for a regional airport that meets Level 1 requirements were raised as well as about who would bear the upfront and maintenance costs over the long term. While the renewable energy market was referenced as a possible user of the airport, the overriding concern was how the demand, or use, of the airport would justify its existence above and beyond the Washington County airports already in operation. At the time, Ralph Nicosia-Rusin, FAA airport division capacity program manager, said the regional airport was "not based on [increasing] customer traffic. It is based on linking the region to a national network of transportation links."

As for the future of a regional airport of a Level 1 capacity being built now that Machias has stepped away from the project, Nicosia-Rusin says, "The county or someone else could form a partnership to sponsor it, but the original plan was for it to be a replacement for the Machias area airport. That's a choice for the community in that part of Downeast to make whether to continue with the existing airport or look to build a new one. We'll support them whichever way they go."

Fitzgerald comments that there have always been two parts to the regional airport: the actual facility and the governance structure of the airport. "That governance piece of the airport I'm assuming will go forward." She explains that a number of years ago the legislature's Transportation Committee enacted a law to be used to create a governance structure when a regional airport is built in the county.

County Manager Linda Pagels-Wentworth says that in the past the county commissioners have expressed an unofficial interest in a county airport if a need is determined. "If the county was asked, and the need demonstrated, I think they would step forward. With the recent turn of events, it's almost an orphan," she says of the project. "The county model seems to make a whole lot of sense, like the Trenton model. It would be nice to extend the accessibility of the county, there are a lot of applications, but no matter where you put it, it will be in someone's backyard." The county manager notes that a possible location could be in the Unorganized Territories where there is a tax increment financing mechanism that could be looked at as a funding source. However, she says, "It's so important how people have a voice in this; the planning process is really important."