SOUTH PARIS – Improvements could be in the works for approaches to Oxford County Regional Airport’s runway if a $118,000 grant application is approved by the Federal Aviation Administration.
According to a new release issued Tuesday by the offices of Republican U.S. Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, the administration already has awarded Oxford County $50,000 to conduct an environmental study at the airport in Oxford.
However, Nancy Laney, airport grants administrator for the Maine Department of Transportation, said Thursday that the senators’ announcement was premature. Laney helps to process federal aviation grant applications within the state. She said applications for the current round of administration funds are not even due until May 1.
Laney said Oxford County has applied for $118,000 to conduct an “environmental assessment for clearing runway approaches” at the airport.
According to the application, she said, the county intends to study environmental conditions at the airport, zoning laws that would regulate adjacent properties, and also whether any historically or archaeologically significant features exist on the site.
Philip Simpson, a Wiscasset-based consultant who assisted with the application, said Thursday the environmental assessment is needed in order to clear trees from the No. 15 and No. 33 airport runway approaches.
“The approach at the north end of the runway, it’s very swampy,” Simpson said. “There are a lot of wetlands at that end of the runway.”
Because of the wetlands, he said, the Department of Environmental Protection is requiring the county to conduct an environmental assessment. Once the assessment is compete, the county will have to work with the DEP to come up with a plan for any cutting.
Simpson said the trees need to be removed because an “instrumental approach” was established for the airport three or four years ago.
Until then, pilots were permitted to land at the airport only when the weather was fair and the skies were clear, he said. Now, pilots may land at the airport even on foggy or rainy days, Simpson said, “but the landings minimums are much higher than what they should be.”
In other words, he said, the runway approaches need to be longer in order to meet full aviation administration requirements.
Simpson said the study also will look at whether the county needs to purchase any additional property or seek easements for some of the tree clearing.
If the grant is awarded, Laney said, the aviation administration would cover 95 percent of the study costs, the state would be required to cover 2.5 percent of the costs and the county the remaining 2.5 percent.
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