PARIS – Oxford County commissioners listened to Oxford’s town manager support a proposed expansion of the Oxford County Regional Airport’s runway, and then suggested that the town take over the airport operation.
“We’re looking at expanding it 1,000 feet to keep that airport functional,” Michael Chammings, Oxford’s town manager, said at Tuesday’s monthly commissioner meeting. He estimated it would cost $1.5 million to lengthen the runway and explained that the Federal Aviation Administration would pay 95 percent of the cost, with 2.5 percent coming both from state and local funding.
The county owns the airport – and thus would pay 2.5 percent of any project to match federal funding. The county’s cost to maintain the airport is $25,000 this year.
“Oxford should look into taking over that airport. Oxford County is only one of two counties that owns an airport,” Commissioner David Duguay said. “If Oxford actually owned it, you wouldn’t come to us, you would have control of it.”
Talk of expanding the airport runway has come up several times in years past and has met roadblocks, commissioners explained at the meeting.
Phil Simpson, an airport consultant, said at the meeting that the FAA did not support a past runway expansion proposal because the airport was too close to the Auburn airport, which has a long runway that can accept bigger planes.
Plus, Simpson said that the real cost of expansion would be more expensive than $1.5 million, partly because the airport is surrounded by wetlands that would need specialized studies and work.
“Just because we are proposing something that is difficult to reach doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to reach it,” Chammings responded.
He did not make a statement about whether the town of Oxford would consider accepting ownership of the airport.
In another matter, Judy Knight, who has worked for the county for 25 years, announced her retirement as director of the Oxford County Regional Communications Center in Paris. She told commissioners she wanted to try something else while she still could.
County officials also discussed whether to apply for state homeland security grants to build a new $50,000 building on Streaked Mountain to house communications equipment. If the county decided to apply for grant money, it would have to postpone replacing the rundown building there now for another year.
The commissioners approved a bid by Augusta Ford to supply the Oxford County Sheriff’s Office with six new cruisers for $100,016 in 2006, a price tag that includes the trade of six older cruisers. The commissioners’ acceptance was conditional based on Sheriff Lloyd Herrick’s review of the bid.
The commissioners also accepted the one bid that came in for renovating the county probate court submitted by R&R Construction Inc. of Lewiston for $163,673.
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