AUBURN – Considering how important the Auburn Lewiston Municipal Airport is to the local economy, there’s been little effort put into planning for its growth.
That has to change, according to Airport Manager John McGonagill.
“At this point, we’re trying to get out of the reactive mode, where we’ve been stuck for the last 10 years,” he said.
McGonagill said the airport is in the hunt for a $230,000 grant from the Federal Aviation Administration to pay for a new master plan. The study will look at environmental and growth issues over the next few years – but that’s just a start.
“For the FAA, it’s fairly cut and dried,” McGonagill said. “It’s a black-and-white plan for them, but it’s a lot more for us.”
McGonagill said it should really be a business plan for the airport and its surroundings.
“Potentially what we do in this area will have the greatest economic impact for the Twin Cities than anything else going on,” he said. “The FAA expects something that talks about 10 years, but I want something that looks out longer, like 20 years or even 50 years.”
Local business leaders hope to make the area a transportation hub in central Maine. The St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad runs alongside the airport, and it’s also close to the Maine Turnpike.
The area became an inland port and was granted Foreign Trade Zone status in October. That allows manufacturers to have raw materials shipped to them duty-free. They can then manufacture their goods and ship them to international customers duty-free.
Two nearby business parks, the Kittyhawk Industrial Park and the Auburn Lewiston Airpark, have already been filled by businesses. The Auburn Downtown Business Corp. is developing a 76-acre business park there.
There is also talk of building a passenger intermodal center in the area, linking rail, air and bus passengers.
Auburn needs a good plan before it can get started, however.
“I want an accurate, long-term picture of the area so we don’t have to keep backing up,” he said. “Say we start laying line for a multi-modal rail center. Are we sure it’s going in the right place? I don’t want to have to go back in and dig it up because we should have put a bus depot there.”
The last airport master plan was written in 1997, before the area began to grow. The airport had about 59,000 takeoffs and landings then.
It has between 70,000 and 80,000 takeoffs and landings annually now.
“We had no idea what was going to happen,” he said. In one instance, the 1997 plan forecasts fuel use at the airport through 2007. Current fuel use is 300 percent of the highest estimates, he said.
McGonagill said he expects to hear from the FAA in the couple of weeks and expects to begin work on a plan within a month.
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