CAA: GA News, "Saving small New Jersey's airports"

["Stephen Irwin" <stepheni@xxxxxxxxx>]

Monday, November 4, 2002

Saving small airports
By NAOMI MUELLER
The Asbury Park (NJ) Press


Throughout the five years Ed Brown has publicly discussed selling Monmouth
Executive Airport -- first to Wall Township and then to Monmouth County --
his hope for its future has remained clear: The buyer must be committed to
keeping the 673-acre property an airport.

It's a position local and state officials -- concerned by the slow
disappearance of the state's small airfields -- agree with. Such facilities
are important to New Jersey's economy, they say.

Brown, who will be 86 in February, now says he is committed to selling his
airport -- previously named Allaire Airport -- to the county.

"It's been my life work, and it would break my heart if it was cut up and
turned into condominiums," Brown said earlier this week. "I think if you put
your life into something, it's only normal to want it to continue."

Brown said he is concerned about where county officials will get all the
money. He estimates the worth of his airport, which he built in the 1930s,
at about $42 million -- roughly $2 million less than the county's recent
appraisal of the property.

County officials, however, said they are not concerned about the appraisal
difference and are working with state and federal officials to get more than
the $36 million already promised.

Although once an issue that divided Republicans from Democrats on the Wall
Township Committee, candidates on both sides of the aisle agree this year:
The county's purchase of Monmouth Executive Airport would be in the best
interest of area residents and business owners.

Monmouth County Freeholder Director Harry Larrison and Freeholder Tom
Powers, as well as Democratic candidate John Szeliga, also favor county
purchase of the airport. Democrat Jeffrey Pringle said he needs more
information before making his decision. Libertarian candidate Joe Conklin
said he opposes the county's purchase of the airport, calling it a "pet
project." He said the county should not be in the business of owning an
airport.

The county's unofficial decision to purchase the airport is backed by state
and federal officials, who agreed to fork over at least $36 million for the
purchase.

With airports closing at a rate of one a year statewide and at a rate of one
every two weeks nationwide, state and federal officials say, they are
committed to maintaining New Jersey's small airports. If more airports are
lost, they say, the state's economy and transportation network will suffer.

Marlboro Airport was among those that shut down last month. Its owners want
to build homes or town houses on the property.

In testimony given before the National Civil Aviation Review Commission
earlier this year, Thor Solberg, who is negotiating to sell his Solberg
Airport in Hunterdon County to the state, stressed the importance of small
airports to the national aviation system.

"Encompassing everything from flight training, medical transport and
business travel to passenger and cargo charters in the largest aircraft,
small airports are the foundation of our national aviation system," Solberg
told the commission.

Efforts to buy Solberg Airport are part of the state's effort to keep as
many of New Jersey's 48 small general-aviation airports open as possible,
said Department of Transportation spokesman Micah Rasmussen.

New Jersey ventured into airport ownership four years ago, buying Greenwood
Lake Airport in Passaic County. Last month, the state completed a deal to
buy the development rights -- leaving the property in its owner's hands but
prohibiting it from being sold to a developer -- for Lincoln Park Airport in
Morris County.

Rasmussen said the state is working to negotiate the purchase of development
rights of two other airports. He declined to identify those airports but
said neither is in Monmouth or Ocean counties.

Of the 48 public-use airports, 29 are privately owned. Seven of those,
including Monmouth Executive Airport, are for sale, with the state
negotiating with three owners, Rasmussen said. If all the state's plans are
completed successfully, Rasmussen said the state will either own or have
some degree of ownership in 24 airports.

"I think that there's always been recognition (of the problem) but we are
reaching a critical point here," he said.

Rasmussen said that although state purchase of a privately owned airport is
always the last resort, the importance of keeping the airports operational
is of paramount importance to the state.

As proof, the state created the Airport Safety Improvement Aid program,
which provides loans for capital construction and development and equipment
acquisition, as a way of keeping those airports open.

"If our small airplanes don't have a place to stay, to launch from, then we
don't have a thriving small aviation network in New Jersey, which is
important to the state's transportation network, as well as for the
economy," Rasmussen said.

The state Department of Environmental Protection is in the process of
conducting an environmental study of the Monmouth Executive Airport
property; the study is being paid for by the county and is expected to be
completed this winter. After that, Larrison said, he expects negotiations
between Brown and county officials will begin.

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