Feds Demand More Than $13.3 Million From Maryland Town

The idea sounded like a good one back in the 1980s. That's when Ocean City (MD) and the FAA teamed up to buy a golf course and turn it into an airport. Much of the purchase price came in the form of FAA grants. Now, almost 20 years later, golfers are still teeing up at the Eagle's Landing Municipal Golf Course and the FAA figures it's time for the city to make good on its promises.

Namely, Ocean City leaders agreed when they went in on the land deal to put 10% of the golf course revenue in a fund for improvements to the adjacent airport. That apparently hasn't been happening. Further, the airport was supposed to grow using land from the golf course. Indeed, city officials agreed to renovate the airport and lengthen two runways. But a committee dedicated to airport projects steered the growth in a different direction, away from the golf course. Now, the city owns a golf course that the FAA paid for and the Feds, 20 years later, want an accounting. And they want $13.3 million dollars paid into a fund for development of the Ocean City Airport. If the town doesn't come up with both, by April 10th, the FAA says the whole matter will be sent to the Department of Transportation's Inspector General for a thorough review.

That's probably a lot like being audited by the IRS. Only worse. The money demanded by the IRS by early next month amounts to more than a quarter of the city's entire budget, according to the Ocean City Dispatch.

"I don't know where this hammer came down from," Councilman Jim Hall told the paper, "[and] I don't know where it's going to end up."

That's pretty indicative of the response from Ocean City's mayor and city council members. They believed they'd settled the issue last year. That's when the town and the FAA met on whether to designate much of the golf course a "buffer zone," aimed at reducing noise in nearby neighborhoods. As far as the town's elected leaders were concerned, that solved the problem. But last week, the FAA indicated otherwise.

"Based on the information available, it is the FAA's determination that the Town of Ocean City has not adhered to the interim agreement," wrote FAA Airports Division Manager William Flanagan. If Ocean City doesn't pay $13.3 million into the airport fund and provide a strict accounting of golf course revenues for the past six years, the FAA says it will not only send the matter to the DOT Inspector General, but will cut off all grant money earmarked for Ocean City -- between $100,000 and $500,000 a year.

Now, Ocean City leaders are wondering if having an airport is worth all the hassle. Mayor Jim Mathias wrote in reply to the FAA's demand letter, "The lack of a workable solution may force the town to ponder the future of the airport."

Speaking to the Dispatch earlier in the week, Mathias said, "There's got to be a reasonable place here." But just where the city and the FAA might find room to compromise remains to be seen.

FMI: www.ococean.com/airport.html