Still Battling FAA On Golf Course

It's an airport. It's a golf course. Okay, it's a golf course next door to an airport. But here's the rub: the golf course near the airport in Ocean City (MD) was purchased by the city with FAA money. The idea back then was to use the land for airport expansion. That was more than 20 years ago.

Now, however, the airport has grown in a different direction. The FAA has ways of dealing with that kind of situation. It ordered Ocean City to sell the land and put the money toward airport improvements. But when it came time to price the links, the FAA turned down two appraisals, saying Ocean City needed to sweeten the pot. Somewhere around $13.3 million was what the feds had in mind. Ocean City legislators say that's a bit too high. And so, for some years now, the stalemate has continued.

Last month, however, the FAA attempted to break that stalemate by telling Ocean City to pony up pronto. Unless Ocean City immediately complied with the order to sell the golf course -- and account for the feds' cut of golf course revenues (10 percent) -- the wrath of Washington's mighty bureaucracy would fall on the shoulders of the seaside town's civic leaders. They were shocked at the ultimatum. Ocean City stands to lose up to a half-million dollars a year in federal grant money and could face a full-blown investigation by the Department of Transportation's Inspector General.

"We thought we had an open line of communication," City Council President Rick Meehan said Wednesday. "But reasonable people need to discuss it in a reasonable manner," he said. In other words, the FAA was being... well, unreasonable.

"We need to address the issue, the value of the airport and the golf course and work with the FAA to come up with a reasonable solution and we’ll do it in a timely manner," Meehan said.

But time is fast running out. The FAA wants its $13.3 million by April 10th, or else. That money is a sizeable chunk of the entire Ocean City budget.

City council members called an executive session last week, hoping to hash out a compromise. They were scheduled to meet Monday night and again on Thursday. But so far, they haven't come up with a deal for the FAA.

"Our intent is to work with the FAA to come up with a reasonable solution," Meehan said. "The council thinks both the airport and the golf course are important and would like to continue to see them operate."

FMI: www.ococean.com/airport.html