More Money Needed After $2.3 Million Investment

Ohio's Warren County Board of Commissioners has been hustling to bring the local airport into compliance with FAA standards, but it may have lost a race with a recession.

The Cincinnati Enquirer reports about $2.3 million has been spent in the last two years to clear trees and demolish buildings that lie within what should be the buffer zone for runway 1/19 at Warren County Airport (I68) near Lebanon.

Because of inattention to zoning laws, development has encroached on the airport. Many of the buildings were reportedly built without permits.

As a result, night landings became "really a thrill," to quote local pilot and Airport Authority President Bill Simmons. The runway is equipped with four-light precision approach path indicators, but Simmons notes, "...you wouldn't see the trees until you picked them up in your landing lights."

The FAA is willing to reimburse the county up to 95 percent for the required improvements if they're completed on schedule. Simmons says about 70 percent of the work is complete. The airport has asked for another $1.9 million in the 2009 budget to finish the job, but the county, like most, faces intense budgetary pressures in the recession.

Commissioners are expected late this month to approve a final 2009 budget calling for the smallest increase in spending in more than a decade.

County Commissioner Pat South says,"We hope the FAA will recognize that we are proactively going after this, but because of the circumstances of the economy, some things might take longer than we'd like."

FMI: www.warrencountyairport.com/