[E]AST MIDDLEBURY โ Residents are calling on state officials to stop an airport expansion plan they say would increase noise and benefit the wealthy.
Middlebury State Airport is a small, regional airstrip mostly used by private prop planes.
A proposed expansion of the 2,500-foot-long runway would make it big enough for small, private jets to land and could lead to larger federal grants to expand it further in the future.
More than 600 households live within a two-mile radius of the site, and those who attended a special selectboard meeting last week say the plan would open up the airport to jets and bring more noise.
โWe want to maintain the airport as it currently exists,โ said Dick Terk, who is organizing Middlebury residents against the project. He said the proposal is โa waste of taxpayer dollars.”
The project is part of the Vermont Airport System and Policy Plan adopted under the Douglas administration that would have extended the tiny airportโs runway as part of an effort to give Vermonters access to more air travel opportunities. The 2007 plan sought to โprovide a safe and secure system of airportsโ throughout Vermont and โenhance existing infrastructure investment.”
The economic development initiative spawned major runway expansion projects at the Newport State Airport in Coventry, the Morrisville-Stowe Airport in Morrisville, and the Rutland-Southern Vermont Regional Airport in Clarendon.
The Middlebury State Airport is smaller than the other regional airports, and was only recently slated for improvements. The Vermont Agency of Transportation is spearheading the $3 million expansion.
Dean George, chair of the Middlebury Selectboard, said the town has supported the expansion for 20 years. ย
โThis project is not changing the type of aircraft [that could land],” George said. “This project is really about clearing the vegetation at each end, and then the runway needs to be extended 700 feet.โ
Sue Hoxie, president of the Addison County Chamber of Commerce, said her organization supports the potential runway expansion because it would increase tourism and encourage businesses to relocate to the area.
But some townspeople fear the main beneficiaries of the project would be the affluent parents of Middlebury College students who could jet in for visits.
โThere is no known economic benefit from this airport on this town,โ said resident Karen Glauber. โPeople who live around the airport cannot have conversations when a plane flies over.โ
โAre we just funding a project for some private individuals who are lucky enough to be able to afford a plane?โ asked Ruth Hardy.
Nick Artim, a town selectman, said opponents to the plan are suffering from โfear of the unknown.โ He said it is impractical for the Middlebury State Airport to accommodate heavy jets.
Meanwhile, Artim sees an opportunity to break into a market that the airline industry is ignoring.
โThe air taxi industry is an open market because of company mergers,โ Artim said. โWeโre close to Boston and Montreal, but weโre not in their air space.โ
Guy Rouelle, the VTrans Aviation Administrator, said last week the investment is necessary to ensure safety.
The Federal Aviation Administration is not requiring the state to expand the project to meet safety standards, according to the deputy secretary of VTrans, Chris Cole.
Nevertheless Cole said expanding the runway would make it easier to land plans safely. He said it’s a lot like giving drivers more space on the road to slow down when theyโre driving in the snow.
โWe get concerns on transportation projects all the time,โ Cole said. โFrom the stateโs perspective, we need to look at all of those comments.โ
There isn’t enough demand for a longer runway, according to Cole. If demand increased, more FAA funding would be available, he said.
The FAA has given the state $137,340 in grants for an environmental study on tree removal, a spokesperson said. The trees need to be removed by 2017, according to the VTrans plan, and then the state would apply to the FAA for grant money to extend the runway by 700 feet in length and 10 feet in width. The earliest completion date would be 2018.
The airportโs master plan would have extended the runway by 1,500 feet in length, 25 feet in width and added capacity for jet fuel. The state considered the expansion in 2007, but eventually found the airport wasn’t used enough to justify federal funding.
Any future grants to Vermont would depend on what funding the FAA can wrestle from Congress, according to Jim Peters, a spokesperson for the Federal Aviation Administration.
The next step would be the development of a taxiway. No actual runway expansion or taxiway reconstruction would happen until at least 2017, and the price tag for that is $2.7 million in federal money. In contrast to the Morrisville-Stowe and Newport airports, no private funding has been obtained for improvements.
The stateโs transportation budget next year includes about $56,000 in funding for the early stage project. VTrans needs a $504,000 match from the FAA to complete the expansion.
In the next two years, the state would need to request at least $300,000 more to fund the 700-foot runway expansion project.
Cole said the state would set up more public meetings, but they have not yet been scheduled.
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