Expenses crash runway plan

Paying tens of thousands of dollars for a single foot of additional driveway space sounds ludicrous. This summer, the Lorain County Airport received an internal report that indicated the proposed airport expansion would not prove to be asprofitable as expected.

It has been more than five years since the airport first began investigating the possibility of adding 2,500 feet of additional runway.

At Tuesday's General Faculty meeting, Dye said, "All in all, I think the airport issues are in hand." Professor of Mathematics George Andrews has been appointed to sit on the Lorain County Port Authority, the body overseeing the proposed airport expansion.

Although the FAA would finance up to 10 percent of runway expansion, figures were not disclosed as to the actual cost to Lorain County were the expansion to proceed. Using the price tag of $10 million for the recent FAA approval for 600 feet of runway for the Akron-Canton Airport as basis for comparison, the potential cost is extreme.

"We do not have to worry about land acquisition, but we are talking four times the amount of length for our extension," said Peggy Cope, director of marketing for the airport. Cope also noted that the airport would need to follow quite a complicated process in order to acquire funds through the FAA.

Originally, the prospect for expansion was communicated after a study commissioned by the Lorain County Regional Airport Authority showed a $5,999,593 contribution to the economy of Lorain County.

Over $2.5 million of this amount, though, is estimated employee spending at local businesses, calculated using a multiplier factor of 2, as reported in a study commissioned by the Lorain County Regional Airport Authority released in May 1999. Additionally, $1.9 million out of the totaled $6 million airport contribution to Lorain County was in calculated savings in transportation expenses realized by companies and individuals.

The expansion was called for to better equip the airport to handle more modern aircraft. The College criticized the proposal as being an irresponsible means of growth, and sprawl and noise pollution were hot topics at town meetings on the subject.

Clear for landing: The airport finds runway expansion too expensive. (photo by Areca Treon)