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The Town of Greenville has in its ownership the single largest airport in Piscataquis County. Built by the military during the Roosevelt Administration, the two-runway facility has received various degrees of fiscal interest by the Greenville community over the years. As a result, the maintenance of the airport has waxed and waned by decades, and its current status is not dissimilar from the rest of the transportation systems in Piscataquis County: passable, but in need of substantial improvement. But unlike the other major pieces of transportation infrastructure in our county, the cost of physically improving the Greenville Municipal Airport falls squarely on the taxpayers of Greenville. When major State roads are rebuilt, the entire state pays for the upgrade. When repairs are made on our east-west railline (CDAC), the industry pays for it. But when repairs are made at the Greenville Municipal Airport – an airport which by its size and location is used by many, many more than just Greenville taxpayers – the local share of these repairs are borne solely by Greenville taxpayers. Recognizing the inequity of this situation, the Greenville Board of Selectmen and myself have taken steps to transform our municipal airport into a regional airport. This course of action was approved at the June 2001 Annual Town Meeting for Greenville, and efforts are underway to develop a charter for a regional airport authority. We hope to have such a charter in place by the end of next summer. Why do we want to develop a regional airport? The answer is simple: because the airport is used by the entire region, and therefore should be controlled by and paid for by the entire region. In surveying the ownership of various private airplane hangars at our airport, it is clear that 2/3 of the owners have seasonal camps (often used as summertime residences) in the surrounding unorganized territories. One third of these camps fall in Piscataquis County, the other third in Somerset County, ranging from Hartford's Point to Penobscot Lake. Clearly, those with hangars at the airport have a vested interest in the continued operation of the airport. It is quite telling that 2/3 of the hangar leasees have land ownership in the unorganized territories. Many have out-of-state residences, but seasonal camp ownership in unorganized territories. The airport in Greenville sees hundreds of private planes come in and out each year, bringing visitors to the entire region. The International Seaplane Fly-In provides a major economic boost to the entire region at the end of each summer season, hosting literally hundreds of planes at the airport for every annual three-day event. Visitors come to see this event not only by plane, but also by car as many regional residents come to visit for the weekend, staying in camps, inns and hotels and frequenting restaurants and stores throughout the Moosehead Lake region. The need for capital improvements to the airport is due in part to the increased use of the airport from mostly one season to clearly four seasons. Clearly, everyone from Rockwood to Kokadjo and beyond benefits in some way from the Greenville Municipal Airport and its associated events. It is for this reason that the Town of Greenville has formally requested that both Somerset County and Piscataquis County each contribute $10,000 to Greenville's airport project reserve fund. These funds, along with the Town of Greenville's contribution of all of its proceeds from hangar leases and from airplane excise tax revenue, will be used to pay the local share for the main runway reconstruction scheduled for FY2004. This multi-million dollar project will be funded 90% by the Federal Aviation Administration, 5% by the State of Maine Department of Transportation, and 5% locally. This 5% will total roughly $100,000. The Town of Greenville truly cannot afford to accomplish this task alone. We have asked each County to contribute $10,000 from their Unorganized Territory budgets, and each set of County Commissioners have voted to do so. In Piscataquis County, a recent vote by the Budget Advisory Committee resulted in the recommended removal of this $10,000 appropriation from the UT budget. On behalf of the hundreds of pilots who use this airport annually, of the hundreds of workers at companies in this county which make use of the Greenville airport, of the handful or so major companies who have inquired about locating to or near Greenville and want to be sure the airport is available before making their decision, and on behalf of the Greenville taxpayers who are facing a huge investment in regional infrastructure, I urge the Piscataquis County Commissioners to retain this $10,000 request in the Unorganized Territories budget for FY2002-03. Sincerely; John Simko |