Airport runway project still a go despite delays

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Airport runway project still a go despite delays

Port commissioner said he misspoke in radio interview

Friday, January 25, 2013

EAST WENATCHEE — The ports of Chelan and Douglas counties are still solidly behind plans to lengthen the runway at Pangborn Memorial Airport so larger aircraft can land there.

The latest expressions of support for the $22-$30 million project come after Port of Douglas County Commissioner Jim Huffman said in a radio interview Wednesday that “the urgency for that project has diminished” amid cost increases, a slow economy and a decision by Alaska Air to hold off on a potential plan to serve Pangborn with a regional jet that would require a longer runway.

Jim Huffman, Port of Douglas County commissioner

Huffman said Thursday that he misspoke and was quoted out of context on the radio. He said he didn’t mean to imply that the project may have to be postponed, only that it was already behind schedule due to an unexpected delay in with an environmental-impact ruling from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

A spokeswoman for Alaska Airlines, parent company of Horizon Air, the airline that serves Pangborn, said Thursday that the company has no plans to use an aircraft other than the 76-seat Bombardier Q400 currently in use on the Pangborn-SeaTac route.

The port districts expect the FAA to pay for 90 percent of the project cost. Of the remaining 10 percent — $2.2 million to $3 million — the Port of Chelan will cover 70 percent, the Port of Douglas, 30 percent.

Lisa Parks, director, Port of Douglas County

“It’s not our position that the project is postponed or is not going to happen,” Lisa Parks, director of the Port of Douglas County, said Thursday. “We believe the project is a necessary, important project.

Mark Urdahl, executive director of the Port of Chelan County

Port of Chelan Director Mark Urdahl said the runway project is part of the ports’ joint 6-year capital-improvement plan for the airport, with work expected to begin this year.

“The FAA has said it (the runway) meets their level of justification to fund it. We want to proceed with that assumption,” Urdahl said.

Postponement, Urdahl said, would likely only result in increased project costs and reduced funding from the FAA — a scenario that could be avoided by moving forward as planned.

The project would add 1,300 feet to the northwest end of the runway to allow larger aircraft to land. This would make the airport more attractive to potential new airlines with additional destinations, officials have said.

Both ports — and property owners around the airport who have been told they’d lose their homes to the project — are waiting for the FAA to finish its environmental analysis of the project.

The ports submitted their “environmental assessment” for FAA review last spring. They expected a ruling last fall, but have yet to receive one.

Urdahl said that port officials will travel to Seattle Jan. 31 to introduce FAA officials to Trent Moyers, Pangborn’s new airport manager. He said port officials may discuss the environmental assessment while there.

Parks said that the waiting and uncertainty have been hard for the port, as well as the property owners.

“It really is in the hands of the FAA right now,” she said. “Until they issue the (environmental ruling) and decide to fund this project, we can’t do anything.”

She added, “The Port of Douglas is completely sympathetic with the people who have been in this limbo for so long. We’re going to try to do whatever we can to get this process to the end it needs to get to.”

One of those property owners is Barb LeRoy who has long said that she and her husband and mother-in-law, who lives next door, have become increasingly exasperated by the delays and uncertainty it’s brought to their lives.

“I don’t mind if they don’t do it, I just really want to know,” said LeRoy, who has been living with the uncertainty over her property’s future since at least 2009. “My mother-in-law’s roof is leaking, and we can’t spend $10,000 on it if they’re not going to reimburse us. How much longer do we have to live like this? The lack of communication is the biggest thing. We never find out anything without having to beg for it.”

Their properties have been officially appraised, but property owners aren’t privy to the appraisal amounts until they’re approved by the airport board — a process that has also been delayed by the still-lacking environmental ruling from the FAA, she said.

“It’s been nothing but a roller coaster for the last six months,” LeRoy said. “We’d like to be done with our properties. We’d like to move on.”

Christine Pratt: 665-1173

pratt@wenatcheeworld.com

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lonedog3 4 months, 3 weeks ago

So which one of these statements is a complete lie? (A reporter would have asked then which was true and which was not). the port says one thing, (probably untrue) and the airlines says something completely different(probably true). The planes now landing and taking off at pangborn, mostly mom and pop Cesena's and horizon use LESS than half of the current runway. All this "improvement amounts to is someone's fantasy and complete waste of tax payers money. All the big egos at the Chelan port district and Douglas county planning need to be put on a leash.

"The latest expressions of support for the $22-$30 million project come after Port of Douglas County Commissioner Jim Huffman said in a radio interview Wednesday that “the urgency for that project has diminished” amid cost increases, a slow economy and a decision by Alaska Air to hold off on a potential plan to serve Pangborn with a regional jet that would require a longer runway."

" spokeswoman for Alaska Airlines, parent company of Horizon Air, the airline that serves Pangborn, said Thursday that the company has no plans to use an aircraft other than the 76-seat Bombardier Q400 currently in use on the Pangborn-SeaTac route.

LokelYokel 4 months, 3 weeks ago

I would not expect Alaska/Horizon to change their existing service here because the planes they use now are really all we need, and Seattle is their hub. I would hope that an extended runway might get someone like Skywest or another regional carrier interested so we didn't have to first fly west before flying east anymore.

lonedog3 4 months, 3 weeks ago

There is not enough market here to support anything else. let history be your guide!

nopockets 4 months, 3 weeks ago

I agree with lonedog. Why spend this amount of money, regardless of the source without any airline company interest in using larger planes? This is an extreme version of the "If we build it they will come" concept.

lonedog3 4 months, 3 weeks ago

but why build it when there is a fully capable airport in Moses Lake that can handle anything that flies in our skies? That is what makes this spending such a waste. For 1/2 of what these leeches want Moses lake could be upgraded into a great regional airport. Also No family homes or county streets would be destroyed.

Quincyfan 4 months, 3 weeks ago

I am not a Douglas or Chelan county taxpayer but I do use the Wenatchee Airport from time to time. I use the Tri Cites airport much more because they offer way more destinations. The airport in Tri cities is probably going to double in size within the next few years. One reason Wenatchee residents might want to consider expanding the airport now is that the area around the airport is growing and soon there will be no room to expand unless you knock out people's homes. That being said it seems to me that Wenatchee has a history of making poor public investments. (Toyota Center) But I would love to be able to use the Wenatchee airport over the Tri Cities airport because it's so much closer. Not sure if there is enough demand yet for expansion.

mizmaus 4 months, 3 weeks ago

I think it's a good long-term investment no matter what happens, especially in light of the fact that other properties North and South of Grant Rd have already been purchased for this project some time ago. Why not follow-through with the other home owners and be done with it?

grbadave 4 months, 3 weeks ago

I am not in favor of spending this much money to lengthen the runway. I would be in favor of spending the money necessary, which I assume to be less, to install the equipment at Pangborn, and the commercial planes that use it, so that they can land regardless of weather, like other real airports. Can someone in the know please fill us in why this has not happened? Thank you in adavance for not saying there are fewer delays than their used to be. It's still not good enough. In my personal expeience it's still unreliable during the winter holidays, which is when my family really needs it. On top of that, unlike many years ago when Alaska Air would at least bus us over, in recent years they decided they have no commitment even though this is not a rare event over which they have no control, so we've had to drive, sometimes needing to rent a car, hotel on the W side and wait for the next day, etc. A real turn-off. Fixing this existing problem ought to be a higher priority than Field of Dreams.