Official shoots down airport improvement plan

GREENVILLE – Town Manager John Simko blasted a state official this week for denouncing the town’s airport master plan update shortly after its release.

Simko said the town had recently completed its master plan update, which calls for $2.4 million in improvements, and had notified Department of Transportation officials and the Federal Aviation Administration of the needs identified.

But before the town could even fully discuss the plan with state officials, its “hands were slapped” by Nancy Laney, airports grant administrator for the DOT, according to Simko.

In a letter to the Federal Aviation Administration this month, a copy of which was sent to Simko, Laney wrote that Greenville’s master plan update was “totally unrealistic” and “inflated.” According to Laney, there are no federal or state funds of such magnitude for Greenville in the foreseeable future, most certainly not in the short term.

Efforts made last week to reach Laney for comment were unsuccessful. Her opinions affect whether the town receives grant funding.

“It’s very frustrating to make headway on maintenance projects at the local level preparing for larger projects and then to have no participation from the state and federal governments for these projects they’re asking us to do,” Simko said this week.

For months, Greenville representatives have been told by state officials that the municipal airport is in poor shape. In fact, a DOT official earlier criticized Simko for not having the runway numbers painted. The work was done, even though it had not been budgeted nor had it been done for 10 years, he said.

To get a handle on the improvements needed at the airport, the town contracted with the MDOT, the FAA and Dufresne-Henry Engineers of Portland to develop an updated master plan. The DOT and FAA helped fund the study, which identified the capital improvements as well as a comprehensive, effective maintenance program, according to Simko.

It was this plan that was disparaged by Laney. “The consultant’s assessment does not reflect a realistic plan and I do not want the town of Greenville to be disillusioned when the funds are not realized from such an inflated Master Plan,” Laney wrote in her letter to FAA Project Manager Frank Smigelski of Burlington, Mass.

Simko was quick to fire off a response to Laney’s letter. In it he wrote that despite the town’s efforts to make necessary improvements and to expand the facility into a regional airport with support from the Piscataquis County Commission and despite the record turnout at the annual International Seaplane Fly-In, the town learned that the improvement plan is “totally unrealistic.”

According to the town manager, Greenville is experiencing the most significant economic growth and expansion in tourism in economically depressed Piscataquis County. He said there is growing interest in the airport, with owners of area resorts and lodging establishments asking for development of the airport to allow more visitors to the region.

Simko said the state has recognized, as town officials have, that Greenville must convert its economy in part to a service-based, tourist-driven market destination to survive. And the development of the airport is an essential portion of the plan, he said.

Town officials had recently asked the Piscataquis and Somerset county commissioners for some help in upgrading the airport from a municipal to a regional facility, and support was shown by both entities, according to Simko. He said the Piscataquis County commissioners suggested that some in-kind help could be provided, such as mowing the sides of the runways.

The town manager said he thinks it’s a “mistake” for the DOT to so quickly dismiss the prospect of the airport growing and improving.

Accusing the state of ignoring some of the county’s needs, Simko challenged Laney to find any transportation mode, be it airport, road, railway or even snowmobile trail in Piscataquis County that isn’t in need of better maintenance and repair.