Study to seek aviation-related uses for BNAS

BRUNSWICK – Officials who’ve launched a study to look at industries that might be interested in making use of the Brunswick Naval Air Station’s dual runways assured area residents that they will get the final say on redeveloping the base.

The Federal Aviation Administration, state Department of Transportation and Edwards and Kelcey Inc. will spend the next several months trying to identify aviation-related industries that might be attracted to the site’s runways and hangars.

“We’re not coming into this with any preconceived notions,” said Ralph Nicosia-Rusin, an airport capacity program manager for the FAA’s airports division, who will be overseeing the BNAS study. “The decision sits with the community.”

The study will examine everything from a commercial passenger airport to a major cargo operation. The results will be released to the public in September.

The leading options will then be explored more fully, leading to another public hearing in January. A final analysis is due next spring.

The Brunswick Local Redevelopment Authority will have the final say on whether the recommendations are incorporated in a BNAS Master Reuse Plan.

With two 8,000-foot runways, a brand new control tower and hangars, the base that’s slated for closure could be attractive to a wide array of industries.

But Bob Ziegelaar, a former Bangor airport manager who’s working for Edwards and Kelcey, said the survey will focus on several key aviation-related options.

They include a commercial passenger airport, a major cargo operations like UPS or FedEx, an intermodal transportation facility or a general aviation airport, Ziegelaar said.

There’s also a growing market for airfields among major corporations that build headquarters on the sites of abandoned airstrips and use the runways for small corporate aircraft. This arrangement is becoming more and more popular, Ziegelaar said.

Last year, the Base Realignment and Closure committee voted to close the Navy base and move its aircraft operations to Florida’s Jacksonville Naval Air Station.

Brunswick Naval Air Station has four active-duty P-3 Orion squadrons, a reserve P-3 group and a reserve squadron of C-130 Hercules cargo planes. The planes will remain until at least the fall of 2008 and the base will remain open until September 2011, officials say.