City And County Have Appropriated $160,000 For Project

By AMY ROSE

Staff Writer

The Greeneville-Greene County Airport Authority voted Monday morning to spend $80,000 of its funds on the runway realignment project at the Greeneville-Greene County Airport.

The $4 million first phase of the project requires a 10 percent local match, or $400,000, which includes $80,000 from the Airport Authority and $160,000 each from the city and county governments.

The Airport Authority's $80,000 represents 20 percent of the total amount of local-match funding for the first phase.

Both the Greeneville Board of Mayor and Aldermen and the Greene County Commission have approved their portions of the local-match funding for the first phase of the project.

Airport Authority Chairman Dr. Don Henard said the funding will come from the Airport Authority's operations and maintenance budget.

The estimated $15 million five-year project includes multiple phases of construction to correct two major safety concerns -- line-of-sight problems caused by a "hump" near the runway's center, and inadequate safety areas on both sides of the runway and on the end.

The project involves extending one end of the runway and the partial parallel taxiway 1,548 feet and shifting the threshold of the other end of the runway to the northeast by 2,350 feet.

Overall, the project would result in a reduction in length of 802 feet, according to the original preferred alternative.

However, during the Airport Authority's meeting in January, Henard said the final runway length will be less than the current 6,300 feet, but that how much less is yet to be determined.

Original plans called for the acquisition of 14 homes with 31 residents in the area, but Henard said Monday that plans have been altered to require the acquisition of only eight or nine homes.

Fewer Homes

Claire Showman, who lives on the Kingsport Highway, asked Henard when property-owners will know if their homes will or will not be taken as part of the project.

Henard said three homes on the Kingsport Highway, including Showman's home, and two homes on White House Road have been removed from the list of properties that will be acquired.

To prevent their acquisitions, the property-owners will be asked to sign "air easements" allowing the airport to use the air above their homes, Henard said.

These property-owners will be reimbursed for the easements, Henard said, although he did not know the amounts of the reimbursements. He said the amounts likely will be based on acreage.

As part of the air-easement agreements, property-owners would not be allowed to construct places of public gathering -- such as schools or churches, or structures such as cell-phone towers -- on their properties, Henard said.

Grading work on the first phase of the project is scheduled to begin in late summer, he stated.

The Airport Authority normally does not meet in June or July. Its next meeting is scheduled for Monday, Aug. 4.

If action is needed on the runway realignment project, Henard said, a called meeting can be scheduled.