By Emily Patrick
There was much to discuss at Greenville’s quarterly meeting of our Airport Advisory Committee. Currently, there are three ongoing federal projects at our local airport: the taxiway project, the rotating beacon project, and an update of the airport’s master plan, which typically occurs every 10 years.
Jennifer Ricciardi of Dubois and King spoke to the first two projects, saying the taxiway project is “deep in design right now,” and they are working through the permitting process. Our rotating beacon at the airport, according to Town Manager Mike Roy, “hasn’t been rotating in months.” Thankfully, the effort to decommission the old beacon and construct a new one is well underway. The project went out to bid and was awarded to Moulison Electrical.
According to Ricciardi, project managers are just waiting on the FAA to approve grant monies to move the project forward. She says the contractor is, “…very excited to get ordering.” As of the time of the meeting, the FAA was expecting the grant money to be released at any time. If this is the case, she expects the project to be completed in the Fall of 2025. The total cost of the project is just over $320,000, which includes design, permitting, and bidding as well as deconstructing the old beacon.
Some at the meeting expressed concern over grant money being paused by the new administration, having recently witnessed it affect other projects first-hand. Ricciardi said she asked her FAA contact that very question the morning of the meeting. They said there was initially a brief pause by the FAA, but that as of the previous evening, the new direction was to move forward with business as usual, just as they would in any other grant year. They do not anticipate there will be a holdup in federal funds that will affect this project specifically.
Next, Patrick Sharrow, AAE Airport Planner, also with D&K, gave a brief presentation regarding the airport’s master plan update “kick-off meeting.” During the presentation, it was put forward that, “Greenville Municipal Airport is a valuable asset and cultural hub within Piscataquis County. The airport is an economic engine for the local community. Our goal is to continue providing top quality services to the aviation community.”
Sharrow continues that the routine and periodic master plan update, “…is a plan for you. We want to make sure it works into the future.” He also points out this is a unique opportunity to get local, state and federal officials together at the same time to provide a roadmap for the future of our airport. This project will roll out in a number of phases, with the final stage expected to start in April of 2025 and wrap up in November of 2025.
Near the end of the meeting, a tense discussion commenced relating to hangar leases. Roy gave his financial report and said all but two individuals have paid their leases for this year. This led to a discussion regarding two lots at the airport that haven’t been built on and are not currently being used for aeronautical purposes, with some upset at the apparent waste of space while the Town has a long wait list for hangars. Some worried the town is potentially losing revenue from these undeveloped lots. Steve Levesque pointed out the town, “…need[s] to find a way to enhance revenues for the airport to make the airport self-sustaining.” He also says the FAA has recently started taking a “hard” look at airports, particularly rural ones like Greenville, with respect to hangar uses. The fear is if hangars aren’t being used for aviation purposes, our local airport could lose federal funding.
Roy said the Town is not currently “losing out” on revenue from these undeveloped hangars, because of a handshake agreement reaching back to 2016. The lease owners in question agreed to pay a tax penalty for an 80 x 80 hangar, though no hangars currently exist on the lots. Though this was apparently the agreement between the lease owners and our previous town manager, members of the committee pushed for something to be done, insisting that in the past, if a hangar was not built in two years from the time the lease was signed, the lot would revert back to the Town and go to the next person on the waiting list. During the discussion, Roy said he would “push” the issue if the committee wanted him to.
The committee is scheduled to meet again on May 6th.