WHIDBEY NEWS-TIMES: County to negotiate purchase of Oak Harbor airport (AUDIO)
Karina Andrew reports from the Island County Commissioners work session on May 4, 2022.
Island County commissioners voted unanimously Wednesday to instruct county staff to negotiate for the purchase of the A.J. Eisenberg Airport in Oak Harbor, a move Port of Coupeville commissioners and local pilots have long been gunning for.
The county will not own or operate the airport but will turn over ownership and all management responsibilities to the Port of Coupeville should the purchase go through.
They Said It
Without a detailed business plan in place, county Commissioner Jill Johnson said, she was worried port officials wouldn’t know what they were getting themselves into until after they owned the airport, with the potential that operating the airport would turn out to be a greater expense than the port could handle, forcing it to either shut the airport down or continually turn to taxpayers for more money.
“You want us to spend money to acquire something so that you can figure out if it makes sense to own and operate,” she said.
County Commissioner Melanie Bacon further stated that while she and her fellow commissioners want to see the airport viable, they need proof that the port can get it to that point before investing county dollars into it.
“It’s not that we are pounding on you because you’re daring to come to us wanting the money,” Bacon said. “We want you to do it in a way that we can justify to the citizens of Island County.”
Port Commissioner David Day told the county commissioners that while he understands the need for a detailed plan, there is only so much planning the port can do for a property it doesn’t own. Acquisition must be the first step, he said; after that, the port will create a master plan, a process that would take one to three years and cost as much as $250,000.
