WETUMPKA AL- Late Friday afternoon, Mayor Jerry Willis
released a statement announcing the Feasibility Study for Western Elmore county
and the Wetumpka Municipal Airport has been completed.
The process of conducting a study began in December 2010,
when the Wetumpka City Council approved a resolution allowing ALDOT's
Aeronautics Bureau to conduct a feasibility study involving the airport. Barry
Mask, executive director of the Elmore County Economic Development Authority,
ECEDA, one of the partners in the study effort, Ryan Reed and Mike
Griffin of Garvin Engineers,
and Dr. John Eagerton,
director of the Alabama Department of Transportation's Aeronautics Bureau
presented the project for approval. The $150,000 cost of the study, being paid by
the state Aeronautics Bureau, was to be completed sometime in November 2012,
and then later presented to the Elmore County Economic Development Authority and
the city.
Since the study began, an ongoing lease dispute continues with an FAA complaint against the City of Wetumpka filed by certain
airport tenants, some of which were served an evection notice. Most of these notices
went to established businesses on the field. The complainants say the
city is failing to provide a long-term rental lease under the stipulations of
an FAA grant assurance. This pending complaint
could be decided by the FAA as soon as June.
Meanwhile efforts to gain support for the airport at its current location in Elmore yielded the formation of an organization called the Elmore County Aviation Alliance. Comprised of tenants, businesses, neighbors and friends of the airport, the ECAA successfully petitioned the Alabama Historical Society for honorary listing in the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage. An announcement was made about the new airport historical status March 12, 2013.
The airport property was deeded to the City of Wetumpka in 1948, and was originally known as Elmore Auxiliary Airfield No. 2, one of seven auxiliary fields to Maxwell Air Force Base during World War II. The field was constructed to relieve congestion at Maxwell and Gunter bases when Maxwell Field was designated the Southeast Air Corps Training Center. At that time, Wetumpka was the nearest incorporated municipality to the field in Elmore County, so the city was given the property. It has remained in continuous operation.
Mayor Willis stated, based on the verbal communications with Garver and ALDOT, the city, as owner and sponsor of the Wetumpka Municipal Airport, is pleased to announce it does not anticipate the Wetumpka Municipal Airport will be moved from its current historical site.
No date on the release of the Feasibility Study or site selection was noted in the statement and the rest is still up to the FAA. -B Meyer, Read Full Statement at the Millbrook Independent, FMI: ECAA