County Executive Rules Out Expansion of the Westchester Airport of any Kind; Not seeking increased County revenues. Will Hold 4 Public Meetings on 4 Airport Issues to Create Master Plan. Proposal to Board of Legislators Promised by October. May Involve Town of Greenwich in Discussions

Hits: 0

IMG_7336

WPCNR County Clarion-Ledger. By John F. Bailey. May 16, 2018:

County Executive George Latimer today in a one hour news conference and Q & A at the Michaelian Building, announced he would hold 3 open meetings beginning June 6 on creating a new supplemental Master Plan by July 15.

Work on the plan would start be gathering input from the citizens beginning and following on June 11, dealing with Governance, and  June 25, Operations. There would also be “Citizen Involvement” encouraged at every meeting.

He said he expected a proposal to define how the airport would be run to be before the Board of Legislators by October.

He told a packed briefing room that the county had not informed Macquarie Development the county previous choice to operate the airport was no longer being considered.  Macquarie was the Astorino administration choice to operate the airport last fall, a proposal the Board of Legislators had chosen not to adopt.

Latimer told WPCNR he  did not rule out any firm who may want to run the airport for applying to run the airport under conditions to be determined by the series of meetings ahead and the Board of Legislators approval of the Supplemental Master Plan.

The Supplemental Master Plan submission was agreed to by the F.A.A.  which set a maximum deadline July 15 2018. Latimer’s Westchester County Airport Plan called the Astorino Master Plan that the F.A.A. is willing to accept July 1, “not complete, and was based in part, on faulty assumptions.”

Asked by WPCNR, if he foresaw expansion of the airport, Latimer ruled it out: “no new runways, no increased flights.” He said it serves Westchester needs adequately now.

Asked if he felt the county should earn more revenues it can use from the airport for county needs, Latimer said he was more concerned with who governs the airport going forward.

WPCNR asked if Mr. Latimer would consider inviting the Town of Greenwich to participate in the upcoming meetings, he said he had not, and his staff would reach out to them.

The Meeting on the Master Plan is scheduled for June 6 at 7 PM, Rye Brook Village Hall, 938 King Street, Rye Brook, NY

The Governance Meeting is planned for 7 PM at the Hergenhan Recreation Center, 40 Maple Avenue, Armonk, NY

The Operations Meeting will take place 7 PM at the West Harrison Senior Center, 251 Underhill Avenue, West Harrison NY.

The County Executive will Chair those meetings.

 

 

 

 

 

Comments are closed.