PCAA and BoC work to resolve differences, deliver FAA action plan

Paulding Airport Director Terry Tibbitts was scheduled to give the Board of Commissioners an annual report this week during the morning session of the board’s July 25th meeting.
Tibbitts, contacted by phone prior to the BoC’s meeting, said the board and the Airport Authority are working through some recent issues to resolve the differences tied to Paulding’s Silver Comet Field. A New Business item on the board’s agenda this week is to discuss action to receive FY 2018 Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) funding in the amounts of $624,526 in FAA funds for FY17 Airport Improvement Program grant and another $145, 885.50 for the Supplement 2 Environmental Assessment (EA) Grant.
“The two issues that we’re trying to work through are number one, the grant funding that we received -- and we need the BoC to accept it and pass it on to us, and that’s the step that we’re working on now,” Tibbitts said.
Tibbitts addressed the BoC regarding those funds last month. According to Tibbitts the funding disbursements were intended to catch- up projects that have already been completed and are past due that have no further requirements.
Prior to becoming the airport director Tibbitts had served as the airport’s liaison to the FAA, which regulates and provided much of the funding to build Silver Comet Field in 2007.
Per the Intergovernmental agreement, Tibbitts said, “...this money is generated based on taxes...basically user fees that are then funneled through the airport improvement program to airports around the nation to maintain the infrastructure of the flying community,” he said. Tibbitts told commissioners the $145,000 amount is for the additional work done that was required in connection with the Environmental Assessment Supplement.
Other funding is reimbursement for projects already completed including water monitoring, wetlands mitigation, and other projects, he said. The other issue Tibbitts said has become tied to the first one. The City of Atlanta in June filed suit against Paulding County and the Paulding County Airport Authority over the long-debated use of the 162.8 acres of land the city sold to Paulding County in 2007, which the city contends was originally sold with an understanding that it would not be used for the development of a commercial airport.
The city threatened legal action not long after the 2013 announcement that Paulding’s airport was endeavoring to add limited commercial service. The city’s lawsuit was filed in Paulding Superior Court on the afternoon of June 23rd.
Timing for the lawsuit was apparently based on the judgment by the city that the ongoing dispute regarding the future of Silver Comet Field and the specified acreage could still result in the property being used in the service of a commercial venture at the site.
“And that’s the other issue that dates back to the intergovernmental agreement, but has been brewing in the background over the past, almost three years now...” Tibbitts said.
The controversial property regained the spotlight last December when Chairman David Austin on his last day in office executed a deed to transfer the property from the county to the airport authority, which would give the airport authority more control.
As a result of their voting session from the first July meeting the BoC added a kind of quid quo pro resolution to their afternoon agenda that required the condition that upon receipt the FAA grant funds would be retained by the county unless the PCAA will deed the 163-acre property that is the subject of the City of Atlanta lawsuit back to the county. Not surprisingly, the vote to do this was 4-1 with Chairman Carmichael opposing.
“That’s just a temporary bump in the road, everybody is fully aware that they can’t keep that money forever, obviously grant money needs to be used for what the purpose of the grant was,” Tibbitts said.
With regard to deeding the land back as set down by the board, Tibbitts said the discussion is ongoing.
“And [the FAA] have told us that we have to come up with a corrective action plan. I would consider what the BoC did a very heavy-handed negotiating tactic and we’ll work through it; it’s not going to end the airport as we know it and it’s not going to end the controversies associated with the airport as we know them, it’s just another step in a long and difficult negotiation that is taking place, between the two airport co-sponsors, who have a difference of opinion on the direction the airport should take,” he said.
Tibbitts said he’s confident that current talks will be worthwhile. “All I can say at this time is that we’re in negotiation and I think we’ll come to a resolution that both parties can live with,” Tibbitts said.
The county and the airport authority were recently put on notice by the FAA that only joint communications from the two parties would be accepted.
In a letter to both entities the FAA’s Director of Airports Division, Southern Region, Stephen E. Hicks, clarified that “...going forward, the FAA will respond only to joint communications submitted by, or on behalf of, both co-sponsors...with no exceptions until further notice.” Tibbitts said that the FAA deadline for the corrective action plan is August 7th.
“This is a real-time issue that we are working on and I hope we have a resolution that is acceptable to the FAA that we can present to them by August 7th...” Tibbitts said.

Paulding Airport Director Terry Tibbitts says the BoC and the Airport Authority are working through some recent issues tied to Paulding’s Silver Comet Field. Tibbitts is scheduled to give Paulding commissioners an annual report this week during the morning session of the board’s July 25th meeting. (Photo: submitted)