WAKULLA AIRPORT

Closing averted

Last-minute clarification on law and offer to donate land delays airport vote

Supporters of the airport rally at the youth center next door to the Wakulla County Administration offices.

County commissioners voted this week to delay a planned vote to abandon the Wakulla Airport after they got an offer earlier in the day from airport supporter Steve Fults to donate needed land to move and expand the runway.

Hours before the meeting, the county also received an email from the state Department of Transportation saying that there was not a requirement in the law that the county perform a noise study.

That particular requirement was one of the main reasons the commission was considering voting to abandon the airport: County Commissioner Ralph Thomas had put the cost for a noise study at several hundred thousand dollars.

Thomas thanked Congressman Neal Dunn’s office for its assistance in getting feedback from the Federal Aviation Administration, which indicated the need for an airport noise study shouldn’t apply to a grass airstrip like Wakulla Airport.

The FAA acknowledged, though, that the Florida statute on airports basically makes no distinction between requirements for airports.

Thomas said he had spoken with state Rep. Jason Shoaf to clarify the language of the law and stress that small airstrips like Wakulla’s, which take no federal funding, would not have to fulfill some of the requirements, like a noise study or special zoning district around airports.

Thomas made a motion to bring the matter back up at a later time; it was seconded by Commissioner Randy Merritt. All four commissioners in attendance voted in favor, including Chair Quincee Messersmith and Commissioner Mike Kemp. (Commissioner Chuck Hess was absent due to illness.)

Taking care of clarifying the law will take a while: Shoaf would need to come up with bill language to bring up at the state legislative session in March.

Thomas expressed some frustration, saying that had the board known this five years ago, it would have tried to fix the problem then.

County Attorney Heather Encinosa noted that, in 2017, the county tried to do exactly that at a meeting with FDOT, but those officials refused to ask for a change or provide the county with a written clarification of the rule.

The other part of the issue – the land donation from Fults and his wife – still must be negotiated and formalized. County Administrator David Edwards said he would meet with Fults.

In an email sent at 11:20 a.m. on Monday before the county commission meeting at 5 p.m., Fults offered to “donate to Wakulla County the necessary property required to achieve FDOT compliance. A 60-foot wide easement would transverse the donated property. The costs associated with the transfer and division of said property would be borne by Wakulla County.”

Fults is the volunteer manager of the airport and, years ago, after the state changed regulations requiring wider runways, the airport master plan envisioned cantering the runway to widen it – requiring the purchase of some adjacent land.

Fults bought that land, saying he was preserving it for airport use. But several county officials expressed concern that it was a potential conflict of interest – that Fults was inappropriately enriching himself by selling the land to the county.

The donation of the needed portion of land by Fults removes that issue. Though it was obvious the commission was going to delay a vote to abandon the airport, more than 10 citizens still spoke on the issue, most speaking in support of keeping the airport.

Ted Recker, a resident of Tarpine, the fly-in subdivision around the airport, said he saw closing of the airport as an attack on his home. And he noted that, several years ago, the airfield had a mechanic, fuel from a fuel truck and active flying lessons.

And while the issue seems headed towards a potential resolution, Merritt still had some skepticism about the matter, noting that the language of the DOT letter still indicated if an airport didn’t do a noise study then it had to do the zoning regulations to stop any new development of homes or educational facilities around the airport.

Plus, Merritt commented that he was wary of accepting state grants for the airport because it requires a commitment to to keep the airport in compliance and running forever.

That, he said, was not something he wanted to force future boards to do.