It’s been seven months since I last wrote about the airport runway extension. It was decided and reaffirmed long ago that the runway was the region’s number one economic development priority.
The last seven months have put a 5000 watt spotlight on the leadership void that the citizens in Erie County have to put up with. We’ve gone from agreement to disagreement; cooperation to miscommunication. The latest news come from a resounding rejection by County Council of the most recent proposal from the airport authority, along with the demand for the seating of new authority members selected by the county before any money changes hands. As an incentive to the Mayor, the Erie Golf Course got thrown into the mix, and then thrown out. Of course, Millcreek Township meanwhile has been doing their typical anti-regionalism dance.
So where do we stand? Supposedly we are close to an arrangement that will move the project forward, even as it gets more and more expensive to accomplish. With every month of delay, it reportedly costs an additional $300,000 to complete; that’s $10k per day! If the reports I’ve heard are accurate, these last seven months of wrangling may have added $2.1 million to the cost of the runway extension.
For a project that has been in the planning for over 10 years, what’s it going to take to make it happen already?