MONTICELLO – A new corporate bulk hangar at Sullivan County Airport
would, as originally proposed, cost about $1 million, with 90 percent
state funding. That would buy a 10,000 square foot hangar. Increasing
the size to 14,000 square feet, a 40 percent increase, would increase
the cost by 100 percent, but that is what was on the agenda for Thursday’s
monthly session.
The disproportionate cost factor can mostly be attributed to the larger
door, to accommodate larger corporate jets.
The airport’s fixed base operation is pushing for the larger facility.
Legislature Chairman Scott Samuelson said with the airport, Sullivan
has an asset “unlike any other in the region” and by not making
it attractive to people with bigger planes, “… that we may
shooting ourself in the foot in not taking, at least taking the time to
investigate more fully, what is the potential of this asset.”
Other legislators who spoke, including Democrats Cora Edwards and Cindy
Kurpil Geiger, and Republican Alan Sorensen, did not share that level
of optimism.
Sorensen questioned whether the anticipation of a boom in visitation,
with the construction of a casino resort, might be a bit overoptimistic.
The legislature voted to table and will schedule presentation of the
proposal in the near future.
