Regional Airport Moves Ahead With Approval From Supervisors

Mahaska County Supervisors (left to right) Greg Gordy, Ken Rozenboom and Willie VanWeelden approved the 28E agreement, moving the airport project forward

Oskaloosa, Iowa – The Supervisors meeting was nearly as normal as every other in the past, with the exception of being two days later than normal. The change in day came as a product of holding a public hearing over the proposed 28E agreement between Pella, Oskaloosa and Mahaska County.

Oskaloosa held their public hearing on Monday night, while Pella held theirs on Tuesday night.

The Supervisors opened the floor for the public hearing and 3 residents took the opportunity to speak about the agreement and the regional airport.

Mahaska County Supervisor Candidate Mike Vander Molen took the opportunity to have his thoughts shared. “I’ve looked at the agreement from a legal standpoint and from a standpoint of how it affects the county, its interests and I think it’s pretty well put together. It’s pretty intentional what it does. It creates a board with a lot of discretion, a lot of authority and a lot of power.”

“I do have a concern with oversight. Mainly, Mahaska County has one member on the board. This facility will be located in Mahaska County, it will be sited in Mahaska County. I’m concerned about that process. The County does have some leverage. The 28E agreement does not obligate county to build roads, does not obligate the county to build a certain type or quality of road. So, if this process tends to go south, I encourage the board to exercise its leverage if need be. Hopefully we won’t have to do that. I think the county needs to be involved in this process.”

“Secondly, the agreement allows the board to appoint one of its own members or a private citizen to the airport board. I encourage the supervisors to appoint a supervisor, at least until the facility is operational. I think that’s important,” was Vander Molen’s comments to the board.

“Been an airport project around for a long while. I think everybody kind of knows a little bit about the project, depending where they have been the last 10 to 12 years. We’ve kind of gone several different directions with this.” – Greg Gordy

Oskaloosa Area Chamber And Development Group Director Jon Sullivan spoke next to the group and the supervisors. “I’m very encouraged to hear the last thing that Greg just said; that we did get that passed over in Pella last night, and then it was passed at the Oskaloosa City Council unanimously on Monday night. “I think this is a great sign. It’s a big encouragement, not only to the retail community but expansions going forward for this quarter of the state. It’s something that’s desperately needed, and we need to address it in a very positive way, and to see these communities coming together in such a manner is refreshing, not only to the businesses, but even the citizenry is very happy about this. I think it’s something that will benefit all of us going forward. I hope that you would support this totally from the Mahaska County Supervisor level. We appreciate your support.”

The third person to speak during the public hearing was Margaret Ratcliff. Ratcliff is from rural New Sharon. “I was born and raised on a family farm. This hits really close to home in a lot of different ways. I have a little bit of a unique perspective in that living in Mahaska County I can see things from the perspective here.”

Ratcliff said she served as President of the Pella Chamber of Commerce before working elsewhere. “I think it’s kind of representative of how a lot of our lives are going in that we don’t necessarily work right close to home, maybe work somewhere else other than where we live.”

“This situation takes me back to my own family farm. A little town named Minburn, northwest of Des Moines and our family farm ran adjacent to the community. Back several years ago, they wanted to do a housing development. It was going to take some of our land, and we had a fit. And we fought it and we fought, and we won; but we lost. Because right now in our little community you can’t even buy a loaf of bread. The three gas stations are gone. There is a couple of unmanned pumps you can buy gas at.”

“The surrounding communities of Adel and Dallas Center and Grimes, they’re all flourishing. They have housing developments that are going like crazy. So my heart breaks for any of those that have farm ground that’s impacted by this because I know what that feels like. And yet, I think if we have any hope for our area of the state to really improve and to get out in front of it, money’s going to be spent somewhere. It’d really really be nice to have it spent here, and to help the businesses that are already here and those we hope to be here.”

Supervisor Chairman Greg Gordy commented as the hearing was just closing, “Like was said, the county doesn’t really have any obligation. The financing obligation really comes down to the City of Oskaloosa and Pella with the combination of joining their two airports. I think from a federal standpoint, I think if you can consolidate and one less airport to maintain, fund and do that, its more economical federal government wise.”

“From the county’s standpoint, the big thing we always talk about is land usage. I think we’ve got about 600 acres down there for Oskaloosa currently and hopefully we can use much less ground than that, end up with maybe 3 or 4 hundred acres under the airport. I believe that would be an increase of taxable land to Mahaska County. As far as land use, I think this is probably a better land usage as well. So I think there’s multiple benefits in this.”

“I think it’s a good idea and it’s a win win I think for the region and the consolidation of it economically, and land use. A lot of positives.”