SCRAA Schedules Public Hearing
Approaching the Pella Airport. (file photo)
OSKALOOSA- Officials are beginning to move forward with the regional airport project. According to South Central Regional Airport Agency Chairman, Jim Hansen, the agency recently received the environmental assessment back.
“We now have a draft completed of the environmental assessment which is a big stop towards moving the process along.”
Per federal laws, a public hearing on the environmental assessment has been scheduled. According to Hansen, the meeting will be held on November 22 at 6 p.m. at George Daily Auditorium. Doors for the hearing will open at 4 p.m, where the public will have access to the lobby of George Daily. Jerry Searle, project consultant, will be on hand with copies of the Environmental Assessment as well as maps of the proposed sites. Hansen said that the public hearing itself will be very structured.
“The importance of this is that it needs to be orderly and formal,” Hansen said.
Residents will have the opportunity to sign a sign-up sheet before the hearing to speak. Once the public meeting starts, a third party moderator, hired by the SCRAA, will lead the meeting. That person will go down the sign-up sheet and call on those who signed the sheet to speak. Each speaker will have three minutes at a time to speak. After the sign-up sheet has been completed, those who wish to speak again may do so by signing up for additional time. Hansen said that a court reporter will transcribe the proceedings for accuracy. All of the written and oral comments will then be packaged together with the environmental assessment and sent to the FAA for their consideration.
“If the environmental assessment has been approved, then the FAA will issue a finding of no significant impact, and then that will allow us then to go the next phase which will be acquisition, ultimately construction of the project,” Hansen said. “It’s a big step in this thing,” he also said.
Hansen confirmed to Oskaloosa News that security will be present at the meeting.
“Better safe than sorry on that,” he said.
Hansen also confirmed that the project is currently about one year behind schedule. He said that this is because of some issues that arose during the environmental assessment.
“We’re a little bit behind. We ran into some issues, questions that came up regarding the Prine Cemetery and the impact on that,” Hansen said.
He said that archeological studies were conducted on the Prine Cemetery, allowing the overall environmental assessment to move forward, albeit slower than expected.
“So there were a couple of little things like that that popped up and slowed down the process a little bit,” Hansen said.
Hansen noted that if the FAA issues a finding of no significant impact, it will be subject to further reviews of the land acquired for the project.
“It will be subject to the acquisition of those properties and further study of those properties to make sure nothing is environmentally problematic,” he said.
He said that in response to a question from a landowner, a list of those who gave access to allow officials to study their land was circulated. Approximately half of the landowners gave permission.
“They [the FAA] recognize that some people are just against this project and are not going to allow us on their property,” Hansen said.
Copies of the environmental assessment may be viewed at the Oskaloosa and Pella city halls, the Mahaska County Courthouse, and on the Oskaloosa, Pella, and SCRAA websites.
