Taking off: Butler County Airport aims to extend runway

PENN TOWNSHIP: An environmental impact study shows extending a runway at the Butler County Airport by 800 feet will cause no significant environmental impact.

The six-year study, commissioned by the county airport authority, shows that extending the 4,005-foot runway will not have any significant impact on 22 areas of environmental concern.

Despite the overall findings, the report states there are 117 acres of private property - including an unspecified number of houses - that could be affected.

The airport authority wants to buy the property within the 117 acres, or pay money now for the right of first refusal if the property owner decides to sell their land.

The authority would not force them to sell, as it is doing with the airspace above other properties.

The report was conducted as part of the process for construction of a $7.5 million runway extension. The extension has been discussed for about 20 years, but has picked up momentum in recent years. The report was completed by L. Robert Kimball & Associates.

One of the primary concerns expressed is the proximity of Penn Elementary School. The school is about 1,500 feet east of the planned runway extension.

Penn Elementary School is scheduled to close next year when South Butler County School District's new, centrally located elementary school opens in Jefferson Township.

The report noted that the school is not within the current or proposed safety areas beyond the runway.

But there are houses within that safety zone.

The report advises the airport authority to acquire 97 acres of nearby land, as well as an optional 30 acres of easement acquisition to increase the safety zone.

Even with its shorter length, the current runway does not meet Federal Aviation Administration standards for the safety zone's length or slope, the report said.

Officials said the airport might offer to buy the property in question, but it is unlikely that the authority would take the property if an owner refused to sell.

Instead, officials said the authority wants to buy the right to give it the first option to purchase the property should the owners ever decide to sell.

'If the homes are already there, we are not going to go down and say you have to clear it,' airport manager Don Bailey said. 'But, if this land becomes available, we'd like to have first right of refusal.'

Last month the airport began condemnation orders against seven neighboring property owners for airspace surrounding the airport.

The property owners had refused to sell

the airspace, so the authority began the condemnation process, where it will seize the ownership rights in court and pay the property owners fair market value.

The environmental impact report also said the project is needed because the existing 4,005-foot-long runway places 'significant operating restrictions' on many of the planes that use the airport.

The limitations primarily affect turboprop planes and corporate jets, according to the report.

Such planes can't fill their fuel tanks completely, because the weight of a full tank of fuel makes the plane too heavy to take off at the runway's current length. That limits the distance that they can fly.

Kevin Collins, a pilot and president of Butler Air, said a longer runway would give pilots the option of buying more fuel for longer trips.

'It is an issue here at Butler Air because we sell fuel,' Collins said.

If a plane adds more fuel now it has to reduce its weight by carrying fewer passengers or less cargo.

'With a longer runway, you can have more weight,' Collins said.

The result of having a shorter runway is that pilots often chose not to use the airport and opt instead to use another airport, such as the

Allegheny County Airport, the Arnold Palmer Regional Airport near Latrobe or the Washington County airport and then drive to Butler County.

The report said the short runway costs the airport and other county businesses a significant amount of potential revenue every year, but the report did not specify how much money that might be.

It also said the shorter runway might pose hazards during bad weather, particularly for turbo jets braking on rain, snow or ice.

Pilot Steve Setnar said extending the runway not only would make the airport safer, but also would entice corporations to come to Butler County to do business.

'The increased distance that's going to be incorporated into the Butler County Airport is obviously going to increase the safety margin for an aircraft,' he said. 'I don't want to give the impression that it's unsafe because it's not, but the 800 (extra) feet would be there in case a problem arose.'

Although officials and pilots alike long have claimed the need for a longer runway, residents have opposed the extension during previous public hearings.

According to the report, some of their concerns included lower property values, ineffective use of tax dollars that result in higher taxes and an increase in the chance of a crash.

However, officials said there has been little interest in the findings of the environmental impact study.

Pittsburgh attorney C. William Kenny, who represented some of the nearby property owners in the air space condemnations, said he wasn't aware that the environmental impact assessment had been completed and released.

He said he hoped to obtain a copy before the Aug. 30 public hearing.

Comments from that meeting will be added to the environmental impact report and sent to the state for final approval.

Michelle Start can be reached at mstart@tribweb.com