State lawmakers have repealed legislation that allowed the UNC Board of Governors to create an airport authority to replace Horace Williams Airport with another airport in Orange County.
Senate Bill 593 eliminates “certain state boards and commissions that have not met recently, are duplicative or are not deemed critical.” The airport legislation is on that list.
Three years ago, lawmakers authorized UNC to look for and site a new airport in the rural county (See our story here.). A consultant estimated a new airport could pump up to $53 million into the local economy, more than four times what Horace Williams generates. (See our story here.)
The search caused great concern in the Bingham Township area, where possible sites included land some families had lived on for generations. The group Preserve Rural Orange collected 1,100 signatures on a petition opposed to the search (See our story here.) Chancellor Holden Thorp eventually ended the search, and UNC decided to move airport operations to Raleigh-Durham International Airport, where a new hangar was recently completed.
Preserve Rural Orange member Laura Streitfeld says board members Tom Schopler and Cliff Leath met recently with state Reps. Verla Insko and Joe Hackney, and state Sen. Ellie Kinnaird to thank them for helping to repeal the airport authority legislation, which remained on the books.
“The repeal of the airport authority legislation gives us all a cause to rejoice and thank our legislators for listening to us," Heath says. "It also reminds us that people working together for the common good can and do make a difference. The formation of Preserve Rural Orange, meetings held at White Cross Community Center, petitions that neighbors signed, news articles and letters to the editor, and communication efforts by Orange County Voice, local businesses and other community groups were all a testament to our resolve over this issue.”
