SamPratt.com

A third committee of the Board of Supervisors has now signed onto the decision earlier this week to move ahead with the “Porreca Plan” for the airport.

Finance Committee member Mike Benson of New Lebanon launched yet another last-minute campaign to derail the Plan’s momentum. (The Airport and Economic Development committees voted to advance it to the full Board earlier this week.)

Less than 24 hours before the meeting, Benson attempted to argue that the Porreca Plan, which would, slightly shorten the Ghent runway at the north end while lengthening it at the south end, was “go[ing] backward”—and somehow would “devalue a County asset.”

Benson, who missed some 75% of the meetings of the Airport Committee two which he was appointed, fired his salvo as usual via email. But Benson then skipped the actual meeting. Had he attended, he would have heard County comptroller Ron Caponera back up Airport chair Art Bassin in stating that the Porreca Plan would increase the airport’s value, not lessen it, as reported by Patti Matheney of GhentCANN who was present.

With all three key committees now in agreement, the resolution now proceeds to a vote in the next few weeks by the full Board of Supervisors. Will Benson try again to argue against it, and will he again use arguments he would have learned to be erroneous had he attended his meetings?

By a vote of 4-1 this afternoon, the Columbia County airport committee approved the referral of the draft resolution known as the Porreca Plan to the full Board of Supervisors.

Chair Art Bassin, Ghent Supervisor Mike Benvenuto, Hillsdale’s Art Baer and of course Greenport’s John Porreca voted yes. Only David Crawford of Crawford Engineering voted no. Hudson Supervisor Sarah Sterling asked how it was that others of her colleagues seemed empowered to negotiate independently with Mr. Nero, specifying emails from Benson as an example.

Vehement plan opponent Mike Benson, Supervisor of New Lebanon, was absent—prompting audience questions about his whereabouts.

Crawford was challenged by the audience about his vote. These included questions from attorney Ken Dow as to why he would want the County to shut down a viable, established business (the golf course) and take more property off the tax rolls.

Crawford replied, none too convincingly, that he suspected that committee estimates of future tax revenues from Meadowgreens were too high, and that the funds spent would be primarily Federal and State monies. Bassin blasted this second argument as “silly,” given that such funds are also taxpayer-funded, and that the matter had already been hashed out repeatedly.

In a surprise, Meadowgreens owner Carmen Nero announced at the start of the meeting that he, too, supports the Porreca Plan and hopes to work with the County to preserve his ability to develop the remainder of his property adjoining the airport.

With Mahlon Richards of Richmor Aviation also on board in prior meetings, and members of the public applauding the vote today, that leaves Crawford and Benson as inexplicable holdouts. (Are they members of a competing golf club or something?) At 5 pm, County’s Economic Development committee was scheduled to hear a presentation by Ken Flood about the airport’s potential if the entire property were acquired instead. But Flood too now thinks the “private sectors” is a better vehicle for promoting airport-related businesses.