
{"id":19353,"date":"2011-06-30T08:49:46","date_gmt":"2011-06-30T12:49:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=19353"},"modified":"2011-06-30T08:49:46","modified_gmt":"2011-06-30T12:49:46","slug":"airport-authority-legislation-repealed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2011\/06\/30\/airport-authority-legislation-repealed\/","title":{"rendered":"Airport authority legislation repealed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Susan Dickson<br \/>\n<\/strong><em>Staff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Legislation authorizing UNC to establish an airport authority was repealed last week with the approval of the Government Reduction Act.<\/p>\n<p>The bill includes the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153elimination of certain state boards and commissions that have not met recently, are duplicative or are not deemed critical,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and repeals a 2008 statute that allowed the UNC Board of Governors to create an airport authority. The authority was intended to find a site for an airport that would replace the Horace Williams Airport when it closed for the construction of the Carolina North project. A number of county residents came out against the airport authority, citing concerns about negative impacts on neighbors, the environment and local farms. <\/p>\n<p>In 2009, UNC Chancellor Holden Thorp announced that the university would not seek the approval of an airport authority and that the Area Health Education Centers program \u00e2\u20ac\u201c which uses Horace Williams for flight operations \u00e2\u20ac\u201c would move to Raleigh-Durham International Airport. AHEC is in the process of moving to RDU, where a $3 million hangar has recently been completed. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The fact is, the state is so broke right now that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no way they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to build Carolina North,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Sen. Ellie Kinnaird, who represents Orange County, said in an interview on Tuesday. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153If they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not going to build Carolina North, they might as well keep the airport open.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>Reps. Verla Insko and Joe Hackney, who represent Orange County, and Kinnaird initiated adding the UNC authority legislation to the bill. <\/p>\n<p>Cliff Leath, a board member of Preserve Rural Orange, a grassroots organization that grew out of opposition to the airport, applauded the delegation\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s initiative. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The repeal of the airport authority legislation gives us all a cause to rejoice and thank our legislators for listening to us,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Leath said in a press release. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It also reminds us that people working together for the common good can and do make a difference.\u00c2\u00a0The 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.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Legislation authorizing UNC to establish an airport authority was repealed last week with the approval of the Government Reduction Act.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19353"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19353\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19393,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19353\/revisions\/19393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}