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Wurtsboro Airport still up in the air
By Victor Whitman
Times Herald-Record
December 29, 2005
Wurtsboro - The Town of Mamakating has dropped a plan to take the Wurtsboro Airport by eminent domain - but may end up owning it later this year.
The Town Board passed a resolution Tuesday night saying, "it is not in the best interest" to take the 419-acre property on Route 209 just north of Wurtsboro.
Supervisor Charlie Penna and Long Island developer Shalom Lamm are working on a multimillion deal for the town to buy the facility by early fall.
The future of the airport has been a hot topic for months. It is located in the middle of a battle zone over development, in the shadow of the Shawangunk Ridge and near Kohl's distribution center and a proposed 5-acre mushroom plant. Environmental groups and most town residents attending two public hearings favored eminent domain so the town could keep it as an airport. But Penna says that taking the airport no longer makes sense.
Lamm plans to buy the property for $4.5 million this summer. The town would buy back most of the land using $5 million in Federal Aviation Administration money, with 5 percent in matching funds from the state and private sources. The town would lease the airport back to Lamm, who would operate it and make improvements. On roughly 80 acres, Lamm plans 48 upscale homes with hangars, creating a fly-in community.
"The town will own the airport, and the developer will spend his money recreating what was there 50 or 60 years ago," Penna said yesterday. "Everything is going to be rebuilt."
The deal, says Penna, is on "a fairly fast track."
"I think we have a common goal to accomplish great things," Lamm said yesterday.
www.recordonline.com/archive/2005/12/29/news-vwairport0-12-29.html
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