UC Regional Airport Board Delays Decision On Becoming Authority Or Remaining Board

Upper Cumberland Regional Airport Board once again defers action to create an airport authority or remain a board.

That after several meetings between the lawyers for all four governmental entities involved with the airport. Putnam County Attorney Jeff Jones said there is still more research that needs to be done.

“Each one of the attorneys has independently researched the question,” Jones said. “And our meeting also had a conversation with one of the representatives from the FAA, and we have another meeting Thursday. Bottom line is, we’re not in a position to give you a way to proceed right now.”

Board Chair Randy Porter recommended putting off a vote to allow the attorneys to continue to research the issue. The board will consider the topic once again at its May 9th meeting.

Porter said the board is taking its time because it wants to move forward in the best way possible. He said there is a lot of information that still needs to be gathered both from the FAA and from T-DOT.

“This is a big step for us and we thought everything we were doing all these years was good and it has been, it’s worked great you got four governments working together to form the airport and it’s growing so we don’t want to do anything that’s going to mess that up,” Porter said. “And if going to an authority is what we need to do, that all of our attorneys are good for it and that everybody on the same page and we all agree.”

Porter said the fact that legal representation for each entity is putting so much time into the research and willing to work with one another says a lot about the relationships of our region’s leaders.