Paulding airport wins legal skirmish
In the legal fight over Paulding County’s efforts to commercialize its airport, the county just won the latest battle — but the war rages on.
In a ruling issued Friday, Paulding County Superior Court Judge Tonny Beavers cleared $3.4 million in bonds to fund an airport taxiway expansion.
But residents who filed the legal challenge seeking to block the airport bonds plan to appeal the ruling. That’s expected to put the bonds on hold.
Susan Wilkins, one of the Paulding residents who filed the legal challenge, said Friday: “It’s not over. It’s definitely not over.”
Meanwhile, Paulding airport director Blake Swafford said that with the legal issues, construction delays from wet weather and other factors, he now doesn’t expect an airline announcement of service until next year.
“We don’t want to launch at a time when things are not 100 percent complete,” Swafford said.
The taxiway widening and extension will help Paulding Northwest Atlanta Airport prepare for commercial airline flights as it works to attract carriers to the airport, recently renamed Silver Comet Field.
Wilkins and fellow Paulding resident Anthony Avery are among those who oppose commercialization of the airport, voicing concerns about noise, traffic and environmental impact.
“The citizens of Paulding County have consistently opposed commercial air traffic in their beautiful bucolic county where the sounds of nature, not roaring jet engines can be heard,” wrote Paulding County commissioner Todd Pownall in a letter this week to Delta chief executive Richard Anderson, who also opposes a second commercial airport for Atlanta.
Attorney Charles McKnight, representing the Paulding residents, argued the airport bonds are unconstitutional, raising concerns about secrecy, use of county funds to back the airport bonds and the airport’s deal with a private company that will benefit from the project.
But county and airport officials said they followed proper procedures.
“Admittedly, we had a couple of technicalities,” including a typo in a hearing advertisement and a “misstep” in reporting an executive session in meeting minutes, Swafford said. “But other than that, we did everything exactly as the law requires.”
The airport has already secured a $1 million loan from the Industrial Building Authority for airport improvements and could later seek alternate sources of funding, but for now continues to pursue the bond financing.
In a separate legal challenge from residents over environmental approvals for taxiway and runway expansions, Swafford said attorneys continue discussions on a potential settlement. In that case in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, “if there is a reasonable settlement, then we certainly would be in favor of that,” Swafford said.
About the Author
As business team lead, Kelly Yamanouchi edits and writes business stories. She graduated from Harvard and has a master's degree from Northwestern.
