Carroll County Commissioner Dean Minnich will speak at the next meeting of a community group recently formed in opposition of a possible runway expansion at the Carroll County Regional Airport.
“People are afraid we are going to have a [Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport], but that?s never going to happen,” Minnich said in an interview Monday.
“There won?t be any bog turtles slaughtered or landmarks destroyed.”
Mary Anne Kowalski, Ron Buzcowski and Cheri Grubby, all of whom live near the airport in Westminster, created the Carroll Joint Neighborhood Association last month and will host Minnich in a meeting addressing residents? concerns at 6:30 p.m. June 7 at the William Winchester Elementary School in Westminster.
“If we don?t act and help [the county] make a decision, we will wake up one morning to find construction has started,” Grubby said Monday.
Grubby said she moved to Carroll County 20 years ago from Montgomery County in search of a safe and quiet locale to raise her children.
“I don?t want our way of life to change and it will” if the airport grows, she said.
Residents shared a litany of reasons for opposing the idea of a runway expansion, including declining property values, more noise, increased pollution and heavier traffic.
Some also see the airport?s growth as a threat to Carroll?s rural character because it might bring more people and development.
Grubby says the potential destruction of nature also irks her. She often walks near the wetlands not far from the airport, among the cattails and along the creek, and said she fears it will be paved over.
Minnich described a larger airport as an economic engine for the county, adding that the airport has gone from being in debt to making $800,000 last year.
He said companies are “waiting in line” for hangar space for corporate aircraft.
“Everyone benefits from economic growth. ? It could take the burden off taxpayers,” he said.
In January, more than 100 residents who live near the airport received letters from a county-appointed committee charged with studying a possible expansion, alerting them of potential plans.
In response, Kowalski gathered 60 signatures from residents who opposed an expansion and submitted the petition to commissioners.
