Trees will be cut down and electrical systems will be upgraded, but county officials said these are not signs of an expansion at the Carroll County Regional Airport in Westminster.
“Hopefully, they don?t think it?s a conspiracy, but it?s the truth,” said Joseph Varrone, the airport administrator for the county.
Varrone will meet with county commissioners today to discuss the timeline for the airport?s master plan, which the federal government requires all airports update every 20 years for size .
The county rejected the sole $400,000 bid from a contractor to upgrade the corporate hangars? electrical systems earlier this month because the amount surpassed the $217,000 thecounty budgeted for the work two years ago, said airport manager Dean Leister.
Instead, electrical specialists who already contract with the airport will work on the upgrade for a lesser, to-be-determined cost.
The tenant of hangar three, Aero Services, an aircraft repair company, and other companies who want to install air conditioning, requested the electrical system upgrade.
“Out of seven hangars, five of them need this service,” Leister said.
In addition, the Federal Aviation Administration requires that the approximately dozen trees surrounding the airport be removed because they are too large, Varrone said.
Varrone sent a letter about the tree cutting to the Carroll Joint Neighborhood Association, a group residents who live near the airport recently formed in response to a possible runway expansion.
If you go
» What: Overview of Carroll County Regional Airport?s master plan
» When: 1:30 p.m. today
» Where: Carroll County Office Building, Room 300A, 225 N. Center St., Westminster
