Connecticut Town Would Benefit If It Bought Robertson Airport

Robertson Airport could earn the town money if it purchased the facility, according to a consultant's study presented Monday.

The town has been considering buying the small airport, which is the state's oldest, since 2005, and last year hired a consultant to do a feasibility study. That study was presented to the town council on Monday.

Robertson is owned by Tomasso Brothers Inc., which has expressed interest in selling the airport. Tomasso recently appraised the airport at $6.5 million, although the town's tax assessment puts the property's value at about half that amount.

If the town goes ahead with the purchase, the state along with the Federal Aviation Administration would most likely pay almost all of the cost. Because of that, the town would almost certainly have to keep the airport open.

``You would be committing to operating an airport forever,'' said Paul McDonnell, a planner for Clough Harbour & Associates, which did the feasibility study.

Donna Witte, an airports specialist for the FAA, told the council that the agency requires an airport stay open for 20 years if federal money is used to purchase the facility. That time period can be lengthened, she said. Witte said the town would also have to repay the FAA if it bought Robertson and then sold the airport to someone else.

Witte said an option for the town would be buying the development rights to the airport, which would prevent Robertson being closed and replaced with offices or factories. That way, Robertson would remain open but in private hands, she said.

The council took no action and will wait until after a public information session on the proposal, which will be Feb. 27 from 7 to 9 p.m. at the middle school.

At the earliest, the town could buy Robertson by the summer of 2008.

According to estimates done by Clough Harbour, airport operations would have a profit of $75,244 in 2008. There would be a modest rise in those profits to $78,202 by 2018, according to the report.

Those profits would nearly double if substantial investments were made to the airport. Those include adding new hangars and purchasing adjacent land. Doing this could result in profits of $117,295 in 2008 and $139,722 by 2018.

McDonell said much of the improvements suggested in the report would be paid for by the federal government. He said the new hangars could also be funded by leasing land on the airport to private developers who would then pay for building them out of their own pockets.

The improvements and additions Clough Harbour is suggesting total nearly $12 million. The town's share of that would be $107,000.

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