Airport issue silently dies in NC

A onetime deeply contentious issue that blew the roof off of Orange County has ended without so much as a whimper. Creation of an airport authority to explore where to build a new airstrip once Carolina North construction begins and an aging Horace Williams Airport closes is not going to happen.

Gov. Beverly Perdue signed legislation sealing the deal. She had asked lawmakers early in the General Assembly's session to identify various state boards and commissions that no longer serve a purpose so that they could be eliminated. The power vested in the UNC Board of Governors to establish an airport authority evaporated with Perdue's signature, bringing to a close a divisive issue on which the sides squared off on environmental versus smart business defenses.

It was a bizarre ending to what had been a clenched-teeth battle, remnants of which still can be seen in rural Orange County in the form of "no airport" signs. State Reps. Verla Insko and Joe Hackney teamed with state Sen. Ellie Kinnaird, all Chapel Hill Democrats, to request the authority's demise. The move was done in an extraordinarily low-key manner, given the very public nature of the former debate over the airport.

We won't rehash the pros and cons of the issue here or why some in Chapel Hill were so adamantly opposed to the sort of aviation facility many towns and cities our size would love to acquire. It seems more than a tad moot. But we are left to wonder, should circumstances change, how much harder it might be to regain the power to establish an airport authority.