Golfers take dispute with airport to court
Posted on Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Members of the Walnut Ridge Country Club are seeking an injunction against the city’s airport to stop a proposed classification upgrade of a runway from closing the club’s nine-hole golf course.
The Walnut Ridge Regional Airport, which lies adjacent to the golf course on the north edge of the Lawrence County town, applied for a federal permit last year so it can land commercial passenger aircraft at its facility. Under the current regulations, the golf course and airport have coexisted for the past 36 years.
The course has leased land from the airport since the course was developed.
But if the new permit — Federal Aviation Administration Part 139 — is granted, the golf course will have to close because its greens and fairways are too close to one of the runways, airport manager Ken Newcom said.
“Read the regulations,” Newcom said Tuesday. “If you have a runway with instrument approach, there can be no obstructions within 500 feet of the runway’s center.” Golfers, carts, tee boxes and sand traps are considered obstructions, he said.
The course’s fourth, fifth, sixth, eighth and ninth holes run along the north-south runway. In some spots, cart paths come within 20 feet of the runway’s edge.
FAA officials will inspect the airport in October to determine if it can qualify for its new permit.
Country club manager Terry Ryan and members have filed a request for an injunction in Lawrence County Circuit Court, citing a 1972 lease agreement between the golf course and airport. The lease expires in 2068.
“It’s never been a problem,” Ryan said. “Until now.” David Cahoon, a Jonesboro attorney representing the airport, is on vacation this week, his office said, and could not be reached for comment.
Airport commissioner Ralph Joseph of Walnut Ridge did not return telephone calls Tuesday.
Ryan said the loss of the golf course would devastate the Lawrence County town of 4, 926.
“We’re the only golf course in the county,” he said. “It has a tremendous impact. If this [runway upgrade ] would create jobs or be more beneficial to the community, we’d say, ‘Let’s go do something else’ and leave.
“ But it won’t do that,” Ryan said. “All we want to do is play golf.” No date has been set for a hearing, said C. W. Knauts, a Piggott attorney representing the club.
Knauts said he has yet to conduct depositions and doesn’t expect a hearing on the injunction request to be held until at least the end of July.
The airport was used in the 1940 s as a training base for the U. S. Army. In 1950, the government deeded the property to Walnut Ridge; the golf course was built on part of that land shortly afterward.
The Walnut Ridge Regional Airport Commission offered to give the country club nearby land to build a new course this year, but it was not large enough, Ryan said. A golf course developer said the proposed land would only accommodate four par-3 holes, five par-4 holes and no par-5 holes. The longest hole would be 312 yards, Ryan said.
“That’s not acceptable to our club,” he said. “That’s not acceptable to any golfer.” It would cost nearly $ 2 million to build a new course, Ryan said.
An airport proposal developed in 2003 by an aviation design company indicated an eastwest runway could be upgraded to the Part 139 classification and not hamper golf play.
Newcom said he could not comment on the previous plan.
“It’s in the courts now,” he said. “We’re all advised not to make any comments anymore.” Knauts said he was sorry to see contention arise, “but they are forcing the country club to do something. The things the airport are complaining about have been there all the time.
“ We’ve been working well with the airport for 36 years, and now they say we’re violating FAA regulations. But they are regulations the airport caused to happen,” he said. “If we violated any rules, somebody at the FAA has swept it on through for 36 years.”
FEEDBACK:
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
