CENTERBURG — A storm is brewing between Consolidated Electric and Bill See, owner of the Chapman Memorial Airport on Columbus Road near Centerburg. Consolidated Electric is the owner of a Delta three-phase line to back-feed a substation in Licking County. Although Consolidated has not yet put up the power lines, the company plans to put them on Dill Road, which runs north/south on the eastern end of the airport. The lines would also obstruct the runway of the airport, rendering the runway virtually unusable and putting the airport out of business.

See and his wife, Deborah, have owned the field since 1985, and it is See’s sole source of income.

“Over the years, I have developed the airport whenever I could afford to,” See said. “It is now a small commercial aviation business.”

During the 1980s and 1990s, 10 building lots adjacent to the airport were sold to private individuals. The buildings on the lots now house private aircraft for personal use. In all, there are 25 aircraft based at the airport.

“Along with offering rental space for aircraft, I also give flight instruction,” See added. “We have an excellent amount of daily flights and continue to show growth.”

Recently, See noticed some survey stakes along Dill Road. After some inquiry, See found out Consolidated Electric was planning on erecting an electric line which would cross the flight path of planes taking off from the runway.

“In conversing with the state of Ohio and the Federal Aviation Administration, these potential new power lines and poles above ground will exceed the safety standards for any active airport as set forth by the FAA’s required safety criteria,” said See. “Basically, the power poles and lines will penetrate air space standards and become a hazard to the ingress and egress of the airport runways by piloted aircraft.”

See said one solution to the problem would be to plow up and make inactive about 1,000 feet of runway. This would reduce the runway length to less than 2,000 feet, and increase the potential for pilot error on both takeoff and landing. This would also result in making liability insurance unaffordable for the airport, he said.

See said he has another solution.

“They can fix it by putting the lines underground,” See explained, “from 300 feet on each side. And I’d still have to plow up some runway. The farther we move off the runway centerline, the higher the limits of the FAA obstruction safety clearances.”

See sent a letter to Consolidated Electric stating all of these concerns, and expressing a desire to work with the co-op to come up with a workable solution acceptable to both sides.

The response he got from Phillip Caskey, vice president of engineering and operations at Consolidated, read, in part:

“We greatly appreciate your helping us to identify the specific areas where new distribution lines might affect your operations. Right now, however, we are in the extremely preliminary stages of design and routing and so are not quite able to discuss details of the proposed new line, especially we have not yet begun to look at the details. I would like to assure you further that we will, as soon as practical, involve you directly in our design process so that we may best meet the needs of all the stakeholders in the planned facilities and their construction.”

“They have the surveying stakes in place,” See said. “How preliminary does that sound? It will be interesting to see how they come back and what they come back with.”

Pam Hawk, vice president of marketing and member services for Consolidated Electric, confirms Caskey’s letter.

“It is all pretty preliminary,” Hawk said, referring to routing of the proposed lines. “We’re looking at design, routing, federal regulations, rights of way; there are so many things being looked at right now that we can’t give Mr. See an answer.”

Hawk said the cooperative is also looking into several options suggested by See, including burial of the lines.

“He gave us some options and we are looking into those,” she said. “We’re trying to do our due diligence with all our members because we are a cooperative. We will meet with Mr. See and discuss our options. We are looking at all options.”