Council okays airport landfill site

By Meg Olson

Blaine city council gave the airport commission the nod to go ahead with contract negotiations that would put a landfill just south of the existing runway.

“This is a proposal which would benefit both the business owner and the airport,” Doug Fenton told city council members at their February 27 meeting.

Local contractor Larry Freeman and the airport commission would like to pursue a contractual arrangement under which Freeman would dump clean fill on property the airport recently acquired from Robert Carruthers, about 1,000 feet south of the airport runway off Fern Street.

“The lowland would need to be filled if the airport is expanded and if not filling some of the low spots will make it more valuable,” Fenton said.
The fill being placed on the site would be clean fill from construction excavations, Fenton explained, adding that Freeman was hoping to get contracts associated with the truck route improvements. “There will be a lot of excavation,” Fenton said.

The area of the initial proposed filling will not need wetland encroachment permits, Fenton said, but as the filling moves further south federal permitting and wetland mitigation will be needed.

In other airport business Fenton asked for and got agreement in principle for a new squadron of the civil air patrol to locate at the Blaine airport using the existing FBO as a base.