Dec. 7—FAIRMONT — Lack of progress at Pierpont Community and Technical College’s $25 million aviation maintenance training facility is hampering North Central West Virginia’s dreams of becoming an aerospace hub.
“Whatever facility is going to be built should have been built a few years ago,” said Benedum Airport Authority board member Michael Romano. “And here we are, looking at the fact that nothing is being built, even though that money has been appropriated by the Legislature, with the encouragement of Governor Justice.”
A year and a half after the state Legislature appropriated $25 million for a new aviation maintenance training facility where Pierpont students can train, ground has yet to be broken. On Thursday, Airport Authority President and Pierpont Board of Directors President David Hinkle said the school may need to consider new options to increase the number of students who can train within the aviation maintenance program.
This facility had allowed the school to increase its capacity from 130 to 200 students. Romano worries that the opportunity to make the region an aviation industry powerhouse is disappearing as officials work to untangle what’s happening with the facility’s construction. Currently, the aviation industry has a $1.2 billion impact on North Central West Virginia.
“It’s a real disaster for our aerospace industry,” he said.
Hinkle blamed the debacle on the West Virginia Economic Development Agency. The money the Legislature appropriated for the facility did not go directly to the school, but to WVEDA, which Hinkle said is responsible for securing the land for the facility and carrying out construction. Hinkle said the airport has land it wants to use for the new facility, and so far it has done its part by submitting the appropriate documents to WVEDA, but so far the organization has taken no action.
“We have filed the documents with the West Virginia Economic Development Authority so that they can purchase the property and enter into an agreement to purchase the property,” Hinkle said. “We have not yet received a contract to purchase the property.”
Hinkle added that the school has no land to build on, and once WVEDA completes the building, the school would be a tenant. When the school applied for funding from the state to build the new facility, the state chose to give the money to WVEDA to continue the project instead of giving the money to the school.
“It is up to the West Virginia EDA to purchase the land and build the building for the school to use,” he said.
To further complicate matters, some of the facility’s land is also owned by the West Virginia Division of Highways. Hinkle said the WVEDA will need to work with both the Airport Authority and WVDOH to purchase the pieces needed for the building. As if that weren’t enough, design planning for the facility is at a standstill and plans are about 60-70% complete, Hinkle said.
When the state Legislature took the project away from higher education and handed it to WVEDA, those plans were put on hold.
“The WVEDA must execute a contract to purchase a property, execute a contract to finalize the design of the building and then issue a contract to build it,” Hinkle said. ‘Pierpont has nothing in that. The airport has nothing to do with that. Neither Marion nor Harrison County Commission[co-owners of the airport] have something to say about that. That’s 100% at WVEDA.”
WVEDA declined to comment for the story and referred questions to CJ Harvey, press secretary for the governor’s office. Harvey did not return calls as of press time. However, Harvey made a statement to another outlet last week stating that the governor was very excited about the future of the aerospace industry, especially in North Central West Virginia.
Harrison County legislative representatives also said lawmakers were working hard to ensure the project would still happen.
However, Romano has a different opinion.
“My understanding is that, [Pierpont’s] The needs for the facility are greater than the amount of money allocated to them,” Romano said.
Romano cautioned that he is not part of Pierpont’s board of directors and has no firsthand knowledge. He added that no one has really been transparent about what’s happening at Pierpont. However, Romano said the land for the facility has been set aside. He said that you cannot buy land at the airport, but only lease it.
“We are extremely cooperative and friendly with anyone who, as long as they have a project that fits with the airport plans that we give, the land leases that we give are very cheap,” he said. “We have signed leases for up to 50 years with people who want to stay inside the fence so they can access the runway and airport facilities.”
Romano isn’t sure what the stumbling block is. He said he doesn’t know why construction hasn’t started yet. When the project was conceptualized, there was a competing idea that called for simply combining the current facilities that Pierpont and Fairmont State use so that both schools could share space that would have met the expansion goals while being less expensive. However, Pierpont’s board sidestepped that plan in favor of a new facility, Romano said. Now they’ve bitten off more than they can chew.
Newly elected Senator Joey Garcia said it is critical that Pierpont gets its new facility. He’s concerned that it’s been a year and a half and nothing has happened. As for the Legislature, he said that while the Legislature has appropriated the money, it is up to the individuals of Pierpont and the WVEDA to complete the project.
While Pierpont and WVEDA officials bicker over what to do, it’s having a real impact on the state’s aviation industry. In late November, Tracy Miller, president of the Mid-Atlantic Aerospace Complex, said a major aerospace company she spoke with was turning away work because construction on the new school had not yet begun. That’s job loss. Romano said these jobs provide opportunities in a state that doesn’t have many of them.
“West Virginia will always need a modern industry that will continue to grow, where our young people can go to work and stay home and live in West Virginia,” Romano said. “And it sure looks like we’re going to screw it up.”
Reach Esteban at efernandez@timeswv.com
