Residents press council to halt airport access road tied to job‑grant funding

DeFuniak Springs — Scores of residents urged the City Council on March 9 to stop plans for a new access road to the municipal airport, saying the proposed entry would put small children and a quiet neighborhood at risk and that the city had not given adequate public notice of grant‑driven plans.

Jim Harmon, a Country Club Drive resident, told the council that eight school‑age children live in the lots closest to the proposed route and said the existing narrow railroad crossing and local streets were not built to handle industrial traffic. “You are putting our citizens … at risk,” Harmon said during the public‑comment period.

Greg Majors, another nearby property owner, raised a separate financial worry about the grants shaping the project. Reading from the grant terms, Majors warned that if the city did not meet the job targets attached to the funding, “the city's going to owe a million dollars back.” He said residents had not received timely notice and asked why the council had not held a broader public hearing before moving forward.

City staff and the manager responded that the airport project is being funded in part through multiple grants — including a Triumph grant and a Job Growth Grant Fund award — and that some awards require multi‑year job targets. Kobe Townson, the city manager, said the airport project is expected to support direct jobs on the airfield and that federal and state grant processes include environmental and programmatic reviews. “There’s a 10‑year ramp up period for it,” he said, and added that the FAA will require a NEPA‑compliant environmental review during the design phase.

Residents pressed the council on alternatives. Several speakers said the city already owns property on the west side of the airport and asked whether access and development could be routed to avoid cutting through Country Club Drive; staff said the option had not been fully explored and noted potential Federal Aviation Administration and design constraints on alternate routes.

Other commenters urged the council to ensure any grant terms with clawback provisions are fully understood before accepting easements or launching construction. Randy Lightner, a longtime resident who has organized neighborhood feedback, said that while the process may be legal, proceeding without stronger outreach and a traffic study was a “bad look.”

City staff confirmed that no traffic study or detailed NEPA analysis for the Country Club Drive connection had been completed yet and said those steps will be part of the design process. The manager also said bids and engineering for runway repairs are ongoing and that closing or repurposing a dirt runway might affect future options for access in the longer term.

The council did not take a new binding vote on easements or construction at the meeting. Instead, the session served as an extended public‑comment forum and a reminder that FAA and grant‑condition reviews remain outstanding. Staff said they will bring required environmental and traffic studies into the design phase and that county commission action on a related land swap was scheduled separately.

What happens next: Staff said the NEPA/environmental assessment and a traffic study will be required during project design; the council did not approve construction or easements during the March 9 meeting.