11-6-01
News & Record
In recent newspaper reports regarding today's Greensboro City Council elections, reference has been made to the resolution adopted by City Council (June 16, 1998). This resolution supports the location of the FedEx facility in Guilford County and approves up to $218,000 for a sewer outfall line to serve the proposed FedEx facility; also the water and sewer connection fee at the time of connection shall be waived.
In my opinion, as written, the second and third WHEREAS in this resolution are misleading. "WHEREAS, Federal Express plans to acquire approximately 175 acres of land and build a regional processing facility in Guilford County in the vicinity of the Piedmont Triad International Airport;"
FACT: FedEx is not acquiring the 175 acres of land. The Piedmont Triad Airport Authority board is acquiring the additional land needed to expand airport property to accommodate the regional processing facility. The board is acquiring the land through purchase and/or condemnation, and the acquisitions may be eligible for FAA and state funding under a grant.
"WHEREAS, it is anticipated that Federal Express will invest nearly $300 million and employ up to 1,500 persons over a five-year period;"
FACT: The airport authority would invest the capital expenditure to build the proposed facility. FedEx would then lease the facility.
It is my belief that City Council members adopted the resolution without accurate knowledge concerning the project...for whatever reason.
Reprinted by permission of the author, Jean Black, Greensboro
See a copy of the resolution
here.
More items to show the flaws in the way the Airport Authority Board are pursuing this matter:
1941 Public Local Laws of N.C., S.B. No. 138, Chapter 98 (creation of the Airport Authority Board):
Section 6: Any lands acquired, owned, controlled or occupied by the said Airport Authority shall, and are hereby declared to be acquired, owned, controlled and occupied for a public purpose. (FedEx is a private business, and the facility to be built would be used exclusively by FedEx. The proposed third runway would be used by FedEx almost exclusively. The only possible reason, due to where the runway will be located, for any other company to want to use the third runway would be for BOTH the other two runways to be shut down. This is not a very likely scenario.)
The Guilford County Board of Commissioners have stated on several occasions that they do not have control over the Airport Authority Board, yet Section 9 of the above stated law states: "...the County of Guilford may deligate its powers under the said acts to the Authority..." The act of deligation is defined by the American Heritage Dictionary as: To commit or entrust to another: delegate a task to a subordinate. The Airport Authority Board is clearly a subordinate of the Guilford County Commissioners!