Islip board OKs $84G for MacArthur runway work

The Islip Town board has approved $84,075 worth of maintenance repairs for Long Island MacArthur Airport's runways and voted to extend a contract with an air transport consultancy.

The town board voted last week to enter into an agreement with Safety Marking Inc., based in Bridgeport, Conn., to remove excess rubber marks on the airport's runways and to scrape away accumulated paint layers in order to meet Federal Aviation Administration standards, deputy airport commissioner Terry Hennessey said.

The cost will come out of the airport's capital funds.

"When airplanes land, the wheels aren't turning on the airplane so when the wheels hit the runway, they scuff and leave a quantity of rubber, and that builds up," Hennessey said.

A recent FAA inspection noted that the buildup of rubber and paint layers on runway markings was "close to the level of the amount of buildup you can have," he said.

The town board also voted to extend a contract for one year with Simat, Helliesen & Eichner Inc., a well-known national air transport consulting firm that helps MacArthur attract new carriers, Hennessey said.

"They have access to a tremendous amount of data that's not readily available to us, like origin and destination information," he said. "They have access to where people are flying from and to, and they use that to market our services to carriers that we may be talking to."

He added that the firm was "very helpful" in bringing Alaska-based carrier PenAir to the Ronkonkoma airport.

According to the town board resolution, the annual cost to the airport for retaining their consulting services will not exceed $105,000.