OSKALOOSA, Iowa — A new agreement to pause plans for the controversial South Central Regional Airport is officially in effect. The airport was set to be built between Pella and Oskaloosa.
Monday night, Oskaloosa City Council voted 4-3 to enter the agreement with Pella City Council.
It was overflow only as dozens packed council chambers for the final vote on the new airport agreement.
“I can’t go against the people that elected me in here,” council member Ronda Almond said.
Everyone who addressed the council spoke against the airport. However, not everyone was happy with the final decision.
Some city council members expressed concerns with the agreement because it doesn’t officially end plans.
“To resurrect it would not serve the best interest of Oskaloosa or its citizens,” council member Charlie Comfort said.
That's a sentiment shared by landowners.
“I was hoping that there would be a vote to stop the airport and sell the ground,” landowner Dave Prine said.
Prine is one of four landowners who aren’t willing to give up their generational farmland for the airport.
“You can build an airport on grounds where you can't farm,” he said. “This ground that they're wanting to take is prime, Grade A farm ground.”
The new agreement lays out two new requirements for the entity overseeing the project, the South Central Regional Airport Agency. The agency needs approval from both Pella and Oskaloosa to secure additional land and begin construction.
“We have a lack of housing,” Comfort said. “We have a $70 million wastewater facility we have to build. Those should be our priority right now, not whispering about a regional airport project.”
Both council members and landowners are ready to put the project to rest, at least for now.
“We're never going to settle with them,” Prine said. “We're going to keep fighting them as long as we can.”
Local 5 has reached out to Jim Hansen, South Central Regional Airport Agency chair, multiple times over the past month. On Monday, he again did not respond to requests asking about the future of the airport.