NORTH NEWPORT — The town’s Airport Advisory Board is seeking to avoid relying on Federal Aviation Administration funding for long-needed repairs of the runway at the town-owned Parlin Field.

The advisory board believes maintaining Parlin Field’s independence from the FAA and its long list of obligations will keep the airport’s small, community environment and will be less expensive, advisory board member Russ Kelsea told the Selectboard at Monday’s meeting.

Parlin Field, first built in the 1930s, is a non-FAA obligated airport, meaning has not accepted money from the federal agency for its maintenance. The town’s airport managers have long opposed taking FAA funds because they believe it will lead to restrictions on what they can do there, such as an annual Easter egg drop, and also add requirements and costs.

Guy Rouelle, senior aviation project manager, opened a presentation of a recently-completed airport master plan to the Selectboard on Monday with an explanation of the planning process, noting that the 20-year forecast for the airport, which was approved by the FAA, does not project much of an increase in the operation and that Parlin Field would remain a “small, general aviation airport.”

The plan included four alternatives, two of which involved FAA funding, with a town match, and a third would rely on funding solely from the state and the town. The last option was to do nothing, but while there would be no cost to reconstruct the runway, the town would still be on the hook for maintenance of the  deteriorated airstrip. It is required to maintain a safe landing runway under the agreement with those leasing hangar space.

The option to use only state and town funds is estimated to cost $1.1 million and, assuming state funding is obtained, the town match would be about $225,000, according to Jen Riccardi, assistant director of aviation of Dubois & King, who also presented to the Selectboard on Monday.

The runway, now 3,448 feet, would be reconstructed to a length of 3,200 feet. In addition to full reconstruction, the south end of the runway, which cannot be used at certain times of the year because of flooding and ice jams from the Sugar River, would be raised above the floodplain and a new, larger culvert installed. Kelsea said if nothing is done, the runway effectively would be less than 2,900 feet because of the flooding.

Kelsea said if the town accepts the federal money there could be future federal mandates and the town would need to spend the money to meet those, and standards could change and become more strict.

“We see it as the least overall cost to the town,” Kelsea said to the Selectboard of the option without FAA funding.

Kelsea said the town would retain full control of the airport under the alternative the advisory board recommends, but that would not be the case with an FAA-obligated airport.

The preferred option “preserves that character of the airport and it complies with the town’s hangar lease agreements,” Kelsea said. “It maximizes the FAA design standards and it meets what we view as all the applicable safety requirements.”

Under the two FAA-funded options, costing between $9.5 million and $10 million with a 5% town match and 5% state match, there would need to be 240 feet of “safety area” at either end of the runway and that would reduce the total length to less than 3,000 feet, Riccardi said.

Additionally, the FAA options would remove “obstructions” at either end of the runway, requiring easements from property owners, and FAA-compliant lighting would need to be installed. Those are not part of the alternative relying only on state and local funding, but Kelsea noted the town must “maintain safety zones” for aircraft. The FAA also would require the removal of the turf runway, which runs perpendicular to the paved airstrip.

One of the FAA alternative plans would move the entire runway layout north, away from the Sugar River. Riccardi said additional expense from the environmental impact and removing more obstructions does not make that option worth the cost.

Given all the constraints of the property, Riccardi said, they could not come up with a runway of 3,200 feet that would be eligible for FAA funding.

If the town were to pursue state funding through the Airport Maintenance Grant program, it would file an application later this year and if approved, construction could begin late next summer. Under the FAA alternatives, the process would take at least three years before construction.

The Selectboard did not make any decision on Monday and Chairman Jim Burroughs said there is still a lot of discussion ahead on how to proceed and how to pay for the town’s portion.

Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.