Lease signing for divert airfield will push through
The signing of a lease agreement between the Commonwealth Ports Authority and the U.S. government for the U.S. Department of Defense’s plan to put up a landing site—a divert airfield—for the U.S. Air Force on Tinian will push through on Tuesday.
In her invitation, CPA office manager/board secretary Jadene Villagomez said the signing of the lease agreement will be held at the Tinian International Airport’s new departure terminal at 10am next week.
CPA board airport facilities committee chair Barrie C. Toves said yesterday that they have come to an agreement to sign off on a 40-year lease with the Department of Defense for a certain amount of millions of dollars. He declined to specify the numbers at this time.
Toves said the exact cost of the lease will be disclosed to the public during a joint meeting of the airport facilities committee and the financial affairs committee chaired by Kimberlyn King-Hinds on Monday.
In July 2017, the U.S. Air Force disclosed during a public hearing on its proposed divert airfield layout plan that it would be plunking down an estimated $375 million to improve the Tinian International Airport by building additional facilities and infrastructure.
At the joint committee meeting to be held on Tinian on Monday, Toves said, they will discuss further details regarding the board meeting for the following day, Tuesday.
He said they will finalize the details of the agenda items that they are going to adopt the following day, Tuesday.
“This is history in the making,” Toves said.
He said the lease agreement is a very good news, especially for the community on Tinian, as they will have enough funding now to address all the infrastructure requirements of the Tinian airport.
Toves said the Tinian leadership hopes it would lead to direct flights coming into the airport from Asian countries.
“They have been pushing for development of the runway and the terminal buildings. We anticipate that we will be able to address those issues with the money that is going to be agreed upon,” he said.
Toves said one of the things that delayed the lease agreement is for the portion of the property on the north side or the opposite side of the airport departure area.
“That was the negotiation between CPA and the Department of Defense,” he said, adding that the CPA board appointed King-Hinds to chair that negotiation committee.
