Gov. Mike Easley and State Senate leader Marc Basnight, D-Dare, are at odds over the ownership of property adjacent to the Currituck County Airport. The dispute is over how many acres make up the airport property. A Federal Aviation Administration database lists the airport as 101 acres.

Last year’s budget bill contained language that Basnight thought would clarify the issue. It read that the state should transfer to the county for $1 “the land on which the Currituck County Airport is situated.”

Basnight and Currituck County officials contend that the airport site comprises 535 acres. They want the larger site for the development of industrial sites. Easley’s position is that the airport area is much smaller and earlier he had offered Currituck County about 160 acres. In his position on the airport, Basnight relies on the claim that the 535-acre tract including the airport was surplus property given to the state by the federal government after World War II, and that entire parcel makes up the airport.

Easley administration officials also apparently have assumed that the federal government gave the land to the state, but land records show the land wasn’t owned by the federal government. Since the land has never changed ownership as an airport, there is no precise definition of what makes up the airport, leaving Easley free to define the airport’s size.

Several recent news reports have said that the U.S. government formerly owned the airport property, and that the federal government gave it to North Carolina after World War II. A 2003 resolution from the N.C. Aeronautics Council supporting the transfer of ownership to Currituck County also made the claim. “Whereas, the airport property is owned by the State of North Carolina, unlike the vast majority or airports built for World War II that were turned over by the Department of Defense to units of local government…” stated the resolution.

Most surplus World War II airport property was transferred to local governments with the stipulation that the airports remain public-use facilities. But even though many Currituck residents think the airport was used for military aircraft, land records indicate the federal government never owned the land.

A Carolina Journal review of land records in the State Property Office indicates the State Highway and Public Works Commission acquired about 1,300 acres of land from Dr. H. S. Willey and his wife, Mary H. Willey, Dec. 26, 1942. A hand-written notation on the deed indicates the state paid the Willeys $10,350 for the entire tract. The land had been in the Willey family continuously since before the Wright Brothers made the first airplane flight. A map that accompanied the 1942 deed showed a landing strip in the current location of the Currituck County Airport.

Information in the deed file indicates the state purchased the land for use as a prison farm. At the time it was customary for prisoners to work on state highway construction projects and operate farms.

The state has been leasing 535 acres of the original tract to Currituck County since the 1970s. Currituck County operates the airport and has made other improvements to the property, including installing freshwater wells for a county water system, a gun range, a former landfill, a park, and a Boy Scout camp.

Currituck County Attorney John Morrison filed a lawsuit Dec. 8 against Easley and the Council of State’s nine members. The council members approve most state real estate transactions. The county is seeking a judgment to force Easley to transfer the entire 535-acre tract it says makes up the airport property. A week before, Easley had quietly transferred a 205-acre parcel that includes the runway and some of the adjacent industrial land, and has offered to sell the remaining 330 acres to Currituck County for $1 million. Easley’s partial transfer did not sit well with Basnight. After learning what the governor did, Basnight said, “Oh, baloney,” The News & Observer of Raleigh reported.

On Dec. 14 Superior Court Judge Howard E. Manning, Jr. issued an order for Easley and the Council of State members to appear Jan. 10 in Wake County court. The order requires them to explain why they have not approved the transfer of 535 acres to Currituck County as, the court seems to believe, is required by the 2004 budget bill.

So why is Easley at odds with Basnight and Currituck County over the matter? “Currituck officials think Easley has stonewalled the airport transfer as a backlash to the county’s bitter battle with the state and the Outer Banks Conservationists over the historic Currituck Beach Lighthouse,” The Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk reported. Currituck County wanted the property, but with Easley’s backing it went to the Outer Banks Conservationist, a private non-profit organization.

Another possible explanation for the rocky relationship is Basnight’s role in forcing the N.C. Department of Transportation’s Ferry Division to establish a passenger ferry service from the Currituck mainland to the Currituck Outer Banks at Corolla. Basnight pushed the project through the General Assembly. He and Currituck County officials said the service was necessary to transport schoolchildren. The project has had numerous problems and the new 50-passenger boat is sitting idle at the state shipyard in Manns Harbor.

Earlier this year the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Criminal Investigation Division conducted a raid on the Ferry Division offices in conjunction with an illegal dredging incident involving Ferry Division workboats. The dredging occurred at the Corolla end of the planned ferry route, where the water is too shallow to operate the boat.

Ferry Division officials said the dredging was an accident. Carolina Journal has reported that state and federal environmental officials would likely turn down dredging permits required for the ferry to operate. Neither Currituck County nor the Ferry Division had applied for a dredging permit.

Don Carrington is associate publisher of Carolina Journal.