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A lack of communication appears to have caused a dustup at the Eastport Municipal Airport, as the owners of airplane hangars were told by the city that, because their leases had expired or they had not paid their lease fees, they had to remove their hangars within 30 or 60 days.
The leaseholders, though, say they were not billed by the city and were not given the new leases that the City Council had approved more than two years ago. They also claim that the action could possibly lead to a loss of Federal Aviation Administration funding for the airport if the owners of the hangars decide to move their planes to another airport in the county.
According to City Manager Brian Schuth, the city sent out six letters to owners of hangars on April 23. Three were for leases that expired in 2023 and three were for lack of payment for three or four years. The payment amount was $280 a year. Those whose leases had expired were given until May 25 to remove their structure and restore the land to its original state. Those whose leases were canceled because of lack of payment were given until June 30.
Schuth’s letter also mentions the new taxiway designed to accommodate new hangar construction and invites the hangar owners to contact him if they would like a new land lease. He said six of the hangars will need to be moved to accommodate the apron expansion in the airport master plan. However, whether all of the hangars have to be moved is a point of debate among the members of the city’s airport advisory committee.
At the committee meeting on May 5, Schuth said that if any of the six leaseholders wish to remain at the airport “they should meet with me immediately, and we will draft a new lease for a new hangar location, and we can negotiate the timeline for the movement of their hangars.” He added that he would not be trying to collect any past due amounts.
“I’m protecting the city’s interests,” Schuth said in an interview. “Their leases were still in effect. They did not pay. I’m offering them new leases now.”
Impact debated
Peter Lehmann, who had been the airport manager for the city since late 2023 until he resigned last month, said the owners of the hangars did not have any leases from the city. “They were either old or had expired.” While the City Council approved language for the leases more than two years ago, they were not sent out.
According to Lehmann, the owners of the hangars were asking the city for the new leases. “They didn’t know what to pay or who to pay,” he said. “They were willing to pay, but you can’t pay without a lease.”
Schuth does not know why the new leases were not sent out to the hangar owners after the council approved the new language, except he noted Eastport has had six city managers in the past seven years.
As for the responsibility of the hangar owners, he said, “As far as I know they didn’t reach out to the city.”
Lehmann maintains that the effect of the letter will be to have those with airplanes at the airport to move them to the Machias or Princeton airports. He said, “FAA funding depends on the number of aircraft here. If eight planes leave, we won’t get any more funding.” Presently there are more than 10 planes based at the airport, and the FAA provides approximately $150,000 a year based on the number of aircraft at the airport, according to Lehmann. In addition, the FAA has provided $1.7 million for a new terminal building and $5.6 million for a new runway in the past 10 years.
Schuth, though, said if owners of planes move to another airport, it will not place FAA funding at risk.
Lisa Reece, head of the Maine Aeronautic Association, recently wrote a letter in support of the hangar owners, noting that current lease agreements are for 20 years, with another 10 years left in some of the contracts. She asked how a lessee can be in default if they have not received a bill. She wrote that the aviation community is “at a loss of why a town would evict the very pilots that put the Eastport airport on the map!”
Reece pointed to the pancake breakfast over the Fourth of July that is one of the state’s most popular fly-ins and the aviation scholarships that the airport association supports. “These pilots have devoted significant energy and passion to this airport and its community, and to arbitrarily remove them is beyond unfair and quite frankly discriminatory,” she wrote.
Lehmann noted that the airport will also lose its maintenance services and instructors, both of which are services provided by those who have planes at the airport. In addition, he believes the Eastport Airport Association will dissolve. Along with running the pancake breakfast, the association provides funds for scholarships for youth to go to ground school to train to become a pilot. According to Lehmann, five local youth have attended ground school.
Lehmann claims the city sent the letters to hangar owners because “they think the old hangars look tacky, and they want them to look like the new ones.”
As for what is happening at the airport, he said, “It’s what everyone hates: Rich people coming into an area and deciding they’re going to show Eastport how to fix the city.”
Committee reaction
“Nobody is going to get booted out of their hangars if they’re working with Brian,” Chris Krohn, the chair of the committee, said at the airport advisory committee’s May 5 meeting.
“Nothing we’re doing at the airport is to my benefit,” he added, responding to allegations. “This airport is intended to serve the entire community, not the few that have hangars out there.”
Committee member Ron Rosenfeld stated that he felt it was “unreasonable” for the notice of potential eviction to be sent out by the city, as the leaseholders were never given the new leases. “The city should have sent a letter stating, ‘Sorry we didn’t send out notice for payment,’ instead of these eviction notices.”
Victoria Ganz, the vice chair of the committee, noted that the new lease language had been approved by the City Council in 2023. “Every leaseholder knows the conditions of the leases,” she said, but they did not try to pay the amounts they owed for between three and five years. She noted that three leaseholders did pay their lease amounts in January.
Krohn said there is no requirement that the city send bills to the leaseholders, noting that the lease states that the leaseholders agree to make annual payments and the city can cancel the lease if it is not paid.
One of the owners of the hangars, Deb Nelson, said she had not been given a lease from the city but instead received a letter that the hangar has to be removed.
“It’s so unreasonable. They didn’t even communicate with us first,” she said. “We’re not Hilton Head. We’re Eastport, Maine. Those hangars have character.”
