Landowners form group to oppose Bluegrass Station expansion, promising: ‘We will fight’
A group of property owners angry about a possible expansion of Bluegrass Station have formed a nonprofit group to fight a new runway project they fear will allow the government to take their farms and land.
Several hundred people packed a barn on Sunday night near Bluegrass Station to hear more about the possible expansion plans and discuss how to fight an expansion of the state-owned “airpark” that now serves the U.S. military.
Arthur Hancock is a fourth-generation Bourbon County farmer and owns land about four miles from Bluegrass Station. Hancock, like many others, said he had only heard about the project in the past week.
Hancock blasted the plan as it was “hatched under a veil of secrecy.” The government wants to take land to build an airport runway possibly for out-of-state companies and take people’s land “like thieves in the night,” he said.
Hancock and others urged those who attended Sunday’s meeting to call local and state elected leaders and tell them to stop the expansion.
“This is not over,” Hancock said. “We will fight.”
The group is forming a 501 (c)(4), a type of nonprofit that allows the group to engage in some political activity, such as opposition advertisements against the proposed expansion project. The group, Citizens for Bourbon County, will also weigh-in on other issues involving planning and smart development, organizers said Sunday.
“It is a slap in the face to Bourbon County farmers who have devoted their lives to the health and preservation of their land. It shouldn’t be usurped by the government so Lockheed Martin can line their pockets while they pollute our air, land and livelihoods,” said Ike Van Meter, one of the landowners who helped organize Sunday night’s meeting at a local farm in Bourbon County.
Others who spoke Sunday said they felt blindsided by the push to expand the former Army Depot that is now controlled and owned by the state.
“If this were truly an issue of national security, our citizens would be lining up to make it happen,” said Mark Offutt, a Bourbon County resident and former county magistrate.
“The problem is, this project is about expanding Lockheed Martin’s profits after they have repeatedly broken their promises to Bourbon County workers through layoffs and pay cuts. It appears our elected leaders are using the current Lockheed Martin footprint as an excuse to say this is a military operation, which frankly, it is not.”
Project details and how it will be financed
The more than $320 million project to expand Bluegrass Station’s current runway into Bourbon County is included in the Republican House version of the state budget. Some project documents say the land to expand the runway could be taken by eminent domain — which allows the government to take private land for a public use for a price.
Roughly $55 million could be bond or borrowed fund with the potential for a private entity to repay the $55 million. No other tax dollars are currently earmarked for the project, according to officials with the Kentucky Department of Military Affairs, which oversees Bluegrass Station.
According to documents and a presentation submitted to the Kentucky General Assembly in November 2022, the plans involve a 2,000-acre expansion, but the report states that “future market conditions could justify expansion up to 4,000 acres.”
Dozens of people who attended Sunday night’s meeting said they are angry they only learned out about the possible expansion through budget documents.
Lockheed Martin, a private government contractor and Bluegrass Station’s largest employer, uses the heliport on the property to retrofit helicopters. If the runway is expanded, the private military contractor could also fix airplanes at the site.
The airport expansion could also serve private aircraft, which backers of the project say is needed. There’s currently not enough capacity in Central Kentucky for general aviation aircraft.
The promise of more jobs is also driving the project.
Bourbon County’s economy has been stagnant for years, project supporters say. Some estimate between 4,000 and 6,000 new jobs could be added if the public-private partnership is completed.
Who will it benefit?
Those who attended Sunday night’s meeting questioned those numbers.
Much of the jobs at Bluegrass Station are on the Fayette County side. Bluegrass Station straddles the Fayette and Bourbon county line. That means a tax on wages, which helps fund the bulk of city and county government operations, currently goes to Fayette County.
If the Bluegrass Station is expanded, would those tax dollars actually help Bourbon County, some questioned.
Lockheed Martin has contracts with the U.S. military. Those contracts only last a certain period of years. When those contracts dry up, so do the jobs, several people predicted Sunday.
“With all due respect, this project will rob Peter to pay Paul,” said Mike Thompson, a Bourbon County land owner.
“The land in Bourbon County will be forever changed by this project, and the jobs and employees will go to Fayette County. They will bleed us dry, and the citizens of Bourbon County will be left with nothing but noise and dirty air for their children and their children’s children to breathe. “
Plans for the expansion of operations at Bluegrass Station aren’t new.
In 2017, a similar proposal was killed by the Bourbon County Fiscal Court. Offutt was one of the magistrates who voted against the expansion.
This time, it appears all the oversight of the project is at the state level.
Magistrate Todd Earlywine, who represents the Bourbon County area that includes parts of Bluegrass Station, said he does not support the expansion and stands with the landowners. Earlywine has been told that Bourbon County Fiscal Court has no say over the proposed expansion.
On Sunday, Van Meter and others urged those who attended to call senators and House members to jettison the project out of the two-year annual budget. The House has already passed its version of the budget. It now goes to the Senate.
Both chambers are controlled by the Republican Party.
