Norwood Airport Commission Ratifies “Radically Different” Lease Agreement-July 11, 1986

New Lease Agreement for Norwood Airport

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While the commission has spent at least five years negotiating the contract, they have opted to keep the specific details confidential until July 18, the exact date the current 20-year lease is set to expire. Commission Chairman Edwin Page explained that the agreement represents such a fundamental shift in the relationship between the town and the airport manager that releasing partial information would “distort the whole picture.”

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The negotiations addressed long-standing frustrations regarding the town’s financial return on the property; under the previous contract, the town received a mere 5 percent of airport revenues—a figure that amounted to only $7,000 in 1984. Issues under discussion included the division of liability insurance costs, which spiked from $4,500 to $17,000 this year, and the potential for a higher percentage of gross revenues to be reimbursed to the town. Page noted that much of the five-year delay was due to the “vague and unintelligible” language of the original 20-year lease, requiring extensive legal drafting with Town Counsel Justin Barton to ensure the new document was legally sound. The commission intends to request a two-week extension from BMA to cover the gap between the expiration of the current lease and the signing of the new contract, which is targeted for July 31. Public disclosure and legislative review will follow, with a special public hearing scheduled for July 24.

Archival Note: This article has been dynamically reconstructed from the original public record print archives of the Patriot Ledger