CHAPEL HILL - Then Chancellor James Moeser was not yet sold on the need for a new airport in Orange County when he asked two local businessmen to help fund a study at a meeting in UNC's South Building in the fall of 2007.

The men, Jim Heavner of VilCom and J. Adam Abram of the James River Group, agreed to contribute $15,000 each toward an eventual $100,000 that the UNC Chapel Hill Foundation paid Talbert & Bright consultants, according to public records requested by The Chapel Hill News and The News & Observer.

The rest of the money -- $20,000 from the School of Medicine and $50,000 from UNC -- came from non-state appropriated funds, university officials said.

The money helped pay for a May 2008 report that estimated a new general aviation airport in Orange County could generate $40 million to $53 million a year in economic impact.

In a telephone interview, Moeser conceded he arrived at his support for a new airport late.

"I'm a convert," he said. "I think long term the county needs a general aviation airport."

Making the case

The September 2007 meeting in Moeser's conference room followed a June 2007 legislative hearing on Horace Williams Airport, where some legislators asked university officials to reconsider closing Horace Williams Airport.

UNC officials said they needed to close the airport to make room for the Carolina North campus. The airport sat on developable land, and the university had promised local government leaders they could meet the 50-year needs of the new campus by building on no more than 250 acres of the 900 acre site, according to minutes of the hearing.

Physicians and pilots testified that Horace Williams was critical to the Area Health Education Centers program. Some might drop out of the program if Horace Williams closed.

Heavner, who also testified at the hearing, joined the physicians in support of Horace Williams Airport. He said the university was underestimating travel time to RDU, where it planned to move the AHEC fleet.

He also called for a study to consider Carolina North, AHEC and "the future of general aviation as it serves UNC-Chapel Hill and Orange County for the next 100 years," according to the minutes.

South Building meeting

State Rep. Verla Insko attended the follow-up meeting in South Building. She said she was and remains concerned about meeting the needs of the AHEC program, which flies medical professionals to under-served parts of the state and accounts for about one in four flights at Horace Williams Airport.

At that meeting, Moeser said the airport issue needed further study and the university needed help paying for it.

"My recollection is UNC didn't want to politically be in the airport business," Heavner said. "He wanted community involvement in this. My best recollection is [Moeser said] the university would put $50,000 in a fund if we would match it, and then we did."

"I was very happy and eager to be supportive of this."

Efforts to reach Abram for comment were unsuccessful.

Moeser said part of his initial position on the need for a new airport was his belief that RDU was "perfectly acceptable" as an interim location for the AHEC program.

Over time, he said, he came to see the airport's larger role in the community.

"I don't think the university is the sole driver. That's why Heavner and Abram were in that meeting," he said. "I think the university does have a role in economic development."

"We saw it then, and I see it now, as a shared endeavor."

The working paper

The Talbert & Bright economic impact report is called "Working Paper #1."

Kevin FitzGerald, associate dean of the medical school and the university's point person on the future airport authority, said the report is a "first cut" and needs to be refined after more study.

Critics, including many who fear their land could be taken for a new airport, have questioned the numbers in the study. Preserve Rural Orange, a group that has collected 1,800 signatures opposing a site identified in a 2005 study as a possible airport location, will hold an open community meeting at 7 p.m. Monday at the White Cross Recreation Center at 1800 White Cross Road in southwestern Orange County.

The consultants called their economic impact estimate "preliminary" and said they were already gathering more information for a follow-up report.

Based on limited information, the consultants said they had identified privately owned users of Horace Williams Airport as VilCom, the James River Group, Blue Rose Capital Partners, Carolina Conservation Resource Management, Environmental Quality Control and Skysite Aerial Photogarphy. These users said having an airport was "very important" or "essential" to their business.

mark.schultz@nando.com or 932-2003