On June 23rd, the Gwinnett County BOC published an update on the current Airport Privatization plan. The County will now begin the process of selecting a consultant to determine whether or not the airport privatization plan is in the best interest of the County. An RFQ will be developed and published with the goal of evaulating and potentially approving the proposal before the end of 2010.
On May 26th, the FAA gave preliminary appoval to Gwinnett County to pursue one of the 5 slots for privatization grants for airports. The County will no move forward with a feasability study to determine what privatization of the airport would mean for the County.
On January 19th, the Gwinnett BOC voted to move forward with reviewing an initial look at privatizing Briscoe Field. The Commissioners gave the county staff direction to proceed with the “pre-application” process with the Federal Aviation Administration. This process will simply allow the County to explore the positives and negatives of privatizing the airport as they seek to obtain a spot in the FAA Airport Privatization program. This does not mean that the airport will be provatized; Chairman Bannister was clear that this is only an exploration exercise at this point. In the action, the BOC earmarked $250,000 in the budget for consultant services to study the idea.