CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Yeager Airport Board hopes to have $6 million at its disposal soon to take care of residents who were damaged in the March hillside collapse of the airport’s overrun area.
The board finalized plans in a special meeting Friday that will allow it to refinance some existing debt and use the money, along with county funds, to pay residents for damages to their properties. Airport spokesman Mark Plante said the board made the move as three insurance companies continue to drag their feet.
“We can’t stand by and wait and wait and wait for the insurance companies to step in and do their job,” Plante said.
Yeager’s insurance company along with an insurers representing the firm that engineered the overrun fill project and the contractor that built it have been negotiating but none of the companies had sent an adjuster on site as of Friday, which marked 55 days since the collapse. Plante said the insurance companies are talking but taking little action.
“We’ve been told continuously that’s what they are doing. The frustrating part on our end is it’s taken as long as it has,” he said.
Several residents on Keystone Drive and Barlow Drive, which are located below the hillside, sustained significant damages to their properties. The slide destroyed the building housing Keystone Apostolic Church. Plante said five families continue to stay in area hotels.
“We have a responsibility to make them whole. We can’t ask them to wait for an indeterminable amount of time while the insurance companies decide what to do,” Plante said.
Part of the $6 million the board has freed up will also be used to pay for a yet-to-be-chosen engineering firm to design a repair for the fill area. Plante said a request-for-proposals would be out on the street soon.
The airport board is also preparing for a possible legal battle if it doesn’t get reimbursed by the insurance companies. Three prominent Charleston law firms, The Segal Law firm; Bucci, Bailey & Javins; along with Powell & Majestro, were in attendance at Friday’s meeting.
“All three firms have agreed to underwrite, at their own expense, the cost of litigation, if it should become necessary, in order to help the airport,” Plante said.