State denies airport $12 million for new terminal
Expansion plans now in jeopardy
BY PETER B. BRACE
The state last week abruptly withdrew its commitment to begin a multiyear payout of $12 million to the Airport Commission, putting a serious crimp in terminal expansion plans.

Airport Commission Chairman Foley Vaughan made the announcement late Friday morning at a special meeting of the commission. He said that on Monday, Dec. 11, Arthur Allen, chairman of the Massachusetts Aeronautics Commission (MAC) and its executive director, Bob Welch, made a special visit to Nantucket to deliver the bad news personally to Vaughan and Airport Operations Manager Al Peterson.

“MAC was very surprised by this and I think that is why they made the effort,” Peterson said. “Because they spent a significant amount of money on this, around $100,000.”

According to Vaughan, Governor Mitt Romney’s Office for Administration and Finance would not explain why Nantucket would not be getting the funds and only told MAC that “this is not going to happen.”

News of the state’s abrupt change of heart came as a blow to the Airport Commission because it had been waiting all year to begin work on terminal expansion. At Town Meeting in April 2005, Vaughan and Peterson successfully convinced voters to allow the com-