After months of discussions of how to fund a ten thousand foot runway, and state of the art terminal, the grass could be the reason the airport doesn't open on time.

Airport Director Randy Curtis said "It is a critical area as far as opening the airport in the areas adjacent to the runways and taxi ways. So it does become a safety issue to be able to have the grasses and proper erosion control in and of itself.

Grass isn't growing in certain areas of the new site because of the soil conditions.

Airport Authority Vice-Chair Bill Cramer said "I've said before that growing grass really isn't rocket science. We do have some issues with this soil, but the soil is capable of being amended if you have the proper advice. We had a letter from Texas A&M which gives us a recipe as to how you basically treat the soil."

Cramer asked repeatedly why the construction team waited so late to get the ball rolling.

Cramer added "We're running into a problem now with timing and the growing season had the soil been properly amended earlier in the year. The letter says we could have grown Bermuda grass we wouldn't have had to rely on sod. My concern is that the airport will be called on to rely on sod instead of seed because the soil wasn't amended in a timely fashion."

The airport has specific guidelines it must meet in order to get f-a-a approval for the opening date, but Curtis believes they'll get it done in time.

Curtis said "I think we still have enough time to make that happen between now and May of next year."

The airport allocated $500,000 at their last meeting toward fixing the grass problem.