County to pay $300,000 for six acres near runway

by Larry Chowning –

Middlesex Supervisors voted 5-0 on Tuesday, Oct. 4, to pay $300,000 for a six-acre tract of land at the north end of Hummel Field airport in Topping.

The six-acre tract owned by Delaware Corp., a construction business owned by Oscar Barber of Topping, is located near the end of the recently realigned Hummel Field runway and supervisors purchased the property to ensure that the land is part of Hummel.

The $300,000 for the land will be paid from the county’s fund balance, said Assistant County Administrator Betty Muncy in an answer to an email from the Sentinel.

Hummel Field was founded as an official Middlesex County airport in January 1970 when Fred E. Hummel and his wife Maria Jones Hummel gave 85 acres of land to the county and specified that it be used as a public airport.

Recently, the runway at Hummel was realigned so fewer planes fly over houses and the runway was lengthened to quiet concerns that the airstrip was too short for a public airport. At 2,200-feet it was one of the shortest public airstrips in the state of Virginia. The new realigned airstrip makes the runway 3,200 feet long.

Oscar Barber

The project happened primarily because of Barber. Over the years, Barber has been one of the main proponents of Hummel Field for decades. He managed the airport for the county in the 1980s. He has flown out of the airstrip as a menhaden spotter pilot, a crop duster, cargo hauler and charter pilot.

He encouraged the county to realign the airstrip; entered a public/private comprehensive agreement with the Virginia Department of Aviation (VDOA) and county; was project manager for the month-long runway overhaul that was completed on Sept. 6; and fronted the funding of the project. VDOA funded 80% of the $1.4 million cost of realignment; Barber paid the county’s 20% portion ($300,000); and gifted the county 8.5 acres next to the six acres the county has purchased. The deed for the 8.5 acres was filed in the courthouse on September 1. Barber fronted the $1.4 million, which 80% will be reimbursed to him by VDOA.

The project, done under the Public-Private Transportation Act (PPTA), is the first of its kind involving an airport in Virginia, said Mark Flynn at the Oct. 4 meeting, an attorney hired by the county to oversee legal aspects…