Habersham Airport Commission Clears Final ROFA Design Order, but Grading Timeline Remains Unknown

Habersham County’s Airport Commission unanimously approved Lead Edge Design Group Task Order #11 on May 14, 2024, authorizing construction-phase design services for ROFA Grading Improvements at the county airport. Approved minutes describe the order as the final task order for ROFA work performed from March 1 through March 29, 2024; they record a motion, a second and a unanimous vote.

The decision matters because construction-phase design can move an airport project from planning toward work on the ground. Yet the commission’s approval answered a narrower question than whether grading would occur: residents and airport users still do not know the order’s amount, the anticipated construction schedule or whether the underlying ROFA improvements ultimately advanced beyond this design-services step.

The matter first appeared publicly on the commission’s May 14 agenda, which listed Task Order #11 for review and recommendation. That agenda entry did not itself settle the matter. Later in the same regular meeting, the commission approved the Lead Edge order unanimously, converting a scheduled item into an authorized construction-phase design task.

The Airport Commission acted as the public decision-maker, approving the order without a recorded dissent in the approved minutes. Lead Edge Design Group is the firm named in the task order and would provide the construction-phase design services. The agenda framed the item for commission review and recommendation; neither that agenda nor the minutes excerpt records public comments or competing positions on the grading work.

Task Order #11’s approval is complete, rather than a proposal awaiting a vote. The record confirms authorization for the specified design services, not the start or completion of grading. The reviewed records do not state the task order amount, construction schedule or completion date, and they do not establish whether the broader ROFA project was later changed, built or finished.

The next public checkpoint would be a later Airport Commission agenda or approved minutes, or a contract or project document, showing whether the design work led to construction, an amendment or completion. Until then, the unresolved questions are the budget, timing and on-the-ground outcome of the ROFA Grading Improvements—not whether the commission approved this particular task order.