Scotland County's beleaguered airport is eyeing the Department of Defense as a possible cash cow in its quest for a refurbished runway as the Base Realignment and Closure looks to bring tens of thousands to the area.

The Laurinburg-Maxton Airport has set up a meeting with Paul Dordal, executive director of the Fort Bragg and Pope Air Force Base BRAC Regional Task Force, for Jan. 14 in hopes of finding more money for the runway project, which could cost as much as $20 million.

The local air base has the worse runway in the state, according to recent rankings by the North Carolina Division of Aviation.

Airport Director JoAnn Gentry says the visit was the brainchild of Daniel Sheehan of Washington lobbying group Marlowe and Co. as a means of raising capital from the U.S. military to upgrade the airport.

Gentry hopes the visit accomplishes more than looking for runway funding.

"We want him to look at our facility and see that we have a lot of vacant land," Gentry said. "Not only are we looking for funding for the refurbishing of the main runway, we would like for them to build buildings here."

She is hoping to see military suppliers locate to Laurinburg-Maxton to be closer to Fort Bragg.

Gentry said the meeting was hard to set up and will be brief.

"He is a really, really busy man," Gentry said.

However, airport officials believe the two-hour meeting will be productive

"(Dordal said that) we need a vision for this airport," Gentry said. "We need to see where we want this airport in five and 10 years."

She hopes he'll be able to help with that vision.

"(Dordal is) going to talk to us about the economic development of the airport," Airport Engineer Dave Raley said. "He's going to talk to us some about upgrading the runway."

Also at the meeting will be Reps Larry Kissell and Mike McIntyre and officials from the engineering firm W.K. Dickson

Kissell said the airport is important to the region and hopes to see it through successfully.

"The airport is a great asset as we try to bring more economic development to this region," Kissell said. "Having this type of infrastructure already in place makes it easier to showcase what the region has to offer.

"We are still working hard to see the airport get federal funding, specifically through an appropriation we requested earlier this year."