The Planning Board's search for an airport site had been prompted by an announcement from Washington, DC that Congress had appropriated funds for the building of a system of airports throughout the country. There was, among other problems, however, one restriction. The land for an airport site, to be acceptable to the federal government, had to be publicly owned. The ideal site which these men had spotted on the map was part of the holdings of the Paul Smith's Electric Company. Since no other tract of suitable terrain was to be found within a radius of some , the whole effort might have bogged down but for the public-spirited cooperation of the Paul Smith's Electric Company which, in the interests of regional development, immediately deeded the tract to the Town of Harrietstown without cost.