It all seems simple enough.

Mayor Frank Picozzi doesn’t want 73-foot long trailer trucks on Main Avenue, Post Road or Coronado Road, which would deter from the pedestrian friendly environment envisioned for residential developments in City Centre.

The Rhode Island Airport Corporation that has started on construction of air cargo facilities south of the terminal said as of Thursday in a memorandum of agreement (MOU) that it would have the ground freight traffic access and egress from the Airport Connector. In addition, RIAC said it would build a berm along the south end of the cargo complex as a noise barrier to area homeowners south of Strawberry Field Road. In exchange for those guarantees, RIAC expects the city to drop its appeal to the FAA for a review of its approval of the air cargo project and to grant rights of way to three city streets that are on the site for the noise barrier.

Seemingly, that answers the mayor’s concerns and gets RIAC what it wants.

That’s not the case.

Picozzi views the MOU drafted by RIAC as hollow promises since it is contingent on funding and board approvals. At any point, he reasons, RIAC could declare a connector to the Airport Connector and the sound wall too expensive and not follow through with the projects.

It’s a risk he’s not willing to take.

“There is no promise at all, no commitment,” Picozzi said Tuesday of the MOU drafted by RIAC. “It’s totally unacceptable.” As of Tuesday he had not heard from the airport corporation.

This essentially leaves the parties at a place they have been for months.

Making the issue all the more contentious, RIAC announced earlier this month it is eliminating $500,000 in annual payments for services rendered by the city as directed in a recent Federal Aviation Administration audit. Auditors found the city was not delivering the equivalent of $500,000 in fire services to the airport. Fire services were the primary service even though the audit form listed law enforcement and other services including payment in lieu of taxes or PILOT.

The FAA audit report suggests the state should reimburse the city for tax revenues lost because of the airport.

The state doesn’t want to hear that.

The payments and air cargo ground traffic were on the agenda for a meeting with Governor Dan McKee last Wednesday. RIAC canceled, saying the matter of the MOU would be handled by their attorneys. On Friday, Picozzi received the MOU which he called “a joke.”

At a breakfast meeting with Beacon staff Friday, House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi, who has been following developments, expressed frustration that while the city and RIAC agree on what’s the best air cargo traffic plan, “for some reason, they can’t seem to complete it. No one has said they don’t want that. No one said they won’t do that. But why is there fighting?”

Shekarchi believes the city did the right thing in requesting or requiring the traffic use the connector.

“I think the airport did the right thing in agreeing to do it. Why they’re still bickering over this, I don’t know. Why it’s still an issue, I don’t know.”

Shekarchi said it makes sense to have a healthy airport for the state economy, “but we also should protect the City of Warwick.”

Shekarchi isn’t happy with FAA’s directive to RIAC to cease PILOT payments to the city. As a Warwick legislator, it’s a no win for him; either the city has a $500,000 hole in its budget or the state needs to find the funds.

He and Mayor Picozzi think RIAC should appeal the directive.

Since the adoption of an airport master plan less that three years ago the concept of development south of the terminal has transformed from a site for possible corporate hangers to a 50,000 square foot cargo building to a facility offering 300,0000 square feet capable of accommodating up to eight large jets when fully built out.