Island for that purpose. The project also received an appropriation of $500,000, paid for with taxes. One of the members of Hoover's Fact-Finding Committee objected because Middle Village was located at a higher elevation with less fog, while Barren Island was more frequently foggy during the spring and fall. However, Barren Island was already flat, so an airport located there would be ready for use in less time than an airport built on the hills of Middle Village. After the plan was approved, two airmail companies announced that they would not move their operations from New Jersey to Barren Island, because the airmail facilities at Newark International Airport were closer to Manhattan than the proposed Barren Island Airport was. Designs for the proposed Barren Island Airport were being solicited in 1927, even before the city had given its approval of the Barren Island site. By January 1928, the New York City Department of Docks had composed its own team to create plans for the airport. The future airport would be able to accommodate both airplanes and seaplanes. A "Jamaica Bay Channel" on the airport's east side would provide loading docks and hangars for seaplanes. The airplane hangars and an administrative building would occupy the northwest corner of the airport. Four runways would be built across the rest of the grass field. By fall 1928, the Department of Docks had published a more detailed plan that would theoretically allow the Barren Island Airport to get an "A1A" rating, the highest rating for an airport awarded by the United States Department of Commerce. This new plan called for two perpendicular concrete runways in a "T" shape, with one being long and the other being long. An administration building, fourteen hangars, and other maintenance facilities would be constructed on the west side of the airport, parallel to Flatbush Avenue. The rest of the airport would be a grass field. The Department of Docks was in charge of constructing the Barren Island Airport. The first contract for construction was awarded in May 1928. The $583,000 contract entailed filling in or leveling of soil across a parcel. Sand from Jamaica Bay was used to connect the islands and raise the site to above the high–tide mark. This contract was completed by May 1929. A subsequent contract for $75,000 involved filling in an extra of land, and was finished by the end of 1929. In order