Kalispell City Airport is not the domain of the rich and famous.
It’s used by local business people, search-and-rescue volunteers, hobby pilots and, local pilots argue, middle-class folks who depend on accessible runways for small aircraft.
They say they do their best to be good neighbors by keeping the skies quiet and the safety level high, by giving youth runway access to launch careers and lifetime hobbies.
And, aviation businesses here point out, they help give a pretty reasonable shot in the arm to Kalispell’s economic health.
“When Glacier Park International shut down (intermittently) in August,” said Jim Bob Pierce who owns Red Eagle Aviation, the fixed base operation at Kalispell City Airport, “people came here and said they really enjoyed it, getting out to the town. If you land at Glacier International you have three options on where you’re going to go. If you land at Kalispell you have one option.
“The people of Kalispell should embrace that,” said Pierce, who offers a courtesy van for pilots to run errands into town. “They have a captive audience where it guarantees that people who are coming here are going to be in Kalispell for sure.”
Yet airport supporters find themselves under fire from a group calling itself the Quiet Skies Committee, neighbors of the airport in south Kalispell whose quality of life, they say, is harmed by buzzing airplanes and the threat of plane crashes on city streets.
The neighborhood group staunchly opposes many points in a proposal to update the city airport.
One of its complaints is that ordinary citizens are not the airport users, that it’s a playground for wealthy out-of-towners.
“Most people are the middle class,” Pierce countered. “We rarely get any of the higher-income people.”
Dennis Lacy last year started Flathead Youth Aviation to help 12- to 18-year-olds see that, through work and persistence in refurbishing a couple planes that have been donated to the effort, they have a shot at launching an aviation future of their own. If he can do it, he figures, so can they.
“Aviation is thought of by non-pilots as a luxury,” Lacy said. “It’s a struggle financially for me to get in the cockpit. I’m a young pilot and I went with 12 people in a club to own a plane.”
Sharing the expenses, he said, has made it possible for him and other ordinary people to pursue a passion. And the municipal airport is the affordable option for many pilots needing to hangar a plane, fuel up, take off and land.
“One of the things about a (general aviation) airport is it’s the common man’s airport. You can get into an airplane for $20,000,” whereas a good pickup easily can cost $50,000,” pilot Scott Richardson pointed out. “It’s not cheap but … these guys make it sound like you’ve got to have $10 million in the bank and that’s just not the case.”
Richardson’s business, Page Northwest, is a stone’s throw off the north end of the airport property. His clients operate 911 emergency dispatch systems and public safety communications centers and the like. If he can’t hop into his 210-hp Mooney turbo and be at a client’s property on a moment’s notice, he’s out of the game.
“If the airport moved, it would significantly hurt my business,” he said, “both in revenue and response time … There’s a level of responsibility I have to fulfill” in fast response to a client’s need.
Richardson is the local representative for the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, acting as a liaison between the local community and the association.
He also sits on the Kalispell City Airport Advisory Council, the panel that provides feedback to Airport Manager Fred Leistiko and information to the city council as it has worked its way through airport recommendations since the first study in 1979.
“I deem the airport as being safe,” Richardson said, “but not up to current FAA standards.”
The Federal Aviation Administration will fund 95 percent of the cost of safety upgrades and other work if the city decides to expand it from a B-1 to a B-2 airport. In exchange, it asks for 39 assurances to guarantee its investment by having the city continue to run it as an airport. Those assurances expire in 20 years.
Work on runways, lighting, fencing, KGEZ Radio towers and acquiring land are on the list the city is considering.
“I think they’re going in the right direction,” Richardson said. “They’re trying to get the towers mitigated, they’re trying to proceed with updating the (environmental assessment).”
That update of the 2002 document is needed, he said, because it has been three years since “the last tangible progress” through buying land or making airport improvements. Opponents claim an entirely new EA process must be started.
Richardson is all for the democratic process, he said, and believes the Quiet Skies views should be heard.
“But their information is not accurate, responsible or correct. It’s about emotion, and I have a problem with that,” he said. “There’s no basis of fact.”
Opponents claim that a longer runway would bring in larger and louder jet traffic. They fear the engineer’s maximum recommendation for 4,700 feet — it’s 3,600 feet now — is exactly what the city intends to build.
“The city already recognized that they don’t want to have jet traffic. It could be added if needed in the future,” Richardson said. “But the FAA acknowledges that building a 3,600- to 3,700-foot-long runway would be the way to discourage larger craft … I’m looking at something between 3,700 and 4,200.
“I just can’t see people using this with jets when they’ve got Glacier down the road,” he said. “I want it safe, and a shorter runway, and keep the jets out. That’s what Glacier is for.”
Aircraft noise from touch-and-go training flights, and from general aviation planes taking off or landing over homes already is an issue. Pierce took neighbors’ complaints to heart.
“There was a complaint of consistent noise seven days a week, dawn to dark,” Pierce said. So he implemented a plan to restrict training flights from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday. At other times, training must go elsewhere.
“I even had a letter from (Quiet Skies co-founder) Steve Eckels a month or two ago, and he stopped in to see me to say thanks for the great improvement in noise,” Pierce said. “But he’s still complaining, so that’s a little confusing.”
Both noise and safety issues, Pierce noted, are addressed by a proposal to rebuild the runway farther south away from town.”
Leistiko, who was in the midst of council decisions on the airport’s future as he sat on the city council from 1999 to 2002, was hired in July 2005 as the airport manager.
He said the 1996 airport layout plan drawn up by Robert Peccia and Associates, with its recommendations on how to meet safety requirements and do noise abatement, was pivotal to today’s discussions.
“That’s what started the whole thing rolling,” Leistiko said. The FAA accepted the plan and pledged 95 percent funding if the city took those steps.
A tax increment district established the next year started an income stream. Also in 1997 the FAA recommended doing a feasibility and master plan study. It eventually led to the environmental assessment completed in 2002. That “ran out” in 2008, Leistiko said.
“You don’t have to do a complete new EA, you just have to update it,” he said. “You’ve got to go back to all the agencies and people to see if everything is still the same … Most will just say nothing has changed with me.”
Federal requirements for the update don’t include a new round of public hearings, “but we know we need to do one” to ease the political climate, he said.
Its a political climate that Mike Strand has been watching for years, since the day he opened Strand Aviation at the airport in 1965. He started with a Cessna 150 and a small flight school and expanded into a selling planes and helicopters, contracting for the U.S. Forest Service, doing air ambulance and air taxi work. Through Veterans Administration sponsorship he operated a program training veterans to fly.
After three decades he sold the business to Dave Hoerner who set up shop as Red Eagle Aviation, the business Pierce now runs.
Business demand was healthy, Strand recalled.
“Nobody was working very hard at generating flight schools,” he said, with students lined up for training. Kids, a Navy aviator, veterans — all from the Flathead — were his clients and eventually his friends. “It was the common, ordinary, everyday guy in town, lawyers, the grocery store owner.”
He’s a bit puzzled at the clamor against the airport today, particularly considering the economic impact it has.
“I really think it’s huge,” he said. He questions suggestions to relocate the airport a greater distance from town.
“You mean you want to tell you you’d force all that activity to go elsewhere? These people are not going to move out to a new airport. They’re just going to go away.”
To reach Leistiko, call 250-3065.
Pierce is managing a Web site at www.kalispellcityairport.com
For information on Lacy’s youth pilots program visit www.flatheadyouthaviation.org
Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com
More Coverage
- Meeting on Monday to launch discussion
- What should be done with the Kalispell City Airport?
- Expansion of Kalispell airport questioned
- Airport foes organize opposition
- Study gauges airport economic impact
- Meeting to address airport issues
- Public sounds off about city airport
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CAPT MIKE
THE LOCAL GENERAL AVIATION AIRPORT IS THE CHEAPEAST ONE MILE INVESTMENT IN PRIME ROAD SURFACE, TO ACCESS THE NATIONAL AIRSPACE SYSTEM THAT ANY COMMUNITY CAN MAKE.
PICTURE THIS: ROADS EAST AND WEST BLOCKED BY FIRE/WEATHER DEBRIS/BRIDGES OUT/WHATEVER/ROAD SOUTH BLOCKED, HOW WILL ANYONE OR NEEDED STAFF MAKE IT INTO/OUT OF TOWN?
THE LOCAL AIRPORT.
THINK, BEFORE YOU KILL WHAT YOU NEED.
CAPT MIKE MCKENNA, A FORMER VISITOR TO/IN GLACIER/KALISPELL.
Rebel Rouser
Build a pre-release center at one end of the airport and an indoor mall at the other, that way the criminals could walk to their new jobs. In the middle a community center with some outdoor park area. The criminals could do the maintenance. Win. win.
Partyer
When we get this resolved let's figure out a place to run our race cars and dirt bikes and rock crawlers and dragsters and mud boggers. There's a lot more recreational gearheads than fliers around here.
Oh, goodness. These two matters could all be resolved at once.
maxwell
Oh my Redbird82, should the city lay out the red carpet, have the Mayor give you the keys to the city? Red Eagle is a noise INCUBATOR. There's around 11 private runways around this valley, The incubator needs to be told to go out there or out to GPI. And you need to learn to fly a float plane, then you can land at hotels in Whitefish, Bigfork, Lakeside, Somers, and else where. Sorry the world does not evolve around you sir. Get a grip
redbird82
How can people buy a house next to an airport then later complain that airplanes make too much noise? It seems like an awfully selfish argument. Or maybe they can blame their realtor for failing to point out that airplanes and airports somehow go together?
Commercal aviation has a problem. If it weren't for outfits like Red Eagle training people with a dream of moving up the food chain into airline cockpits the pipeline of qualified applicants gets less and less robust. If the prospect of flying in an airliner operated by robots appeals to you, shutting down the pilot incubators like Red Eagle moves us that much closer.
Enhancements to the runway will turn the runway and relocate thresholds so aircraft will avoid city center and be higher during both arrivals and departures. Aside from the strings the Feds attach any time they return our tuel and ticket dollars to us, it should decrease noise concerns. See http://www.kalispellcityairport.com/ for more info.
Kalispell City Airport is unique because one can land, taxi to a Motel, tie down and get a room, then walk to a resturant, or rent a car and drive through Glacier Park, a rare combination of features in Montana and the region. When I take friends flying from Great Falls over the Rockies I make a point of landing at S27 for food, fuel and a night's stay.
Finally, there is the image that aviation is a rich person's sport: While it is possible to get into a $300,000 airplane with fuel and maintenance costs to match, most of those owners hang out at Glacier International. One can also get into a $15,000 airplane, burn autogas and do some of their own maintenance. Compare that to the combined value of new truck towing a Wells Cargo full of snowmobiles and my 41 hear old Cessna is a bargain.
Finally, there are some trips that are more economical by private aircraft than driving: I can get from Great Falls to Kalispell City in a bit over an hour on twelve gallons of fuel. Match that with your road warrior!
maxwell
What's wrong with this picture? Brand new airport, 75 foot wide 80 foot if you want, 4,700 foot long, hey 5,300 foot maybe, don't forget them small Jets. $15 million dollars availabile from F.A.A. New lighting, New taxi ways, New buildings, New approch lighting, No obstructions to fly around, Flight schools wanted, Charters wanted, maybe shuttle busness, U.P.S and FEDEX, Helos wanted, 160 plus acres to play with, Grants to help move busness and people. Land around it for hotels, resturants, gaming, Condo's for those who love the sound of aircraft, . And it's only 3.5 miles from down town Kalispell.
or
Stay where it's at, 3600 foot runway, no room to grow, town people non pilots limiting and telling you what you can and cannot do all the time, whining and griping about everything.Court battles, big possibility of losing the airport compleatly. Get your head out of the clouds boys, think for the future, don't be so narrow minded, focus on the horizon. You are the one's that are not trying to make this a win/win for all.
richpiney
Kalispell City is an awesome airport. It seems like every airport has a whiner, and it appears you may have more than your share. Next time you hear that airplane or helicopter overhead, look up and give thanks. Nearly everything you see is made in the U.S.A.! The more hours they fly, the more they need to worked on. Who works on them? Family men like me. I'm so thankful for Red Eagle Aviation. When their propellers need to be worked on, they don't send them overseas, or even out of state, they send them right down here to Stevensville. It creates a job for me to support my family. The impact Kalispell City airport has is huge! Distance yourself from the whiners and celebrate the sound of the North! The sound of freedom!
Pull your kids away from the T.V., throw away their phones, shut down their facebook site and bring them out to the airport, find some old codger with an airplane and let him teach them something of value! Let them learn to work with their hands. If you don't like living by an airport, you shouldn't, there's plenty of common folk out there that rush outside every time something flies over. What a beautiful sight, an airplane taking off or landing. Think of the engineering behind it, the labor, the jobs created. Think positive and learn to realize what a blessing that airport is.
alfredo
as a pilot i read this and would hope to have the airport be as it is and i do, but i also have to side with rebel rouser's comments about how small airports have changed their security...we need to grow some -you know whats- again and not be afraid of the what ifs and let the dad get his kid as close as he can on a saturday morning to those planes, gosh maybe the kid gets hungry and another restaurant has to open at the airport and then the lady at the desk might sell another shirt , oh and another person somewhere sees the shirt and ends up in that town that might sell more icecream, a town that saw at least one person i know born and end up keeping us from having to learn german when he flew 50 (yes the belle was famous for 25) missions on a b17, yes little kalispell did that, made a great man who passed away this year. part of that glorious generation who we now expect to take their shoes off at the airport with their beautiful white hair for all of us to notice and be embarrased for ...so lets 'grow some' and stop this nonosense, the same nonesense as moving close to an airport and then complain..yes if one outfit is louder than all, then do something about that one,but but not all..just like you dont ask all to take off shoes, just some, who cares if its like profiling..so what, we all live better if a few get checked.. i look dark and i will be the first to be ok with that.. so yes if the plane noise bugs you, move like you did here anyway, to a nice gated place where you can now complain about the weedwackers an leafblowers on tuesday mornings...'ooh did that landscaper look dark? lets have a meeting about that'....
thanks for reading, god bless this town
American Pilot
I'm not from the region but across the country. I just have a couple points that people may want to consider in their decision from a big picture point of view.
- Many small airports have disappeared across the country. In Europe this has gotten to the point where they talk about "the time when general aviation used to exist there...a very sad thing that it is gone today". Only the airlines really exist there now. To learn how to fly most come to America where there is still the spirit of adventure and freedom and where they haven't turned every town into the cookie cutter towns collective of streets, houses a mall and schools.
- The taxes that will be used to expand the airport are federal taxes already slated for airport expansions. Can go to yours or someone elses. It won't come out of your pocket. It's spent money.
- Once the airport is gone there is no bringing it back. There will just be a parking lot, park or something else which will be maintained by your local tax dollars.
- There are many young people in the Civil Air Patrol (12 to 18 years old) that look to these local airports to learn to fly and to stage search and rescue operations from.
- Aviation is a cool sport to get into and it is not as expensive as you might think. My son's SAT course cost me more than his flying lessons...remember don't kill this resource now because you cannot bring it back later.
- Finally the age old saying...."hey, you knew the airport was there when you moved in...can't complain about some airplane noise now." Anyway, I like the airplane noise... : )
- Remember when a group a people gang up on a particular group (aviation this time) and are able to rid it then eventually they will also be able to gang up on your group (insert your group here...can be hunting, gun ownership, whatever).
Good luck Montana, you live in a big beautiful state!
Regards,
An American Pilot
New Jersey
FightOrFlight
Red Eagle is the LAST of three flight schools remaining at S27. The 1970s and
1980s had 5 times the amount of training flights, Mountain West ran three helicopters,
Strand ran two or three helicopters, then plus there were more fixed wing trainers then, too.
So enter a few vocal folks tired of living by the airport. Judging from the public meeting last night, most of these folks came LONG after the airport was here and moved in knowing full well where it was and what it was.
Red Eagle, Strand, Stockhill and other flight instructors have given risen to thousands of Montana or import kids who trained there and went to successful vocations and avocations in aviation. Air Force and Airline pilots, EMS pilots, and many more started their dreams at our local airport. It was brought out last night the the first hospital helicopter air ambulance in the US, Alert was homegrown right on the edge of City Airport. We all put up that noisy red sled because it has saved lives, over and over and over again. Now it is based in the middle of town at KMRC and it is about the single most noisy aircraft in the county, save the old Hueys from the Viet Nam era rattling around to put out fires or rescue lost hikers and hunters. But we need them all.
These pilots all came from hometown airports like City and the benefits they bring entirely out weight the whining of a few folks thinking they have a chance to shut down this airport with mis-information and their own noise.
If you witness that one pilot out of thousands that is flying like a drunk sailor and causing your peace to be disturbed... go out there and punch him out or call the rest of us safety and neighborhood friendly pilots and WE will go out there and kick his but.
Flovilla
Dizzle, taking a flight lesson and desire to learn to fly are not the problem. Most in this valley can not afford to become a pilot, let alone rent, lease or purchase a plane.
maxwell
It's sad but true, the ATTITUDES of the pilots and the only one or two so called busness at the airport are shutting them selfs down. The people of Kalispell would not be complaining so much if it wasn't for Red Eagle being out there. All there touch and go's and helocopters have made such a ruckus. I say no to F.A.A. expansion and remove Red Eagle from there and leave the airport as it is, just for small piper cubs type of aircraft and get a better airport manager, all will be fine. That tiny minority can move to another airstrip out of town, we got about a dozen of them. Red Eagle is the nosiey one, get them out, people will stop complaining.
TheDizzle
DavidS, the "tiny minority" you speak of could become no minority at all with that attitude. Small local airports such as Kalispell's are what keep the aviation industry alive... and with well trained pilots flying the behemoths that pass over the whole town everyday just to land at Glacier! Go take a flight lesson, and tell me you want it shut down then.
DavidS
The truth is the Kalispell airport has always been an eyesore and a noisy and ugly blight on the southern portion of the city. It's a relic of a past long gone but still squats there like an ugly carbuncle. Shut it down and put it to some better use that serves the entire community rather than a tiny minority.
Sky Ranger
What about the "common man" on the ground? Don't we get a say?
Most of the residents of the south side of Kalispell are common men
and women and we're the ones who have to listen to the common men
pilots. I would venture to guess there are more commoners on the ground than
in the air.....
cuzican
I think the others before me have said pretty much all their is to say and I agree with most of it. Except Golden, you are so far out in left field it doesn't deserve the time it would take to point out all the bullsh*t in your post.
As I've said before, the airport is a big flat expanse of land that could be easily converted to a parkinlot even if just a grass lot.....Legend stadium is just a stone's throw away from the airport and has a serious parking problem. Do the math here, I shouldn't have to point out the obvious.
traum2
I am not a pilot. I am a home owner in the city limits of Kalispell. I just want to be able to enjoy my property without listening to airplanes and helicopters flying over all day long. It is not possible for the pilots to be good neighbors because they cannot control the aircraft noise. They have tried. At least the say they have tried. The noise is not acceptable on any level. At the meeting tomorrow night, I hope the airport officials have actual numbers to prove all the dollars they claim to bring in. I question their figures.
Rebel Rouser
Golden, your argument is specious, bordering ridiculous. 1. We should all pay for education because we all benefit from it. 2. The fire dept. keeps house fires from spreading throughout the community (we all use it). 3. The library is part of the education process for our community members (however, I agree here). 4. What weed control? (this is just a bureaucratic rip off). 5. Our law enforcement system could be better, but we all need it (INCLUDING YOU). Now, tell me how you and I (personally) benefit from this airport and or the expansion? Aviation is NOT a new technology. I would support the airport if it was beneficial to the community, not just another scam from the City of Kalispell.. Most of the businesses don't contribute as much as a new mall would or maybe an industrial center. We, the citizens of Kalispell deserve to be represented fairly, not just a few who benefit from all of our tax dollars. RE: Page Northwest, I don't see why they can't use the new airport or operate out of GPI. No matter what happens tax payers are NOT going to be fairly represented by the council, they have too many flyboy buddies to consider.
Golden
I agree. I don’t use the runway so why should I pay for it!! I don’t have children in school and those parents that do should foot the bill for education and not the rest of us. The homes that burn should pay for fire departments. I don’t use the Library I read online so why should I pay for a new library? Why do I pay a tax for weed control? I don’t break the law so why should I be taxed for law enforcement and jails? Now if we are going to throw away a fantastic technologies such as aviation. I think you should also do your part and throw away another technology and throw out your computer.
Sky Ranger
Many of us have no problem with the airport. We have concerns about the expansion and the way flight schools practice over our heads. The following assurances and survey questions tell the story.
This is a response to the article about the city airport being the “common man’s airport”.
Readers should be reminded that the public assurances have been rejected by the federal government because they are not compatible with the contract for the proposed expansion. The city to date has nobody able or willing to sign the assurances either. Why? We are still waiting for the survey information to be revealed.
Public Assurances:
This document is a draft Government Resolution that states the city, county and federal officials are willing to assure the following citizen protections.
Failure to sign the document means that the city, county and federal governments are not able to assure these protections.
The City, County and Federal Aviation Administration assures the public:
1. The expansion of the airport will result in noise that is equal to or less than the current amount of noise. The city will re-draft the “airport affected zone” to reflect the anticipated noise reduction, before any further steps are taken towards expansion/realignment.
2. The expansion of the airport will result in greater safety to people on the ground.
3. The expansion of the airport will not have a negative affect on Kalispell’s "charm factor" or property values.
4. In the event of a crash, the city and federal government will reimburse people on the ground for damage or injury. The city will maintain a humanitarian emergency fund of one million dollars for this purpose. Why should people on the ground be responsible for accidents that they have nothing to do with?
5. The city will generate money from the airport in the form of reasonable take off and landing fees. The money will be reinvested in the airport-affected zone to upgrade neighborhoods. (There is a fee to use the Buffalo Hill Golf Course. Why should we not charge a fee for the use of the airport?) There would be a city office and staff person at the airport to collect fees and answer telephone complaints. The airport office will be staffed by a city official during airport operations.
6. The city will restrict or eliminate flight training over the city limits, including helicopters and any touch-and-go flights. Snowmobiles and cigarette smoking are illegal in public spaces – the airspace belongs to the federal government (public). Lost revenues will be recovered through take off and landing fees.
City Airport Informational Survey
1. Number of year-round Kalispell resident/piolots who use the city airport:
A. Business
Names; Addresses
B. Other
Names; Addresses
2. Number of year-round city airport pilots who are NOT Kalispell residents:
A. Business
Names; Addresses
B. Other
Names; Addresses
3. City in which the owner of Red Eagle Aviation resides:
4. Estimated revenue that could be generated by charging reasonable take-off and landing fees to non-residents, tourists, etc.:
5. Number and names of year round pilots who live in the “airport affected zone”.
pnaMT
The city airport is not relevant or beneficial to most city residents, and taxpayer money shouldn't be used to expand it. As a west side homeowner, I would also oppose a user financed expansion because of noise and safety issues.
maxwell
What is this? A big joke? We the tax payers are to fund 15 million dollars to make sure we have a flight school out there. Oh, and to keep a airplane mechanic employeed, and god forbid someone will have to drive a few miles to get in there 20 to 30 thousand dollar personal aircraft. I asked for proof of how many people fly in there a year and spend money in our town. NO ONE, has any records or proof of that. All this is for is a bunch of Jocks that want there own way and for us to pay for it. Some call it "the well to do's welfare".
Thanks Daily Inter Lake, you run front page, second page and third page story from people on favoring the airport, but not one from the people that are making the headlines for you to sell your paper. Hope to see something in Monday Mornings paper, front page.
Farmer31
Why don't we have all of the "local," airport users pay for the upgrades out of their own pockets? As for the FAA involvement and funds, I say no to goverment control. There is absolulty no need to expand this airport and give it B2 status. Use local airport fees if there are any and make the improvements needed to keep saftey a high prioirity. There is no need to expand the airport runway length. A longer runway and upgraded airport will definitely mean more airplanes and larger airplains! I don't know in any case where the federal goverment has supplied funds to something with nothing in return. We were lucky in those instances where planes have fell out of the sky into our neigborhoods or across our old baseball fields. Are we going to be as lucky when a larger airlpaine full of jet fuel hits that church or school? This is not an issue just for South Kalispell residences! This is an issue for all residents in Kalispell. Do your children go to Flathead High? Will they go to Flathead High? Do you attend track meets or football games at Legends Field? You are in the flight path! As for locals using this airport, last time I checked Mr. Pierce, Bigfork is not in Kalispell. Next time you get up at a local board meeting follow the rules and state your residential address. I do live in Kalispell, the airplanes do fly over my home. I feel my comments as a resident of this city outweigh yours.
Rebel Rouser
"giving youth runway access to launch careers and lifetime hobbies" this is almost an outright lie! In the past (before Fred) the airport WAS accessible to the community, however, Fred came out to the airport and made it a very unfriendly place (to all except the elite) and inaccessible to the rest of us. NO more photographing the planes flying by, NO more stopping by to talk with the pilots, NO more access to future pilots curious about airplanes, DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT LOOKING AT THE AIRPLANES UP CLOSE, NO more skydivers jumping in town, NO more glider rides for the community (or the glider club), NO more overnight campers (for air travelers), NO more access period!!! If you think this exclusive, gated (with razor wire) airport is for the "common man" you must be an elitist with a membership pass. Do you think we are all ignorant? Let me help you with this perception, the "common man" should not be supporting this airport (AT ALL) with their tax dollars because it is NO LONGER accessible to him or her. Fred made it clear, YOU ARE NOT WELCOME!!!
absenteemontanan
Richardson’s business, Page Northwest, is a stone’s throw off the north end of the airport property. His clients operate 911 emergency dispatch systems and public safety communications centers and the like. If he can’t hop into his 210-hp Mooney turbo and be at a client’s property on a moment’s notice, he’s out of the game.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME? DOES HE LAND ON THE ROOF OF THE 911 CENTER? THE ENTIRE STATEMENT IS A JOKE...RIGHT? THE CITY AIRPORT MAY BE GOOD OR IT MAY BE BAD BUT THIS IS NOT A CONSIDERATION
Flovilla
While I agree a small city airport is an asset, it is certainly not a "common man's airport".
What percentage of residents can actually afford to won or lease a plane? How about flight school? My bet is it is a very small percentage of year round valley residents. An airplane is a luxury most can not afford and it is a waste of taxpayer money to expand the airport.