Three controversial sites in the Bellevue Triangle listed as possible locations for a new airport appear to be "toast," following a meeting Tuesday of a citizens advisory committee.
The focus for a potential location now shifts to five sites that the Friedman Memorial Airport Authority will order more intense study by consultants to see which, if any, would pass critical tests.
The sites under review include:
· No. 13, along U.S. 20 just inside the Camas County line, approximately 10 miles east of Fairfield.
· No. 12, along U.S. 20 just inside the Blaine County line about 13 miles east of Fairfield.
· No. 8, 9 and 10, all south of U.S. 20 and east of state Highway 75, between 6 to 9 miles south of Timmerman Junction. However, sites 8 and 9 are being regarded as nearly one site because of their proximity to the Lincoln County line.
The apparent elimination of sites No. 3, 4 and 5 inside the Bellevue Triangle, south of Bellevue between Highway 75 and Gannett Road, didn't come easily. However, the decision won't be formalized until the Dec. 7 meeting of the airport authority board, according to authority chair Mary Ann Mix.
The citizens airport site selection committee found itself besieged Tuesday night, Nov. 16, by a standing room-only crowd of Bellevue Triangle property owners and residents, who alternately applauded or booed suggestions and deliberations during an occasionally raucous two-hour-and-35 minute meeting that finally designated the sites for more intense evaluation.
At times, the committee's work seemed to meander as it took several straw votes with different objectives, couldn't decide whether to allow public comment during the committee's deliberations, and argued about whether criteria used by consultants were sufficiently broad enough for the committee to accurately evaluate sites.
The Bellevue Triangle sites have been especially controversial. When they showed up on a consultants' map of 16 sites, triangle residents immediately organized into formidable opposition.
They held a mass meeting at the O'Gara ranch last week and turned out in force for the site committee's meeting.
But if elimination of the triangle sites and focus on the other sites pleased the south county audience, it did not please Sun Valley Resort general manager Wally Huffman, who announced he still preferred site No. 3 or something closer to Sun Valley. That promptly touched off a chorus of boos.
Huffman, the committee's most outspoken opponent to airport sites more than a 25-minutes drive time from the resort, also tangled with authority chair Mix at one point.
Setting aside discussion of the sites, Huffman said he questioned the propriety of Mix and other members of the authority at the meeting having the right to cast straw votes for sites, then in effect later voting as authority members on their own recommendations. Three other airport authority members present Tuesday night were Hailey Mayor Susan McBryant, Hailey Councilwoman Martha Burke and Len Harlig, a former county commissioner. Member Ron Fairfax, a Ketchum dentist, did not attend.
"I'm not sure why they're involved" in the meeting, Huffman asserted, referring to the authority members.
"We're stakeholders" in the airport study, Mix said, explaining she's a county commissioner as well as an airport official.
Huffman testily waved off Mix.
"I know what you're opinion is," he said, adding, "I'm not sure I even care."
Huffman also took aim at delegates from Camas County, saying he was opposed to "Camas County having so much representation" on the site committee.
"They have a motivation to get the airport moved to their county," Huffman said.
That drew a quick response from another advisory member, Bellevue City Councilman Eric Allen, who turned to look at Huffman sitting three chairs away, saying:
"I don't object to Camas (representatives). They have interests, just like you," the last words dripping with sarcasm.
But the testy exchanges weren't over.
Huffman took another tack. "I'd like to discuss why this group feels so strongly about their sites, and they should hear why I feel strongly. But that's not happening."
Mix promptly jumped in. "We did that at the last meeting" of the site committee, she said, and clearly emphasized, "You weren't there."
Then, sarcastically, Huffman countered: "Let's just pick a site and give it to the board. We don't need 18 months" of deliberation to select a site.
Huffman has insisted that the present airport, or a new one slightly farther south of Hailey, should be selected to avoid drive times that discourage airlines from serving the Wood River Valley region.
But Mead & Hunt consultant Tom Schnetzer repeated that Friedman Memorial doesn't meet safety standards required by the Federal Aviation Administration.
Board member McBryant coldly reminded Huffman and the committee that to satisfy the FAA, some 70 residences in Hailey's Woodside area adjoining Friedman would have to be razed to relocate Highway 75 eastward to allow for runway expansion and relocation. She said that is politically impossible.
Schnetzer said that as studies continue, consultants will be sensitive to the distance factor. He said officials of Friedman's two air carriers, Horizon and SkyWest airlines, have made it clear that if passenger traffic dropped off because of distance of a new airport from the valley, they would be forced to review their air service.
"A new airport will be good for the community," conceded Horizon director of airport affairs Ken Stevens, a member of the site committee, "but not necessarily for Horizon."
Drive times from the sites to be studied further, based on estimates of consultants, are more than twice the 25-minute time from the present Friedman—67 minutes from site No. 8; 61 minutes from site No. 9; 55 minutes from site No. 10; 62 minutes from site No. 12, and 67 minutes from site No. 13.
The airlines, consultant Schnetzer said, also are concerned that any site farther west might encourage potential passengers to drive past the airport and continue to Boise for travel arrangements.
