An area three miles inside Lincoln County, south of the Blaine County line and east of state Highway 75, was approved Tuesday for study as a possible site for a new airport serving the Wood River Valley.
However, the Friedman Memorial Airport Authority took pains at its monthly meeting to tiptoe around referring to the location as a new "site" to be studied.
The board feared it would be accused of adding a new site after voting at its last meeting to confine further studies to sites 12 and 13, and 8, 9 and 10, and thus open up demands for studies of other possible sites not included in the original list of 16.
Instead, the board's five members agreed that the northern Lincoln County locale is part of an "area" of sites to be studied—that is, sites 8, 9 and 10—and qualified as part of the study area.
The sites currently under review are located in the following areas:
· 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.
· 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.
Broadening the search came after a surprise and unannounced appeal Tuesday by Larry Schoen, a Picabo-area farmer and rancher who is a member of the Blaine County Planning and Zoning Commission.
Schoen argued for a study of the Lincoln County area because it is mostly flat terrain on private land that could be easily obtained. He said it also is near water, adjacent to a major highway and close to available utility services. In addition, it is closer to labor markets than other sites under condition.
The approximately 1,000 acres is a few miles south of sites 8 and 9 and, like them, would afford construction of an east-west runway, which Friedman's consultants, Mead & Hunt, prefer. Because of terrain obstructions, site 10 would require a northwest-southeast runway alignment.
Three persons own land in the area, but could not be immediately contacted by the Express for verification of their interest in selling the acreage for an airport.
However, Lincoln County deputy assessor Linda Jones told the Express that acreage in that area is generally assessed in three categories: $250 per acre for irrigated agriculture; $220 per acre for irrigated pasture and $27 per acre for dry land.
Schoen's presentation came after Tara Hagen and Andy Payne of the BLM's Shoshone Field Office outlined a complicated and tedious approval process required by the Bureau of Land Management if either sites 8, 9 or 10 were eventually designated, since the land is managed by BLM.
Schoen stressed that no such time-consuming process would be involved for private land.
Except for some apparent initial hesitancy by authority chairwoman Mary Ann Mix, the board eventually was unanimous in approving a study by airport consultants.
In urging a study, authority member Len Harlig said his concern was that the best areas be selected, and not overlook or ignore any potential locale.
Three members of the citizens site selection committee attending the authority meeting—Steve Garman, owner of a jet charter service at Friedman Memorial, Mike Rasch, general manager of Sun Valley Aviation and Susan Cutter, representing the city of Sun Valley—each agreed a close look at the area was justified.
Cutter added a grim spin to her support. She said having an airport next to a major highway would provide faster emergency services to an accident on the airport.
The area suggested by Schoen is about the same distance from the Wood River Valley's resort activities as site 13, which is just east of Fairfield alongside east-west U.S. 20 in Camas County.
Site 13 became suddenly more attractive when actor and part-time Hailey resident Bruce Willis offered more than 1,000 acres for an airport at no cost. Willis also operates the nearby Soldier Mountain ski area leased from the U.S. Forest Service.
Resistance to site 13, however, is developing in Camas County, Schoen said, whereas people in Lincoln County would welcome an airport in their backyard.
And what of the site selection committee's sharpest critic against placing a new airport outside a comfortable driving distance to the valley, Wally Huffman, general manager of the Sun Valley Resort?
Huffman said Wednesday he still favors a regional airport around Shoshone or north of Jerome that would be more likely to attract long-route airline service by drawing on a larger market, including Twin Falls.
"I don't believe Fairfield (as a site) is sustainable economically or would it sustain commuter air service. It would be insane to think trunks (major airlines) would serve Fairfield," Huffman said.
The wrong site, Huffman said, would "set back the Valley economically forever."
Authority attorney Barry Luboviski told the Express that two counties could sign agreements to operate an airport. But a "regional airport," in the legal sense, is far more complicated.
Luboviski said his recollection of the state statute is that it requires approval by voters in multiple counties, election of representatives to govern the facility and other special funding agreements.
