The persistent question about costs of a possible new airport versus costs of expanding Friedman Memorial Airport in Hailey will be a centerpiece agenda item at a special public meeting of the Airport Authority on Sept. 28.
The location of the meeting will be announced soon.
The airport's two consultants, Mead & Hunt and Toothman-Orton, have been compiling data for several months.
At issue is a meeting that was to be held in June but was postponed because of deadline projects facing the Friedman staff and consultants, including completing paperwork for construction of a new safety area at the south end of Friedman's runway. That project will begin this fall and continue well into 2006.
The meeting is being scheduled after the three-day mid-September visit of the Dalai Lama. The event, with the anticipated arrival of corporate jets bearing CEOs invited to meet the spiritual leader, is expected to tax airport operations.
The delay also will allow groups in Camas and Lincoln counties to gauge public sentiment for a new airport in their areas, as well as Blaine County interests to express their sentiments. A site near Fairfield in Camas County and a site north of Shoshone in Lincoln County were among three sites preferred by an airport site selection committee, which also designated a site in southern Blaine County.
Friedman Memorial covers 230 acres. If a new airport is planned, the tentative vision is for a field located on 600 to 1,200 acres that include a buffer zone to prevent encroachment of real estate development, possibly with two runways.
A cost of $80 million to $100 million has been mentioned.
