The Friedman Memorial Airport citizens site selection committee was not "fired," airport authority chair Martha Burke took pains to explain at the board's monthly meeting Thursday night, July 7.
She said any such interpretation was a misunderstanding.
However, Burke conceded that the group of 25 principals and 25 alternates representing various civic, government and business interests in Blaine, Camas ands Lincoln counties as well as the state of Idaho had completed its official mission and probably would not be needed as a full group in the future.
At its last meeting, the site group selected three potential sites out of an ordinal list of 16 for a possible new airport -- one near Fairfield in Camas County, one north of Shoshone in Lincoln County and another largely on Bureau of Land Management land in southern Blaine County.
An appeal from Jim Latta, president of the Sun Valley/Ketchum Chamber and Visitors Bureau to keep the group in regular session was taken under consideration. The chamber has been a source of ongoing opposition to any site too distant from the present Friedman.
He said the committee involved "lots of people who can add value to the process" of studying whether a new airport should be built.
In a June 13 letter to members of the site group, Burke thanked them for their service, and added:
"The authority board is seeing indications and believes that at this time the interest of many participants will wane as the subject matter or relevance to their stakeholder body diminishes."
She wrote that "the board does anticipate convening a smaller group in an advisory capacity at a later date to discuss and provide input with regard to future and more specific site selection process milestones."
Authority member Len Harlig pointed out that only three representatives on the site committee had responded with an interest in continuing the committee's activities.
Opponents and supporters appeared at the meeting with their continued testimonials.
Mayor David Hanks of Fairfield implored the authority to delay any final decisions on a preferred site. He said he believes Camas County has more supporters for an airport there than has been indicated.
He said he's "tired of East Camas residents with their big shot lawyers" expressing opposition. The lawyers to which Hanks alluded are from an 800-member California firm, one of whom apparently has personal ties to Camas County.
But Camas resident Marshall Ralph said a lengthy document from the lawyers outlining why the Camas site should not be picked has resulted in homeowners "knowing a lot more" about the potential problems of an airport.
