As if to punctuate its earlier decisions with a boldface exclamation point, the owners and governing board of Friedman Memorial Airport this week emphatically rejected any further talk of expanding the Hailey facility rather than seeking a new location for the future.
The three public groups—Hailey City Council, Blaine County Commission and Friedman Memorial Airport Authority—produced a 1,600-word newspaper advertisement declaring opposition to expanding Friedman. The ad, costing less than $2,000 and paid by the authority, appears in today's Mountain Express on Page B24 and in the Wood River Journal.
Although all members of the Hailey City Council and the airport board signed the ad, only two of the three county commissioners signed, Tom Bowman and Dennis Wright. Commission Chairwoman Sarah Michael did not.
"I took a look at the wording and it was a little stronger than I was comfortable with," Michael said Tuesday. "In principle, the board (county commission) says that expanding Hailey (airport) or locating it in the (Bellevue) Triangle are not options," which she said she agrees with.
She confirmed she originally agreed to sign the ad, but then withdrew.
The ad was unveiled Monday afternoon at the beginning of the Hailey council's regular meeting during a 45-minute segment in which the full text was read by Hailey Councilwoman Martha Burke, who chairs the Airport Authority. Questions from news reporters were then answered by Airport Authority member Len Harlig.
Although Harlig complimented area news media in their coverage of the dispute over whether and where to relocate Friedman, he said the ad was necessary because "too many confused speculations (are) circulating in our community" about the airport issue and the ad might "get information out in a cohesive manner."
The ad, Harlig said, purposely did not mention by name principal critics of the yearlong site selection study that just ended—Sun Valley Co. General Manager Wally Huffman, Ketchum real estate executive Dick Fenton and Ketchum mayoral candidate Maurice Charlat, all of them members of the site committee.
But the ad's text clearly had them in mind.
In a sub headline, the ad reads, "The Bellevue Triangle will not be the location of a new airport," an area favored by Huffman. It cited environmental prohibitions, the county's comprehensive plan and quality of life in the area.
The ad rejected suggestions from critics that safety and operational problems at Friedman could be solved at the present site. It states, "No rational business person would tie him/herself to a business site which is already too small and too dangerous to utilize in the present, and would be too small and dangerous to accommodate growth in the future.
"It is a failure-guaranteed business plan to put half the cost of a new facility into an existing facility that will be unable to expand to meet future needs and that already has many limitations ... "
The ad cites Friedman's mountainous terrain, inclement weather, small size (230 acres) and single runway as factors making a new location unavoidable.
In one of the obvious jabs at Huffman, who has claimed the area's economy would be "devastated" if a new airport is located south of Timmerman Hill, the ad says: "If it previously took six hours portal-to-portal to get to Sun Valley, no traveler's plans would change if it took six hours and 30 minutes because the airport was relocated south of Timmerman Hill."
A flatland area in Lincoln County south of Timmerman has been endorsed as a preferred site.
In his give-and-take with reporters, Harlig also alluded to the facetious suggestion heard during site selection meeting banter that maybe a new airport located on the Sun Valley Golf Course would be close enough to the resort.
The ad reviewed the Federal Aviation Administration's demand for compliance at Friedman to accommodate larger aircraft, as well as outlining FAA environmental and economic studies after the Airport Authority picks preferred sites.
"We are probably 10 years from opening any new airport, even if a decision on a new site was confirmed today. This lengthy time period will provide more than adequate time to assess any challenges of a new airport and to prepare for any future changes that will take place in aircraft design, airline viability and future passenger traffic to our area."
In a final assertion, the ad declared that "The present airport 'box' is broken and can't be fixed; as a community, we need to start thinking outside this 'box' and planning for our future."
After being shown the text of the ad and asked for comment, Fenton said: "It's unfortunate we're putting politics ahead of the decision-making process. It isn't that we should necessarily fix the existing airport or find a site in the Triangle, but doing our homework before making a decision."
This is "making the decision before the homework," he said. He acknowledged that a "distant site can be made to work, but we haven't addressed it."
