Editor's note: Members of the Friedman Memorial Airport Authority, with Hailey city leaders and two of three Blaine County commissioners, published this week in local newspapers a full-page display advertisement that states their position on the proposed relocation of the airport. The advertisement, printed on Page 5 of this edition of the Idaho Mountain Express and Page B24 of the July 27 edition, states that Friedman will not be expanded and a new airport will have to be located somewhere other than Hailey or the Bellevue Triangle. A news article in the July 27 Mountain Express summarized a response to the ad by Sun Valley Co. General Manager Wally Huffman, a frequent critic of the airport site-selection process. Here is Huffman's full response to the Airport Authority's statement. (An article on the response to Huffman by Hailey Mayor Susan McBryant appears here.)
By WALLY HUFFMAN
Sun Valley Co. General Manager
The Friedman Memorial Airport Authority, through the FAA, paid $1 million to consultants Mead & Hunt to do a study to pick an alternative site. As a fundamental part of this study, the new site was to be evaluated against the existing site by the FMAA prior to finalizing the selection process. Some participants in the process, including me, doubted that this would occur in an objective manner. Can there be any doubt now that there never was an intention on the part of the FMAA to objectively do that analysis?
The FMAA is dominated by the Hailey city officials and their appointees and decisions are driven by politics in the city of Hailey. The officials of the city of Hailey have every right to take a position on whether or not they want the airport in their town. It comes as no revelation that they do not and we should all respect that opinion. I have argued to them that the economic consequences of moving the airport to another county will be devastating to the tourist economy. The Hailey officials have not been impressed by this argument. This is also their right, which I respect. However, I will continue to make this argument for their benefit and for the benefit of all the county residents for the duration of the process.
Unfortunately, at this point the process is fatally flawed. The FMAA is dominated by the Hailey politic. The FMAA has decided to move the airport out of Blaine County. It seems logical that while the officials of Hailey have a right to their opinion whether the airport should be in their town, the decision to relocate it anywhere else in Blaine County or another county should be done by an authority that represents Blaine County's interests. It makes little sense for the officials of Hailey to have any more input to this question than the officials of Sun Valley, Ketchum, Carey or Bellevue, or the county commissioners. It would make much more sense for a coalition of the municipalities and the county officials to address this issue. All of the residents and property owners of Blaine County should be equally represented. And only Blaine County residents and property owners should be represented. Elected officials from all municipalities should be represented so that if the electorate doesn't appreciate their decisions then there is a remedial review at the ballot. The officials of the FMAA are appointed, not elected, and do not serve a constituency, except in this case an overwhelming bias to the politic of Hailey.
Sun Valley has always respected the position of the Hailey officials. At the start of the relocation process, I stated that I would not oppose a relocation site within 25 miles of the resort. This is roughly north of the Timmerman Pass. No analysis has been accomplished to date to determine if any of the environmental consequences would occur in the Bellevue Triangle. Any relocation of the airport within Blaine County would:
· Be in contravention of the comprehensive plan,
· Would require changing the county's zoning ordinances,
· Would have no more devastating effects on the quality of life of the present and future residents of the area than moving the entire airport to another county and leaving the area with no substitute air service, and:
· No environmental analysis exists for these statements and they must be accepted only as opinion. They may prove to have substance, but the reality is that the residents of the Triangle have scared the FMAA out of doing their due diligence on this matter.
If the FMAA has ruled out any possible site in Blaine County for a relocated airport, do they not have a responsibility to tell the people of Blaine County exactly what improvements would be necessary to bring Friedman into C-III compliance? The FMAA may be right in their assessment that expansion might have too great an impact, but shouldn't we all know the real facts, given the lack of reasonable alternatives?
And finally, who will pay for the relocation of the airport? And what will it cost? Do the citizens of Blaine County have a right to know this and how it will impact them—before the final decision is made?
