Friday, February 10, 2006

FAA pledges $50 million to new airport

Site feasibility plan lists construction, operating costs


By PAT MURPHY
Express Staff Writer

Apparently satisfied with the feasibility study for building a new airport to replace Friedman Memorial Airport in Hailey, the Federal Aviation Administration has tentatively OK'd $50 million in funds for the planned design and construction of a new field near the southern boundary of Blaine County.

Ecstatic is the best word to describe reaction of the Friedman Memorial Airport Authority at its meeting Tuesday night when news of the FAA decision was announced by Hailey Airport Manager Rick Baird and discussed by Mead & Hunt consultant Tom Schnetzer.

"Great," said FMAA Chairwoman Martha Burke.

The $50 million pledge, Baird said, "is the exact figure they (FAA) have been discussing" without any challenge to the Friedman study.

But the proposed new airport's cost will not be totally covered by FAA trust funds.

Schnetzer outlined a financing plan that includes, in addition to the FAA's $50 million:

· $27,448,000 in proceeds from the sale of Friedman airport land purchased with FAA grant funds.

· $6 million in FAA entitlement funds over six years.

· $2 million for navigation aids the FAA will maintain at no cost to the airport.

· $2,880,708 in passenger facility charges added to airline tickets.

· $3,450,000 in proceeds from selling the 102 acres deeded originally by the Friedman family in the early 1900s.

· $4,814,023 from airport reserve funds.

· And another $700,000 in miscellaneous funds.

Schnetzer said he anticipates some $36 million in private investments in hangars and other private facilities at the field.

Since the land targeted for the airport belongs to the Bureau of Land Management, Schnetzer said there would be no land acquisition costs.

No local tax dollars are proposed to be involved in the airport's construction.

The FAA will continue to fund the existing airport until it closes, probably in 2015. Although some general aviation interests have suggested keeping Friedman open for smaller aircraft as a privately operated field, neither the city of Hailey or Blaine County -- the airport's nominal owners -- have made any such decision.

The proposed new field, with a single, 8,500-foot runway, would be built east of state Highway 75 just north of the Blaine-Lincoln counties' line.

Schnetzer said perhaps one-third of Friedman's general aviation aircraft, particularly smaller planes, would not move to a new airport from Friedman. Baird later said they probably would tie down at small fields in Picabo, Fairfield and Gooding.

With financing appearing to be less of a hurdle, Schnetzer said the next step is a complete Environmental Impact Study by the FAA, which could take as long as three years.

Prompted by Burke, the FMAA board agreed that copies of the 24-page financial feasibility plan, including spread sheets, should be sent to every Blaine County member of the citizen site selection committee that met for more than a year to pick the best of 16 nominated sites in Blaine, Camas and Lincoln counties.

"It will be of great interest," commented airport attorney Barry Luboviski.

For a jaw-dropping moment, board members thought a re-run of months of site selection contentiousness might be in their futures when board member Len Harlig asked, "Do we run the risk an EIS won't be enough to satisfy opponents of the (new) airport" without allowing them further input?

Site committee members from the Ketchum-Sun Valley area were particularly critical of not only the methodology in the site studies but of an airport outside the Wood River Valley that they insisted would damage the area's tourism economy.

Not needed, said Toothman-Orton consultant Chuck Sundby. "The scoping process (of the EIS study) is to get the kind of input you're talking about."

Burke also said the EIS study would entail public hearings where comments would be taken.

Harlig didn't pursue the matter.




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