Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Hailey airport closes for repairs next week

Flurry of public meetings also on agenda


By PAT MURPHY
Express Staff Writer

Rarely has Friedman Memorial Airport experienced such a flurry of activities as it will over the next week, including a decision out of Denver that could rapidly increase the Hailey airport's flight operations.

The biggest challenge will begin at 9 a.m. Tuesday, April 24, when it closes for a month to rebuild the aging runway that has been slowly eroding because of subterranean moisture. The multimillion-dollar project is being funded by the Federal Aviation Administration. The airport will reopen Wednesday, May 23, at 7 p.m.

A day prior to the closing, the FAA will host a public meeting at the Community Campus in Hailey to discuss the impending Environmental Impact Statement studies of potential sites for a new $100 million-plus airport to replace Friedman. The meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Monday, April 23, in Rooms 301 and 302.

This week or next, the Wood River Valley business committee might get a decision from Frontier Airlines about whether it will inaugurate daily roundtrip service from Denver, with connections eastward to its route system.

And Friedman's tenant pilots have been invited to a breakfast meeting at 8 a.m. Thursday, April 19, in airport manager Rick Baird's office for a wide-ranging briefing on the airport closure, the EIS study as well as preliminary details of the airport's popular Appreciate Day "open house" on June 16.

As for the Frontier Airlines service, Sun Valley-Ketchum Chamber & Visitors Bureau Executive Director Carol Waller said Tuesday that a final decision could be announced this week by Frontier. However, she said an alliance of business interests is still negotiating with the airline over its request for operational subsidies, known as "minimum revenue guarantees," to offset any losses. Waller declined to say how much businesses have offered in the MRG, but early on a pledge of some $400,000 in cash and in-kind marketing had been discussed.

In addition to FAA officials at the April 23 public meeting, officials of Landrum & Brown, the consulting firm that has been awarded the EIS study contract, will be there to field questions and observations. The airport's five-member governing body will attend but only as observers.

The EIS is expected to continue for several years before completion. Teams of experts hired by Landrum & Brown from specialty firms will study a myriad of airport location factors—weather, wildlife, environment, economic impact and need, land use, terrain, Native American cultural interests, and the like.

Potential sites rejected in an initial study conducted by a citizens committee will be given another look in the study.

A fee for the EIS study has yet to be proposed and approved, but that will be handled in a future meeting of Friedman's airport authority.




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