Three sites have made the cut from an environmental impact study. Sites 4, 10-A and 12 are the three now under scrutiny. Express graphic by Tony Barriatua
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In a surprise appearance Tuesday night, actor and part-time Hailey resident Bruce Willis renewed his offer to the Friedman Memorial Airport Authority of free land for a new airport in Camas County, where he operates the Soldier Mountain resort.
However, after hearing a vigorous appeal to the board to use its "influence" in reviving Camas County as a potential site, the Friedman board told Willis it no longer has the authority to propose new sites, since the Federal Aviation Administration launched an Environmental Impact Statement study of already designated potential sites.
The board also has said in the past that it has no control of land use in other counties and that any site proposed for an airport in Camas would require approval of local governments there.
This time, Willis said he had 2,000 acres to offer for an airfield just across the western Blaine County line in Camas County alongside U.S. Highway 20. The area was designated as site No. 13, but was eliminated by FAA consultant Landrum & Brown as not meeting aeronautical operations requirements. Three sites inside Blaine County have passed muster in the first phase of the EIS—one inside the Bellevue Triangle, one in the south county east of State Highway 75 and one on the western edge of Blaine County a stone's throw from the site Willis proposed.
When Willis offered land more than a year ago, his holdings were reportedly too small for a new airport to be built on a tract between 600 and 1,200 acres. Because individuals under various corporate names often hold acreage in Camas County, the size of Willis' total property could not immediately be determined.
However, most homeowners around Willis' land have stoutly opposed an airport.
Willis' Forest Service permit to operate the Soldier Mountain resort outside of Fairfield expires Dec. 31. A spokesman for the Fairfield Ranger District, Ann Frost, said Willis intends to renew the permit. She said the resort's marketing has increased tourist activities at the mountain.
Attired in a checked shirt, jeans, a baseball cap with an American flag and sporting a stylish moustache and goatee, Willis was almost unrecognizable to the few people in the audience at the airport authority meeting. His pitch and the board's friendly exchange with him continued for about 10 minutes. After thanking the board, he quickly left the Old Blaine County Courthouse conference room.
Willis's interest in developing an airport has been erratic. He dropped out of the picture after his first offer of free land in 2007, though he and a consultant, former Blaine County Commissioner and former Friedman board Chairwoman Mary Ann Mix, met with FAA officials in Seattle in July 2007 to discuss the machinery for building an airport.
This indicated Willis might build a private airport to handle tour and corporate aircraft. However, the FAA later said it had not received any paperwork required for building an airport. A Willis friend who also supports an airport in Camas, Seattle billionaire Bruce McCaw, is reportedly Camas County's largest private landowner.
When Willis and his then-wife Demi Moore settled in the Hailey area in the early 1990s after buying a home, he invested heavily—in a downtown Hailey office building, a bar and two restaurants, remodeling the Liberty Theatre, founding the Company of Fools theater company and buying several downtown Ketchum lots that have since been sold.
However, he and Moore have divorced and spend most of their time in California.
