Wednesday, June 17, 2009

FAA, cities prep for airport summit

Leaders of Ketchum, Sun Valley want questions answered


By PAT MURPHY
Express Staff Writer

Officials involved in the study leading up to a possible relocation of Friedman Memorial Airport will face rigorous questions Thursday, June 18, when they appear before the Ketchum and Sun Valley city councils at a special joint meeting.

The meeting to discuss the viability of a new airport begins at 11:30 a.m. in the Sun Valley Inn's Limelight Room. The public meeting is scheduled to last two hours.

Cayla Morgan, an environmental specialist for the Federal Aviation Administration, will speak about the ongoing environmental-impact study to determine if the airport should be relocated and what the best location would be. Mark Perryman, president of Cincinnati-based Landrum & Brown, a consultant that has been contracted to conduct the study, will also attend.

The study, formally called an Environmental Impact Statement, is expected to be done in two or more years. In the end, the EIS project will have cost more than $2 million, paid for by the FAA.

The special meeting will be devoted mostly to reviewing questions posed earlier by Ketchum Mayor Randy Hall and Sun Valley Mayor Wayne Willich and answered in March by Landrum & Brown. The mayors issued a nine-page document that includes 32 questions on more than 10 topics.

Issues addressed by the questions include: driving and mileage distance of the possible new airport sites from Friedman and the Sun Valley area; leakage of valley travelers to the Boise and Twin Falls airport; minimum revenue guarantees for airlines; flight diversions and cancellations at Friedman; airline fares; general aviation forecasts; and benefits of a new airport.

The EIS project requires a series of public meetings to take comment, although Thursday's session is scheduled especially for the two city councils.

Northern Wood River Valley interests have been skeptical of relocating Friedman. Critics say moving the facility—which would surely send the airport to the south—would increase drive time for passengers as well as general aviation aircraft owners who own valley homes.

Since Landrum & Brown publicized its answers in March, elements of the often-contentious relocation process have changed.

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An FAA decision disclosed last week ruled out installing at Friedman any existing technologies that would improve landing approaches and avoid flight cancellations and diversions to other cities.

Some criticism of the EIS process has intensified. Charles Conn, the Ketchum City Council's representative on a committee formed by the Friedman Memorial Airport Authority to develop ideas for managing a new airport, has insisted a new group should be formed and seated with decision-making authority long before a new airport is opened five to 10 years from now.

In an e-mail to the Idaho Mountain Express, Conn said the EIS process needs "an active and engaged client, assisting and directing the consultants with regard to specific trade-offs that reflect the values, aims and ambitions of our citizens."

Conn said, "We have all seen public input processes that are input in appearances only. It is the formal client that matters the most in guiding and directing the consultant."

Mayors Hall and Willich have supported Conn.

Conn's proposals to quickly seat a new governing board will be discussed at the airport authority's July 7 monthly meeting.

New airport as fire base?

Blaine County officials are meeting with federal firefighting staff to discuss the possibility that the new proposed airport could become a federal firefighting air base.




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