Pepin Corso-Harris lives in Blaine County, south of Bellevue.
By PEPIN CORSO-HARRIS
After attending the June 18 Sun Valley and Ketchum city councils "informational" meeting concerning Friedman Memorial Airport, I'd like to pass on to the community some observations.
On the whole, the comments and questions posed by the Sun Valley and the Ketchum city council members during the meeting only served to illustrate how uninformed they are regarding the issues facing Friedman Memorial Airport. The only topics in which they were prepared or even interested in discussing were their views on how the economics of moving the airport could affect them and how they feel they have no representation as this process—now spanning five years—moves ahead.
There seems to be no grasp of the problems mounting at Friedman, about edicts enforced by the Federal Aviation Administration, and about air carriers' trends in new aircraft purchases that could shut down our public air service. As it stands, the FAA only allows Horizon Air to fly the Q400 airplane into Friedman because of a temporary waiver, which, because it does not meet their safety standards, can be rescinded at any time. Given one "incident," we could lose service. This is not a scare tactic. This is fact and part of the basics with which Friedman must function.
As the meeting progressed, and the representatives for the FAA and the consultants tried to correct the general misinformation they were hearing, and give those assembled the broader facts and issues, the continued sniping made it clear that this group doesn't care what the facts are and they don't really want any clarifying input on the issues. They simply wanted an audience to hear their complaints about how no one seems concerned in addressing their interests, but will not take on the responsibility of becoming informed of the big picture. Their absence at the monthly Friedman board meetings is noted.
This meeting with the FAA and consultant was a missed opportunity for them. They are so single-minded in their own concerns that this airport not move, that they do not seem capable of even thinking about what good could come out of a replacement airport. Concerns about moving the airport were also voiced by SkyWest Airlines and Horizon. I did not hear one argument from them about the relocation being the kiss of death for a resort town that could not be chalked up to: We don't want any competition that a larger airport would give us.
These councils' lack of being informed is an especially poignant point, considering that in January 2008 (17 months ago) these same two city councils had the same kind of meeting and I witnessed the same lack of command of basic information in their comments and questions. Many of the concerns voiced, then and now, have been addressed, discussed and hammered out in public board meetings. If the airport is such an important issue to these towns, where have they been for the last three to four years? Where have they been since the January 2008 meeting? And to give you a clue of the mindset, at that 2008 meeting, one council member point-blank asked if the FAA could force the owners of the airport to expand operations at the current site in Hailey.
In today's age, we have information coming out our ears. There are monthly Friedman board meetings and online Web sites set up by the FAA and Friedman for anyone to educate themselves if they choose, as issues have developed. Being concerned with only their own problems with the airport and not understanding the complete picture is going to come back to haunt them.
