Friday, August 6, 2004

Public grills airport advisors

Open house on airport site options draws a curious few


By PAT MURPHY
Express Staff Writer

Friedman Memorial Airport manager Rick Baird, right, discusses possible future airport site options with, from the left, Dave Ding-man, Karna Schafer and Fritz Schafer. Photo by David N. Seelig

What they lacked in numbers the few people who showed up to see preliminary steps in the search for a possible new site for the Hailey airport made up with their curiosity and questions.

The second floor meeting room of the Old Blaine County Courthouse was arrayed with easels displaying text details of steps now under way for analyzing potential sites by a citizens committee and the eventual recommendation of the best three. Also on display were several aerial terrain maps showing 15 potential sites generally south and southeast of the present airport.

Fewer than 30 persons showed up for the first in a series of public workshops scheduled every few months over the next year.

But they fired questions and observations at Friedman Memorial Airport manager Rick Baird and two consultants, Tom Schnetzer and Chuck Sundby, of Mead and Hunt, plus the Sun Valley representative on the citizen study committee, Susan Cutter.

None of the visitors opposed the idea of a new airport, but, according to Baird, many were curious about whether Friedman could be kept open for non-airline aircraft operations.

Dr. David Dingman, of Sun Valley, a retired plastic surgeon who owns two small aircraft, said ?there?s a lot of emotion about keeping the present airport,? but said ?an airport for larger jets has to happen.? Opposing it, he said, ?won?t work.?

Most who attended spent time looking at the 18 sites marked on an aerial terrain map. Apparently of special interest was site No. 16, a 600-acre area northeast of Fairfield and about 20 miles from the present airport. The site also is generally near the end of Croy Canyon, and a dirt road from Hailey to the area conceivably could be the foundation for some sort of improved road or trans-portation link to the Wood River Valley if that site were selected.

Carl Harris, of Ketchum, said he would prefer seeing the airport in Twin Falls considered as a site for a regional airport also serving the Wood River Valley. However, the Friedman Airport Authority has all but dismissed Twin Falls as a site, arguing that the distance--some 75 miles from the present airport--doesn?t serve the interest of the Wood River Valley.

Another attendee at the open house, Fritz Schafer, called the search for a new site ?a great idea.?

Meanwhile, the citizens site selec-tion study group, which meets monthly, will find its deliberations dealing with more ?meat and potatoes,? said Hailey Mayor Susan McBryant, who?s also a member of the airport authority. She complained that the committee was bogged down in discussion of processes--?learning how to play with each other,? she termed it.

Baird agreed and said he would tell professional facilitator Mike Pep-per that meetings should be ?less talk, more work.?




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