Friday — April 9, 2004

Citizen advisers on new airport set to meet

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By PAT MURPHY
Express Staff Writer

Some 50 volunteers from two dozen Wood River Valley government and civic organizations will begin meeting each month to monitor and critique plans for selecting a site for a possible new airport.

The advisory group includes one principal member with one alternate from each valley organization. A final list of members is being assembled.

Meetings will be held the fourth Thursday of each month until their work is completed. The Friedman Memorial Airport Authority board will decide a date for the advisory group’s first meeting in May.

Friedman Memorial Airport Manager Rick Baird also reported Tuesday to the airport authority board that he tentatively has contracted with Twin Falls professional facilitator Michael Pepper, of KMP Planning, to work with the advisory group as it works through a complex of issues.

Pepper’s fee, Baird said, would be determined after reviewing the extent of work as well as accepted fees paid in similar circumstances. Facilitator fees, Baird said, range from $150 to $300 per hour.

The advisory group will study and seek public comment on a lengthy check list of topics that touch on virtually every consideration for a new airport site, including convenience of location, transportation access, environment and wildlife, and effects on air and water quality.

Meanwhile, the board gave airport consultant Tom Schnetzer the go-ahead to send to the Federal Aviation Administration the proposed scope-of-study plan for the selection of a possible new airport site to be funded by the FAA.

Schnetzer also reported a new airport would cost between $60 million and $80 million.

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