Airport supervision inadequate

EDITOR:

Your opinion published in the June 12 edition regarding keeping our airport rural was very welcome. You proposed to keep the rural character by limiting the FAA funds to maintenance only. Although quite valid it does not go far enough.

Your front page headline of your paper of Feb. 15, 2008, read "Hangar builder hopes to serve Silicon Valley." In this article the glee of the Pinon Aero officials was palpable. From their standpoint this was a coup. From the owners point of view it was a disaster. Our efforts to limit the size and character of our airport took a severe hit.

This was brought about by the lackadaisical attitude of the airport advisory committee and the board of commissioners. They were not representing the will of the owners.

The prevailing attitude is that the airport is the sole domain of a few. The airport working group was a sham. First of all there was very limited representation by the owners and included no women.

Secondly the outcome was already decided before it began. Fred LaSor, for example, the chairman of the committee opened up a new soaring business soon after the plan was approved. It would be a stretch to call him impartial.

We can write an ordinance with multiple provisions, however, they got around the weight limit under the dead of the night. So it stands to reason they will try to get around whatever we write, particularly if it involves accounting of funds unless it is an ironclad ordinance. We need a board of directors.

The advisory committee could be an option. It is composed of primarily of pilots or business owners associated with the airport. The last appointment to this committee as a general public representative was our previous commissioner Jim Baushke. Mr Baushke is a pilot and his record as a commissioner and airport affairs does not provide any comfort to represent me. The committee would need to be modified to reflect majority representation of non-financially involved owners.

However, the only fail-safe solution is to create an oversight airport board of directors under the county commissioners.

We need supervision of the people, by the people and for the people by forming such a board. The current weight ordinance was violated because of a lack of oversight.

This board of directors should have the owners with the controlling vote. Any adult citizen who is a resident of Douglas County (owner), is not a pilot and has no financial ties to the airport could serve.

They should have the desire to participate and have no known relatives with connections to the airport.

The airport is our greatest physical asset. We need to supervise its function. A board of directors would see the benefit of keeping this airport open and allowing the traffic to include those planes that are bringing business to the county.

We should not allow our airport to become the parking lot for tax evading jets from Silicon Valley.

You do not have to be a librarian to serve effectively in a library committee.