As far as editorials go, I’ve never gotten such a positive response as I did when I wrote an editorial a few months ago questioning the wisdom of putting more county money into the further development of the county airport.
I think it was proper to upgrade the runway as they did a few years ago, but I do not think it would be proper now to go back and potentially lengthen the runway for jets. I live about 3/4 of a mile from the airport so I have a pretty good idea of the sort of use the facility gets… very little.
There are occasional airplanes that use the airport for landing training or for recreational stops, and I know there are a handful of business stops too, but I think the actual usage is limited to just a handful of pilots.
So I question why we need to pour more money into the airport when only a few people will actually receive benefit from it. The commissioners or economic development director cannot seem to come up with a huge outcry of demand for further development. In fact, I’m betting they’ve had an outcry of opposition to spending more money on the facility.
I also don’t buy the arguments that we need to do improvements in the name of homeland security… sounds like propaganda to me.
The county commission was recently awarded a $10,000 grant to do a development plan and now they’re deciding how much they want to add to that total. Evidently they didn’t take your advice earlier if you were opposed to spending more money on the airport, so it might be prudent to contact them again and repeat yourself.
This is not a project that is worthy of an “if you build it they will come” mentality. There are better ways to spend our county’s time and money than on upgrades to a rarely-used airport.
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2 comments:
I would have to agree... It sure doesnt seem like it's necessary for Washington Co. to upgrade an airport that is rarely used. However, it seems like the issue is rather recurrent. If the county thinks that this is so important maybe they should educate the people of their reasons, and why it would be money well invested.
We also agree. Our tax dollars should provide things that the majority of residents will gain benefit from. Obviously, the majority of people in WA. County do not utilize this airport.
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