Does Hayden want to close the airport?

So much misinformation is swirling about the airport that I felt it would be helpful if the public knew what is really at stake. Let's start with this simple fact. The city of Hayden wants to extend Ramsey Road past (or through!) the airport, and nine of the 11 proposed routes would place Ramsey Road cutting across the airport property and inside the official Runway Protection Zone (RPZ). If this is done, the FAA guidelines require that the official "end" of the 7,400-foot runway be reduced to as short as 5,000 feet to maintain the 2,500-foot RPZ. This would result in a loss of certification to have an ILS instrument landing runway, and also give up the airport Part 139 certification.

Additionally, we need to look no further than Sandpoint to see what happens when county commissioners promise in their sponsored assurance part of the grant to maintain their RPZ and then ignore that condition so the city can encroach on the runway. The FAA grants that pay for repaving and maintenance vanish, and the runway falls into disrepair and grows potholes. Not only that, but the FAA could actually demand that Kootenai County pay back the nearly $33 million the FAA has already invested in our airport improvements.

With these kinds of stakes at play, why are the city councilmen and mayor in Hayden heading in this direction? Is their administrator and planning director telling them what is at stake, or do they just not care? And why would BOCC commissioner Dan Green direct that the airport manager not communicate with the public works director (the road design man) of Hayden, instead telling him that he (Green) would talk to the public works director, and further, according to the BOCC meeting records, that the airport manager should not advocate in support of the airport master plan? And why, when I called the Hayden public works director on Nov. 19, was he still unaware about how the Ramsey Road extension could impact the certified length of the runway? Who is keeping him in the dark, and why? Could it be that the Hayden planning director and or the administrator actually want to squeeze the airport until they force it to close?

When you look at the fact that the city of Hayden master plan has the city almost completely surrounding the airport, it begins to make sense. Get rid of the airport and you get rid of the conflicts it creates for the city. We wouldn't be the first city to take this direction. A quick Internet search of "city tries to close airport" provides some interesting reading material.

Larry Spencer is a Hayden resident.