MY TURN: Airport director departs; good riddance

As an almost 20-year Coeur d’Alene Airport (KCOE) hangar owner, instrument-rated private pilot, Coeur d’Alene Airport Association founding member and Kootenai County taxpayer, I received the news of Airport Director Steven Kjergaard’s resignation with a profound sense of relief. And with that I say, “Good riddance.”

Contrary to Kaye Thornbrugh’s so-called non-biased article in the Feb. 17, Cd'A Press praising Kjergaard, she only quotes him and his longtime airport collaborator BOCC Bill Brooks, who is no longer the airport BOCC liaison, but rather Bruce Mattare. She included a token short quote from BOCC Leslie Duncan about the likely need for an updated appraisal of the Cd'A Skeet and Trap Club grounds located on airport property because of HAZMAT conditions there. That was because Kjergaard had attempted to raise the annual lease to the club by many multiples in an apparent attempt by him to drive it out of existence.

Being that this is an opinion piece, I need not adhere to the journalistic standards that Thornbrugh should, even though I am a former Cd'A Press (outdoors) editor, writer and photographer.

First of all, various airports across the country are owned/operated by an assortment of entities, from private ownership, to cities, to counties, to special airport districts. KCOE is owned by Kootenai County and its airport director is hired by the BOCC and reports to them with advice from an airport advisory board, also appointed by the BOCC. The advisory board, by necessity, needs to be populated by experienced pilots and aviation professionals to give the best advice to both the airport director and the BOCC. As with many directors/CEOs of agencies, a board that can be manipulated is preferred and that is what Kjergaard wanted according to most pilots/hangar owners at KCOE.

The need for an excellently located, managed and operated airport often goes unnoticed by the general public. Even though KCOE is not an airline (Part 139) airport, it serves a vital role to the economic well-being of Kootenai County and surrounding areas. Its instrument landing capabilities for low visibility/bad weather conditions are as good as it gets, in my opinion. I practiced all of those approaches for many years and KCOE is priceless for good, safe year-round access in all weather conditions.

Kjergaard touts his responsible financial management, but his record for that does not tally. An accountant found that his increased expenditures always kept KCOE in “the red” during his tenure. KCOE runways have been closed more than ever even given almost twice the manpower and snow-removal equipment than his predecessor. High snow plow ice berms block access to hangars, even though the two airport operation specialists, who operate the plows, gladly offer to clear those berms for hangar owners in need. Kjergaard told them to stop doing that.

Kjergaard brags about his record as airport manager at Williston, N.D. During a period of time when many small airline flights came in and out of that airport due to petroleum extraction in the area, Kjergaard convinced the owners of that perfectly good airport they needed to close it and build a new “international” airport to handle all of the traffic. Rather than just adding more flights into the old airport, a new airport several miles away was built and the old airport closed, abandoning all of its infrastructure. Kjergaard resigned from Williston airport after leaving the community with a $94 million liability for a new airport the community neither needed, nor wanted.

Not long ago, a KCOE corporate pilot landed at Sloulin Field in Williston, N.D., and waited for his passenger to return. During that two-hour wait, he counted only two landings at the new “international” airport. Apparently all that drilling/extraction activity didn’t last.

Recently, Kjergaard pushed to have an outside entity build an airline terminal building at KCOE, just in case it would be needed at some point. Airline service (Part 139) has been tried and abandoned several times before. With Spokane’s Geiger Field airline service such a short distance away, there is no need for airline service at KCOE. Rather KCOE serves a myriad of transportation roles from Empire Airlines repair facility, to numerous commercial charter services, to corporate, to private, to emergency and to flight training and the very important Interagency Fire Center during the dangerous summer months.

Kjergaard tried desperately to decouple the two active runways at KCOE by severely shortening one runway, making it unusable for many jet aircraft, including Empire Airlines Fed-Ex aircraft to use when winds make the longest runway less safe during strong crosswind conditions. He claimed that the current runway arrangement was unsafe and yet he also fought common sense and proven methods to solve it.

The Automatic Weather Observation System (AWOS) is a recorded spoken briefing on closed runways or temporary tower frequencies in use. AWOS is continually broadcast on a radio frequency specific to each airport and all pilots can tune in on their Comm radios when ready for departure and when approaching. AWOS recordings are short and can be updated locally when conditions change. Kjergaard opposed AWOS be used for this because of liability concerns. Those liability concerns are minimal compared to actual safety involving a mid-air crash when pilots are not “on the same page.” That’s a real liability concern.

Airport gates have always been locked with a keypad access code for pilots/hangar owners, families of pilots and invited guests. Kjergaard “upgraded” these access pads to electronic with cards only available to those who annually take a multi-question test. My wife, our son and friends, all familiar with airports and aircraft, just quit going to our hangar because of the hassle of repeatedly taking these tests/getting photographed, etc., just to get to our hangar.

Then Kjergaard wanted a new huge building to house snow removal and other equipment, which has always been stored outside. And, by the way, he also wanted a new bigger office facility for himself, too.

If he was so interested in buildings and usages that only conform to aircraft usage on airport property, i.e. the skeet and trap club, he could repurpose Transtector, which has no aeronautic purpose.

Kjergaard decided KCOE needed a hodgepodge new set of rules (for which he paid a consultant $20,000) taken from a major airport and not relevant to the size and scope of KCOE.

Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.