Airport questions may be answered Monday

After months of questions, accusations and debate centered on the Kalispell City Airport, the second session in a scoping process is scheduled to deliver some answers Monday night.

City Manager Jane Howington and the city’s revolving loan specialist, Wade Elder, will present information at a two-hour work session of the City Council starting at 7 p.m. Jan. 25.

The public meeting will be held in City Hall Council Chambers and will be televised live over Cable Channel 9. It also will be available on the city’s Web site, www.kalispell.com.

The first scoping meeting drew 130 people to the Hilton Garden Inn on Nov. 30, when audience questions during the two-hour session were written on poster-size paper and tacked to the wall.

Now Howington has collected answers to as many of those questions as the city staff could answer. Remaining questions are tagged for technical consultants, if and when any are hired.

Answers to the Nov. 30 questions are posted on the city Web site under Hot Topics.

Although Lex Blood again will facilitate the meeting, the overall format will be different from the first scoping session.

Howington and Elder plan to take 45 minutes to present answers Monday night, splitting them into eight categories: noise, cost, safety, Federal Aviation Administration funding and regulations, airport management, airport expansion plans, relocation and closure.

Another 20 minutes will be reserved specifically for questions from and discussion among council members. The public will have 20 minutes to ask further questions; more may be allowed if time remains.

The council chambers can accommodate only 96 people. But since many people already had a chance to ask questions directly and submit written comments, and because the public can watch proceedings live on TV, Howington expects that to be enough space for Monday’s crowd.

She also invites further written responses during or after the meeting.

Comments continue to arrive in her office daily from such quarters as landowners, pilots, business owners, and members of the Quiet Skies Committee opposed to the airport.

But at the end of December she cut off further input to give time to research and prepare answers for this second meeting.

Howington was asked whether Airport Manager Fred Leistiko will be on hand to help answer questions Monday night. He will not, she said, not only because his role is as a technical staff member, but because he has been the focus of much ill will in the debate that started with Quiet Skies’ formation last fall.

“There have been accusations, name-calling, mud-slinging,” Howington told the council. “I prefer to keep emotions out of this process … Keep it to factual information. If there are questions of Fred, people can ask them of me, I will ask Fred,” and deliver answers back to the public.

Council member Kari Gabriel suggested that, with answers available online before the meeting, Howington’s and Elder’s presentation could be abbreviated and free up more time for public comment. Howington pointed out that not everybody has computer access, so she and Elder still need to present their information publicly. But it may not take the entire 45 minutes, she added.

Printed answers will be available for the public on Monday, Howington said.

Council member Jeff Zauner asked Howington to schedule a council meeting during February specifically to move forward on a decision with the airport.

Mondays are full, including Feb. 1 when the council will consider approving Stelling Engineers as its airport consultant. Tuesdays are Planning Board meetings, with Jan. 26 a joint meeting with council to begin forming an annexation policy.

The council asked Howington to arrange a Thursday night meeting for the airport discussion.

Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com