Opposition to airport expansion resurfaces

Nine Kalispell residents asked the City Council on Monday to close the door on Kalispell City Airport expansion.

The residents, who mostly belong to the local Quiet Skies group, also want an end to any additional studies.

“Close the door on this,” Quiet Skies spokesman Scott Davis said. “It’s been 10 years ... We do not want to see another dime wasted on this idea.”

Joann Blake said she was “shocked to see [airport manager] Fred Leistiko’s interview” in the Daily Inter Lake on Friday. In that story, Leistiko talked up a proposed $95,000 grant from the Federal Aviation Administration that would be used to update the city’s airport master plan, which was last updated in 1999.

Blake said it was “deja vu. There it was biting us again.”

“If we expand this airport, you’re going to see a big change,” Phil Guiffrida said. “It may take a while, but you’re going to have turbo-props and jets. The turbo-props make more noise than the jets.”

“You didn’t like the message, so you shot the messenger,” Carl Feig said, calling Leistiko a “Pied Piper.”

Leistiko said last week that to expand the airport, the city only needs to acquire the house of Randy and Debbie Wise, not the house of Randy’s parents, Doug and Judy Wise. Both houses are north of Cemetery Road.

When asked Monday about the Wises’ homes, Mayor Tammi Fisher said it was her understanding that the city would have to acquire both. But she noted that it could depend on which development option is chosen.

If the Wises refuse to sell both their homes, it puts the city between a rock and hard place, Fisher said.

“The city leaders need to make the decision to move ahead,” Leistiko said Monday. “You don’t talk to landowners unless you are professionally qualified to do it. I’m not qualified to do it.”

Referring to the Wises’ properties in particular, Leistiko said, “The professionals have not been turned loose to talk to them.” He said last week that it is too early in the process for that.

Fisher said she talked with Debbie Wise once on the phone and spoke with Doug and Judy Wise at their business. All three were reluctant to sell, Fisher said. A phone call to Randy Wise by the Inter Lake was not returned.

“Dwelling on this idea [of selling or not selling] is a little premature at this point,” City Manager Jane Howington said Monday. “I have not asked them nor am I interested in having that conversation with the Wises right now.”

Howington said the purpose of the planning study “is to go back and see what other options are out there and what they would cost.” Accepting the $95,000 FAA grant to update the Airport Master Plan “starts at ground zero again so we can make community-based decisions on the airport,” she said.

Federal Aviation Administration official Gary Gates, based in Helena, said, “Much of the information in the new study would be the same as the 1999 study,” although he noted, “There may be other development options that are arrived at.”

He called an updated airport master plan a “worthwhile endeavor.”

Citing information he said came from Gates, Leistiko last week said it was rare that a government does not have to use eminent domain to upgrade an airport in accordance with FAA guidelines.

On Monday, however, Gates contradicted Leistiko’s assertion. “I would be surprised if I said that verbatim,” Gates said. “I would not state that.” 

Gates said eminent domain (or condemnation) “is a tool under Montana state law that is available.” He added: “We’re involved with condemnation on an occasional basis.”

The city held a wrap-up budget work session involving the airport after its regular council meeting Monday night.

During that session, a number of council members directed Howington to take $1.2 million in Airport Tax Increment District money out of the budget. That would mean the city can’t spend the money in the new budget year.

The airport needs $1.2 million for deferred maintenance, according to Leistiko.

He said last week that the city could use airport tax increment money for the deferred maintenance. On Monday, however, Leistiko said the city cannot use tax increment financing funds for operations and maintenance, calling it a “fine line.”

Gates said he doesn’t know what the deferred maintenance would be used for since the airport runway would have to be torn up and relocated in any expansion. If the city decides against an expansion, such maintenance may or may not be needed. It would not be required by the FAA in such a scenario, Gates said.

On Monday, neither Leistiko nor Fisher could say where the city would get money to pay for deferred airport maintenance.

Howington said she recently tasked the city’s Revolving Loan Fund Manager Wade Elder with coming up with a business model to pay for maintenance and operations at the airport. She said the deferred maintenance in question includes items recommended in an environmental assessment of the airport the council approved in 2002.

The council is slated to consider the $95,000 FAA grant application at its July 6 meeting.

Reporter Caleb Soptelean may be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at csoptelean@dailyinterlake.com.