Decision needed on airport

For more than 10 years, the city of Kalispell has agitated, negotiated and cogitated over what to do with the municipal airport, and finally one City Council meeting seems to have put it all into perspective.

For what we learned Monday night from the testimony of Gary Gates, head of the district office of the Federal Aviation Administration in Helena, is that the city has very limited options about what to do with its 80-year-old airport, and ultimately just needs the resolve to make a decision.

Unfortunately, the city has spent a lot of money in recent years under the supposition that it would ultimately be reimbursed by the FAA. Gates, however, said that will never happen unless the city expands the airport in order to meet the minimum FAA standards.

And that is a tall order.

First of all, the runways aren’t long enough for the FAA, and the KGEZ radio antennas impede on airspace. No one knows what will happen with the radio towers because the station is currently tied up in bankruptcy court. But in order to extend the runways, it would be necessary to acquire land from unwilling sellers using eminent domain, and municipal leaders have vowed not to do that.

So unless the City Council backtracks and starts over again with a new plan that somehow avoids unwilling property owners, and thus begins a new environmental assessment that starts the clock ticking again, the most likely result is leaving the airport as it is.

Currently there have been some voluntary concessions from pilots and businesses at the airport to limit hours of operation in order to cut back on noise complaints. That might make neighborhood opponents new allies of the airport, because another thing Gates made perfectly clear Monday is that the FAA will not allow any local restrictions on the airport’s operation once federal money has been used.

Since there has been very little support for either shutting down the airport or moving it, the issue comes down to these choices:

1) Maintain the airport in its current form, retain local control and try to mitigate neighborhood concerns as they arise. Under this option, the city also accepts that its expenditures to acquire Red Eagle Aviation and other property will never be reimbursed. Or,

2) Do whatever is necessary to expand the airport and get the federal money. This will result in an increase in safety, increased revenue from additional airport use, loss of local control, and possible new neighborhood concerns.

An interesting side note: In addition to reimbursement for prior expenses, FAA approval would also mean a yearly allotment of $150,000 for airport maintenance. That number is significant because as long as the city keeps the airport open, there are going to be associated expenses for maintenance and safety. If the FAA doesn’t provide the money, the city will need to come up with funding on its own.

It’s not an ideal situation, but the council needs to make a decision.