Airport: Widely differing views

It’s the best of projects, it’s the worst of projects.

Kalispell voters have only a couple more months to decide how they view a proposed upgrade at the city airport before voting it up or down for good this November.

Chad Graham and Jim Lynch shared their wildly differing views about the airport Tuesday during the Kalispell Chamber of Commerce’s monthly luncheon.

Graham, chairman of the Kalispell Planning Board and an uncontested candidate for the Kalispell City Council, discussed the effort he led to put the airport upgrade on the ballot for voters to decide “where it should be.”

Graham described the estimated $16.1 million project as a speculative pursuit.

He argued it will result in cost overruns for the city, do nothing to spur economic activity, improve safety or reduce noise and at best result in a redundant facility with Glacier Park International Airport just up the road.

Graham questioned if Kalispell City Airport is even eligible for federal funding with the two airports so close together and if Kalispell’s recent legal settlement with Diamond Aire could botch that eligibility with a new through-the-fence operator at the city airport. He even wondered aloud at one point if inflated pilot usage estimates were supplied to the Federal Aviation Administration to help get the city airport on a priority list for federal funding.

The best alternative is for Kalispell City Airport to remain in its current footprint and be restructured so it can pay for its own upkeep as a city enterprise fund, Graham said.

Conversely, Lynch, a pilot and former director of the Montana Department of Transportation, called the upgrade a good investment in a valuable city asset.

Lynch said federal funding generated by fuel taxes from the aviation industry would pay for up to 90 percent of the cost to improve the airport and pay Kalispell back for almost $3 million the city has already spent on related land acquisitions and airport improvements, resulting in little to no local match.

The two men had different views of the proposed airport layout plan.

It would move the runway 1,000 feet south, lengthen it by 600 feet and realign it by about 5 degrees, bringing the airport up to federal design standards.

Graham said all the new layout would do is shift “possible impact zones to other parts of the city” and allow larger planes to use the airport. “With larger planes come larger booms. We’re not talking a little damage now. We could be talking two houses at a time, three houses at a time,” he said.

Lynch argued that the proposed layout would improve airport traffic patterns, putting airplanes higher up in the air and farther away from residents. The runway extension is not meant to bring in larger aircraft but rather to improve safety, he said.

“What we’re doing here is improving a city asset to perform in a safe manner. We’re taking care of an asset you have responsibility to take care of and doing it intelligently,” Lynch said.

He added that if the city doesn’t want to use money from a federal Airport Improvement Program that was created specifically to help communities improve and maintain their airports, city taxpayers will have to pick up those costs.

Lynch said Kalispell City Airport plays a unique role in Montana’s $1.6 billion aviation industry as a place where pilots can fly in, get a motel room and shop for groceries. “It’s very attractive for those who come in and use our town.”

“If you’ve been to Kalispell City Airport and stand there, you’d be surprised there isn’t a petition to close down Harley Davidson Motorcycle. I hear more motorcycles, trucks and skidding tires at traffic lights than airplanes. I’m a little biased. I like airplanes. But I also like motorcycles and trucks,” Lynch said.

The only way for noise-conscious residents to escape that noise is to buy 20 acres in the wilderness, Lynch argued. That noise is progress, economic activity, development that are bringing people to Kalispell to shop, start businesses and create jobs. “And that I think is a good thing,” he said.

It’s a big vote coming up and not a decision to be taken lightly, Lynch said. He encouraged voters to expand on the information being shared by both supporters and opponents of the proposed airport upgrade.

“There is information out there available to you. Become educated on facts, not fiction, on what is taking place in town. Speak out and go vote. If you’re an educated voter, your vote is the right one,” he said.

Reporter Tom Lotshaw may be reached at 758-4483 or by email at tlotshaw@dailyinterlake.com.