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Airport should not be managed as ‘private kingdom’
To the Editor:
A recent letter (Aug. 25) from a proponent for the continuation of the Jackson County Airport is among some recent ones from pilots defending their private turf. It tells you the parts of the bill creating the Macon-Jackson Regional Airport, and his slanted view of why the Jackson County Commissioners should continue to fund the present management with the taxpayers’ money for grants to continue what they believe (and have stated in public conversations) is their private airport. They also believe Jackson County Commissioners have no oversight or control over public monies siphoned into what N.C. Sen. John Snow (D-Murphy) terms a “snake pit.” Think of literally millions and millions of dollars that are controlled by three men who have shown, according to records, such poor management skill that in a real-life business situation they couldn’t get away with it. There certainly has been no one to stop poor business practices until the Jackson County Commissioners, chaired by Stacy Buchanan, decided to stop the grant money flow. The commissioners have a choice of either creating an airport plan that may be of the benefit to the taxpayers and not a private kingdom for a few to pursue their agenda or let these three men directly or indirectly continue using their charter to select their cohorts for “the airport board,” therefore guaranteeing their power and policies in the future.
I would like to give an example of what most people operating a business would not do, especially when the business is a loser since its inception and has every kind of money problem, even for bare-bones maintenance. Now just remember as you read, rules for these people are not rules as other people interpret them. In May of 2002 (May 31 to be exact), the Authority borrowed $100,000 from a local bank at a rate of prime plus 1 percent starting July 2002 with repayment in full by July 2003. This was borrowed, we are told, to build a new terminal. Only a rotten, dilapidated piece of the old terminal existed, and most of it had already been torn down. The terminal was never built, yet the authority continued to pay interest on this money until June 2004 before the loan was finally paid off. Monetarily, this Authority has been flying by the seat of its pants. Why were they paying interest they couldn’t afford instead of paying the loan off? No one involved in the airport, outside of these three men, seems to have any idea of what was going on.
In downgrading Macon and Jackson’s joint airport venture (more fog, etc.), the letter writer forgot to mention the lack of landslides there. No mention was made of the long ago landslides that heavily damaged nearby property, or the expensive lawsuits that followed. He mentions only the restoration of 500 ft. of runway a big slide took out. History repeats itself when you have causative circumstances. I can attest to that, since with a causative factor I have lost four hot water heaters to leaking glass liners in less than 18 years. You have mountainsides prone to slides, so don’t tell me that history will not repeat itself. If students have money to take flying lessons, the Macon County Airport is about 25 minutes away. It is no hardship to drive 25 minutes or even 35 minutes to Macon County for those who can afford airplanes. Are the taxpayers supposed to keep you a private airfield for what Mark Jamison (in a different letter to the editor) deemed an elite few?
I think the crown jewel of the legislation is the breaking of the power of the current three-man Airport Authority board. It reads that the regional Authority members shall be determined by the Boards of Commissioners of Macon and Jackson counties. There will be oversight and power given to officials elected by the people. No more private kingdom.
Marie Leatherwood
Sylva
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