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Setting the record straight
To the Editor:
In my Aug. 4 “Future of the Airport” letter to the editor, I posed the question to Rep. Phil Haire of Sylva:
“If the idea of a Regional Airport Authority was so good, why didn’t you include the Andrews-Murphy Airport”?
Rep. Haire was kind enough to provide me with the request documents for a Regional Airport Authority from the Jackson and Macon County Commissioners. Rep. Haire further responded to my question by stating that he did not include the Andrews-Murphy Airport simply because he wasn’t asked to include it.
Having corrected that in Rep. Haire’s behalf, I still am against the creation of the Macon-Jackson Regional Airport Authority. In the words of County Manager Ken Westmoreland, quoted on May 18:
“The federal government, having recently awarded the airport authority grant monies, mandates that the airport remain open for nearly 20 more years. Therefore, if a regional authority were created, the county would have to foot the bill for keeping the Jackson Airport open as well as channel funds into the regional authority” (to support the Macon County Airport).
In regards to the slide that occurred on the (Dewayne) Pruett property last week, I went up and looked at the slide. Approximately 800 feet across the valley, just below the ridge also on their property, appeared like a microburst may have occurred indicating that a significant weather event had taken place in the area. Approximately 12 large to medium trees were pushed down all the way from their root base, but with no debris field associated with it.
William Austin
Sylva
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