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An aerial view of the Sebastian Municipal Airport.
Long
in store' for airt)ort
By PHIL LONG
indian River Bureau Chief
SEBASTIAN — Sebastian May-
or Richard Votapka is warning In-
dian River County school officials
not to tie the fate of their proposed
North County high school to the
fate of the Sebastian Municipal
Airport.
The mayor's remarks — and
similar cautions from leaders of lo-
cal, state and federal government
and trade groups — came follow-
ing the Indian River County
School Board's enthusiastic en-
dorsement last week of a plan to
put a North County school com-
plex on the airport site.
That couldn't happen, the Flori-
da Department of Education says,
unless residents are successful in
getting the former Navy training
base shut down as an airport.
That puts two schedules in seri-
ous conflict. And no matter who
wins the airport issue, the school
system may well come out a loser.
To. meet its June 1992 deadline
for completion of a :proposed
North County high school, the
school system needs the property
by April 1990, just 14 months
from now, said Doug King, assis-
tant superintendent for admini
tratiom And it needs a bond issue
passed by the voters.
"If it was the position of the city
council to dispose of the airport,
which is a council decision," said
Sebastian City Manager Rob
McClary, "the time between now
and when the ;school system could
get the land would be measured in
years, not moo aths."
Meanwhile; No County resi-
dents will continue to be deprived
of a high scho al and continue to be
bused south: to crowded Vera
Beach High School, Votapka said.
"The School Board has tried un-
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