HomeMy WebLinkAbout01 27 1989 Council's attention needs to focus on voters' wishesCouncil's attention needs to focus on voters' wishes
Dear Editor,
Here are replies to some questions posed by George Ricker's "A Personal
View" column.
As to why it is "irrespcnsible" for the airport to accept grant funding from
federal and state agencies. Oops, all we have to do is read on from George's
article and he answered his own question. "Frankly, I have always found the
apparent strength of opposition to the airport in the town to be puzzling. As
airports go, Sebastian Municipal is strictly small potatoes and is never likely
to be much more than that," he wrote. It's not so puzzling. If you start
matching small local money with larger grant money, you no longer have
"strictly small potatoes". If we could be sure of what George conjectures,
there would be no reason for Citizens Airport Watch (CAW).
The truth is obvious. Better facilities attract more usage, and more usage
requires better and better facilities. Better and better facilities attract more
usage, and you know the rest.
If there is something subversive about the CAW continuing to point this out
to the community before the fact rather than after the fact, then I guess I am
connected with a subversive activity. This, by the way, answers George's
inquiry "the interest of the operators at the airport is obvious. The interest of
those on the other side of the argument is not so apparent."
What could be more apparent or more uncomplicated than the mandate to
the council from the voters that they are against airport expansion. It is
amazing just how loud and how many times the message is going to have to
be repeated before it sinks in.
Read our lips, the master plan is expansionary because it produces a better
facility. Better facilities attract more usage, and more usage - you know the
rest. You don't need a better facility in a place where the community does not
need a facility, even if it's free.
Lastly, George says the airport was here when the people moved in. So were
larger quantities of mosquitoes.
C. Stachel
Sebastian
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