HomeMy WebLinkAbout04 29 1989 Sebastian Officials Plan Visit to Washington to Meet FAA6A, Saturday, April 29, 1989, Vero Beach, Fla., Press -Journal
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Grant • Micco-Little Hollywood • Barefoot Bay • Sebastian • Fellsmere • Roseland • Vero Lake Estates
Sebastian Officials Plan Visit
To Washington To Meet FAA
By PATRICIA DMALLA
Sebastian Bureau Chief
Before a meeting is scheduled between
Federal Aviation Administration officials
and the Sebastian City Council, members
of the city staff want to meet with the FAA
first.
City Manager Robb McClary said Friday
he and special attorney Eliot Cutler would
meet with the FAA in Washington to set
the agenda for a later council meeting.
"I would hope we could come up with
ways to resolve the issue," said Stephen
Brill, manager of the FAA airports division
in Atlanta of the meeting with McClary and
Cutler. "Possibly a solution to the problem
could be suggested. We would bring back any
proposal to the City Council."
Brill called Mayor Richard Votapka April 21
in an effort to set up a meeting between the
FAA and the City Council.
A meeting is a good idea, McClary said.
"The difference is where it is appropriate to
begin the dialogue," McClary said. "I want to
see what the FAA has and where they are head-
ing and what they want."
Instead of doing it by phone, McClary said it
is preferable for everyone to meet face to face.
"A meeting on the staff level with Cutler and
me representing the city would be more pro-
McClary
ductive. They (FAA) haven't defined exactly
what they want. We would like to discuss and
review what they want to bring before City
Council in detail."
Brill said that if the city attempts to imple-
ment the provisions of the referendum that was
passed in March, then the FAA would consider
that to be a violation of the quit -claim deed that
conveyed the airport to the city.
He said he contacted the city in an effort to
try to resolve the issue without litigation.
"If they enforced it, I would recommend we
try to litigate it," Brill said. "It has to go
through the general counsel and the Justice De-
partment. It would depend on the strength of
our case," Brill said.
He said the FAA could not let Sebastian
close the airport because of the example it
would set.
"If Sebastian closes the airport, then five
to 10 other cities in Florida could do a sim-
ilar thing and that would have an impact
on the national system of airports," he
said.
When the federal government deeded
the airport to the city, the city agreed to
operate and maintain it as an airport, Brill
said.
"If the community no longer wants to do
that, it should return it to the federal, gov-
ernment," Brill said, adding that one alterna-
tive then would be for the federal government
to turn it over to another political body
"We have lived up to our assurances. We
expect the city to live up to theirs," Brill said.
When Cutler, who was out of town this week,
returns on Monday, he will call the FAA and
arrange the meeting, McClary said.
Since the FAA and the city's attorney are in
Washington, it would be more cost effective for
him to go to Washington than have Washington
officials come to Sebastian for this meeting, he
said.