Airport Closure Imminent

Greg Bockelman

Greg Bockelman

Touchdown! Greaser!
Joined
Feb 23, 2005
Messages
11,091
Location
Lone Jack, MO
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Display name:
Greg Bockelman
Signed. Thanks for sharing, Greg.
 
Got it done. Also I sent a note to the chamber of comm. I was wondering what they thought about the plan to close hwy 10 into town. Then I popped them with the real story that they city council was going to close the local airport. If they were shocked at the first one, how do they feel about the second?

info@exspgschamber.com
 
Done.



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
 
Done, it looks like that city attorney is taking the town for a ride.
 
Hi guys! I want to thank Greg for posting this. I am new here and hope to be a regular, at least, reader of POA from now on!

I want to thank ALL of you for signing. Our goal is to send volunteers through town for local petition signatures the second half of this week. We've already had a lot of residents sign the petition online. We've not heard a single person in town even begin to argue FOR closure of this field. And believe me, my husband and I are stopped everywhere we go. Sometimes multiple times.

Yes, the City Attorney is likely at the bottom of this. We were proposing to lease the airport facilities and open a FBO, and do a total remodel/airport restaurant last year, but pulled our lease proposal late in the fall when a city councilman (who was glancing sideways at the attorney the whole time...) literally started shouting at my husband. I don't care that he was the only anti-airport person on that council, you don't treat people bringing new business to your town that way. In any event, even with our lease proposal off the table the Mayor and City Manager still said they really wanted to get us to reconsider. The Airport Board formed an AAA chapter at the field (Antique Airplane Association) and we were well underway helping them form a very full 2013 fly-in and event calendar at the airport. Usage was up, fly-ins had great success, and now suddenly they're going to close it???

Everyone was shocked. No one in town even knew. They wanted a nice quiet council vote at a meeting with no one present. Or the CA did, anyways. There are some new developments and things are changing quickly, and I honestly really do think we have the upper hand right now on keeping this place open.

The work session on 2/1 they are saying there will be no airport discussion but we don't trust them and will be there anyways. It very well WILL be discussed and voted upon on 2/4. I will keep you advised, they don't have the agenda posted yet which is unusual, and tells me they are waffling. There's a LOT going on that I could type about forever, but if you read our letter to the editor in the original post you'll get the gist. Lots of city politics and behind the scenes stuff that has nothing to do with an airport.

Anyways, I will do my best to update and THANK YOU for your signatures! I do have city hall emails if anyone desires, but they are already being "flooded with letters from all over the country".

THANK YOU! (and glad to be new here!)

Sarah D.
 
Sarah,

You may oh Greg a beer someday. I have been following this for a while, but it didn't occur to me to post this here or on the AOPA, or the PurpleBoard forums.. I am not sure why, but no doubt you are going to be getting some support from places you haven't even heard of..

We really do need another place to fly for food. :)
 
I'm glad I learned of this. Not only signed, but commented, too. It smacks of some insider dealings between some member(s) and somebody else (developer?) with money. Also, whazzup with the city attorney and his past practices at Riverside? Does he think he's found another cash cow to replace his former client? Makes ya wanna go 'hmmmm'....
 
What's up with the attorney and his past dealings with Riverside has to do with billable hours, and lots of them - and his need to dictate how a city is run. For those who aren't in the loop, the CA in our town (who is not well-liked) is not a full-timer, he's a contract guy from a big firm in Kansas City. He has been our CA since I believe 2002 or 2003 and he was also the CA in Riverside, MO when a huge development project was getting ready to get underway - one that makes 3EX look like tinker toys honestly. $300M project. Delay upon delay, in 2007 to 2009 they blew through 5 developers who put proposals in front of the city, and it was the same thing. Closed-door meetings. Lawyer-dominated process. Developers not allowed to present their plans to the city (dontcha think that's kind of crucial?). One spoke up and the KC Business Journal ran three articles on it. Finally, the CA tried to hire an "expert" to tell the Mayor/Council that the land should be developed straight industrial (I've got a bit of development/AEC background from my marketing career so this story fascinated me), but the Mayor was adamant that it be developed mixed-use. After that "expert" was hired, the CA was let go. The development is going crazy with construction right now....as mixed-use.

The Business Journal also dug up Riverside's legal billings, keep in mind while they have a casino and a fair amount of industrial development, they DO only have 3,000 residents. Their attorney's fees in I believe it was 2007 surpassed that of two major KC suburbs with 130,000 and 170,000 population bases, and major development and expansion themselves.

So yeah, there's something going on here in our situation with the CA. It's certainly not Riverside. But the City is so far refusing to turn over their legal billings to the media outlets who have requested them. We have submitted a request as well through our attorney, but we're still in the middle of our 72 hour period in which they have to produce the records.

Just a bit more backstory - but again, thank you all for signing! Greg, I owe you beer AND a dinner, or if the airport ever does get that restaurant, maybe a significant credit. ;)

Sarah
 
SarahD said:
What's up with the attorney and his past dealings with Riverside has to do with billable hours, and lots of them - and his need to dictate how a city is run. For those who aren't in the loop, the CA in our town (who is not well-liked) is not a full-timer, he's a contract guy from a big firm in Kansas City. He has been our CA since I believe 2002 or 2003 and he was also the CA in Riverside, MO when a huge development project was getting ready to get underway - one that makes 3EX look like tinker toys honestly. $300M project. Delay upon delay, in 2007 to 2009 they blew through 5 developers who put proposals in front of the city, and it was the same thing. Closed-door meetings. Lawyer-dominated process. Developers not allowed to present their plans to the city (dontcha think that's kind of crucial?). One spoke up and the KC Business Journal ran three articles on it. Finally, the CA tried to hire an "expert" to tell the Mayor/Council that the land should be developed straight industrial (I've got a bit of development/AEC background from my marketing career so this story fascinated me), but the Mayor was adamant that it be developed mixed-use. After that "expert" was hired, the CA was let go. The development is going crazy with construction right now....as mixed-use.

The Business Journal also dug up Riverside's legal billings, keep in mind while they have a casino and a fair amount of industrial development, they DO only have 3,000 residents. Their attorney's fees in I believe it was 2007 surpassed that of two major KC suburbs with 130,000 and 170,000 population bases, and major development and expansion themselves.

So yeah, there's something going on here in our situation with the CA. It's certainly not Riverside. But the City is so far refusing to turn over their legal billings to the media outlets who have requested them. We have submitted a request as well through our attorney, but we're still in the middle of our 72 hour period in which they have to produce the records.

Just a bit more backstory - but again, thank you all for signing! Greg, I owe you beer AND a dinner, or if the airport ever does get that restaurant, maybe a significant credit. ;)

Sarah
Click to expand...


Don't ya just hate it when a small town gets milked by a money hungry, power hungry attorney..:mad2::mad::mad:
 
SarahD said:
But the City is so far refusing to turn over their legal billings to the media outlets who have requested them. We have submitted a request as well through our attorney, but we're still in the middle of our 72 hour period in which they have to produce the records.
Sarah
Click to expand...

Our city tried to do the same thing, the local newspaper sued them and the city lost. They subsequently had to pay $15k in attorney fees, etc. May be worth noting to your local officials that failure to release public records is in fact illegal. I think there is a few exceptions, but those would be things like competitive bids, etc.

http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/...5000-dispute-over-public-record-delays-mayors
 
guardrail - thanks! We are already on it. ;) It's a violation of the Missouri Sunshine Law. Not only is our attorney aware, but so is the attorney the local paper is in contact with, at the Missouri Press Association - the local paper has made requests too.
 
Signed.

Sarah, your efforts and devotion to keeping this airport open and viable are quite admirable. :)

Welcome to PoA. :)
 
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