Grand Junction airport issues

murphey

murphey

Touchdown! Greaser!
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murphey
No discussion of this would be complete without mentioning that cows really do break through that barbed wire fence mentioned, and their play to say this other fence is "animal protection" is complete and utter BS.

The cow thing was brought up by the airport manager himself when the TSA was demanding every airport come up with a badge system. He was fighting it saying he wasn't going to badge the rancher or escort him when the cows got onto the runway, he just wanted them off.

Seems like things have changed over there, and someone got some grant money or something and just *had* to build a fence somewhere...

Kicking the ARES/Ham Radio group off the airport is pretty low. They could be given credentials.
 
denverpilot said:
No discussion of this would be complete without mentioning that cows really do break through that barbed wire fence mentioned, and their play to say this other fence is "animal protection" is complete and utter BS.

The cow thing was brought up by the airport manager himself when the TSA was demanding every airport come up with a badge system. He was fighting it saying he wasn't going to badge the rancher or escort him when the cows got onto the runway, he just wanted them off.

Seems like things have changed over there, and someone got some grant money or something and just *had* to build a fence somewhere...

Kicking the ARES/Ham Radio group off the airport is pretty low. They could be given credentials.
Click to expand...

Common sense was one of the victims of 9/11.
 
Update from the Dec 7 meeting

This meeting was provided to allow citizens to give comments. About 100 pilots were there.

The AOPA provided a letter of concern. [Church Lady mode on: Isn't that special?] The airport has already lost most of its GA businesses and shops, renters, and substantial decline in operations. This puts continued control tower operations at risk, and would curtail military refueling operations if closed.

 The airport manager originally said the fence was as federally mandated for wildlife control and used this excuse to acquire FAA grant funding. He later said the fence was required to address security inmprovements as mandated by TSA. Both reasons were shown to be false claims.

 Meeting video http://gjcity.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=4&clip_id=590 is over 2:45 hours, but the first presentation is by far the best.

 Bottom line - this will have far reaching implications to other airports. A few important facts were presented:

1) The cited wildlife control report did not have the word "fence" anywhere within its recommendations section.

2) The TSA's written reply to Sen. Scott Tipton's query said they had never asked for further security improvements.

3) The FAA grant application requires that due diligence be done concerning impact and options for the proposed project to be funded. These were never done although those check boxes were checked affirmatively on the application.

Article in the local newspaper is attached as an image.

 There is no issue with the airport claiming some responsibility in acquiring increased airline traffic by getting millions of dollars of previous grant monies. But when asking for grant money on questionable grounds that severely curtails the welfare and freedom of their tenants, the airport board should have acted more professionally with due diligence and documentation. It was asked that the board be reorganized, and the gates kept open unless some actual threats are known.
 

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