Community airport visions expressed
From our weekly issue dated February 24, 2010
Nearly 40 citizens shared their visions for Illinois Valley Airport during the Monday night, Feb. 22 advisory board meeting at the facility“s café building.
O“Brien resident Cheryl Johnson facilitated the idea exchange, in which audience members wrote their thoughts on Post-it notes for inclusion in an “infinity diagram.“
Johnson asked attendees to visualize what they would like the airport to look like in 2015. The Post-it notes were placed in clusters at the front of the room, and Johnson sorted them by category.
“There are a number of ideas and repeating ideas as well,“ she noted.
Advisory board member Dave Bassett opened the meeting for public comment while a vote was taken on desired airport uses. Among the first to speak was Gary Buck, a former smokejumper who has spent the past five years advocating the establishment of a smokejumper museum at the airport.
Buck discussed how Siskiyou Smokejumper Base originally was set up at the facility in 1942 as a means of fighting forest fires. It was closed by the U.S. Forest Service in 1981, Buck said, with saving money as the stated reason.
However, Buck questioned the wisdom of that decision. He stated that combatting the 2002 Biscuit Fire that burned some 500,000 acres of forest and wilderness and threatened Illinois Valley, cost around $500 million.
The smokejumper group has access to thousands of photographs and much memorabilia, and is actively accepting donations, Buck said. Approximately 250 of the original smokejumpers still are alive, he added, and some are in their 90s.
Ed Russell, an advisory board member and longtime I.V. Airport tenant, expressed his vision for the facility“s future. He said that it is neither a dirt strip nor Los Angeles International Airport, and that general aviation and recreation are its key niches.
The I.V. Airport could be the “Knott“s Berry Farm of the air,“ Russell said, and that it is the best unregulated airspace in the country.
“It“s a genuine, authentic experience,“ Russell said.
Johnson reported on the results of the vote taken regarding airport uses. She said that there was much support for adding fueling service. The smokejumper museum also was popular among audience members, Johnson said, along with ecotourism and preserving the tranquility of the area around the airport.
“There“s a lot of food for thought for the advisory board,“ Johnson said.
Russell said that the board will take audience comments and votes into consideration, and write a vision statement to form a “roadmap“ for the airport.
Cave Junction Mayor Don Moore, also an advisory board member, addressed the change in the airport designation to favor smaller aircraft.
Alex Grossi, Josephine County Airports manager, elaborated. He said that the facility used to have the same designation as the Grants Pass Airport in Merlin. But the Federal Aviation Administration conducted an activity count and aircraft survey at I.V. Airport and redesignated it, Grossi said, to favor planes of 12,000 pounds or lighter.
“That made a lot of people very happy,“ Grossi said.
Grossi fielded questions from the audience about the perimeter fence planned for the airport. He said that the fence will not have razor wire, but will have three strands of barbed wire to deter people and animals. The fence won“t cut through the Rough and Ready Botanical Wayside near the airport, Grossi stated.
Another purpose of the fence is to create more separation between general public access points and aircraft operations areas, Grossi said. There have been two or three “close calls,“ he noted, with vehicles driving near the runway, and at least three recent burglaries at the airport.
County Commissioner Dave Toler, an Illinois Valley resident, said that he, Cassanelli and Commissioner Dwight Ellis plan to take the advisory board“s recommendations seriously.
Toler said that the airport“s redesignation is “key.“ He added that the previous economic development strategy for the site produced few positive results after 20 years.
That approach was akin to fitting a “square peg in a round hole,“ Toler said.
But with the re-designation, many of the airport“s attributes that were disadvantages can become advantages, Toler said, which include its remoteness, abundance of air space and lack of regulation.
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