County may delay airport vote

The retirement of Airport Manager Jim Braswell, questions about weight limits and a master plan process that is behind schedule could mean the Douglas County Board of Commissioners will wait until 2010 to introduce a new airport weight or traffic-limiting ordinance to voters.

The debate over airport growth is at the heart of this issue. Residents passed the first airport ordinance in 1984, restricting the weight of landing aircraft in an attempt to curb noise.

The airport weight ordinance has been ratcheted up over time and now stands at 50,000 pounds for dual-wheel aircraft, but that does not accomodate some of the business jets landing there.

County officials are hoping development of an airport master plan will provide guidance concerning for any further adjustments, in addition to a myriad of other issues.

"The driving effort with the airport is completing the master plan," said Commissioner Jim Baushke. "That's what we want done before we do anything with the ordinance."

Commissioner David Brady said rushing to put an ordinance on the ballot when the master plan and other issues have not been thoroughly studied could mean failure for the ordinance.

"It's far more prudent to wait, educate the public and see what the plans are, as well as what they are not," Brady said. "I'm OK with delaying the ballot issue until 2010."

The airport receives the vast majority of funding for runway maintenance from the Federal Aviation Administration, but the money comes with stipulations. One of those, that the airport is not allowed to discriminate with respect to its users.

A weight restriction can be construed as discrimination, but without those federal grants the airport would have to turn to taxpayers for funding.

County Manager Dan Holler said questions have been raised with respect to a recent study to determine the weight-bearing capacity of Minden-Tahoe Airport's runway.

"We need to nail down those (weight-limit) figures and have them validated," Holler said. "Based on the information to date, we could be looking at another study and additional core samples. We're not sure yet."

Commission Chairman Doug Johnson said he has seen enough possible indiscretion in the weight studies, that he wants more reliable figures.

"We're not revalidating the field testing to come up with higher figures," said Commissioner Jim Baushke. "We have to be able to state the weight limit."

Baushke said he doesn't want a long-range contractual relationship with the FAA, but the county doesn't have the money for anything else.

"That's the box we're in, and we're looking for a way out," he said. "We're hoping the master plan process can do that, but we can't do it unilaterally. The voters have to help us."

Minden-Tahoe Airport creates 500 jobs and millions in economic benefits for Douglas County. It's an asset that should be protected, said Commissioner Jim Baushke.

"Our airport is self-sufficient, but I've met lots of people from around the country that want to close their airport because of the tax burden," Baushke said. "We don't want to expand the community airport, but there is no demand for that anyway, with Reno just up the road.

"We don't have the money for the infrastructure and lots of infrastructure is needed for airline operations. The infrastructure is located at Reno-Tahoe Airport and they are losing flights."

n Susie Vasquez can be reached at svasquez@recordcourier.com or 782-5121, ext. 211.