We have no king in Douglas County but the Board of County Commissioners has given this extraordinary power to Airport Manager Jim Braswell in the Airport Rules and Regulations. Not only have they given him this power, he has used it against Soar Minden five times in the past. Every time he has used it, the county manager has upheld it. In fact, the last time it was upheld, Mr. Holler stated in a letter to Soar Minden, in effect, that the next time Soar Minden might be banished for life.
Royalty ceased to exist in this country in 1776 so why is it allowed to continue in this county? In this most recent case, Soar Minden, for whom I work part-time, was served a letter from the airport manager, stating in substance, that a refueling truck accident at Soar Minden (June 20) will be punished by banishing Soar Minden from all refueling operations, including the self refueling station, for a period of 21 days. The refueling truck accident severely injured a fellow Soar Minden employee and was the result of another Soar Minden employee neglecting to follow previous explicit instructions not to use this truck until the brakes were fixed. He was then fired following the accident and the truck was thereafter replaced.
Following the accident the airport manager required Soar Minden to get a Nevada Department of Transportation inspection for both of its fuel trucks before further use.
The inspections, which had to be scheduled, were ordered by Mr. Braswell to be done to DOTNV on-road standards, even though this type of inspection is not required by any current airport directives for airport/off road use.
This level of inspection was not required for the other FBO fuel seller on the airport. The FAA prohibits discrimination between FBOs under the FAA Grant Guarantees and requiring different standards for the two fuel sellers on the airport is clearly discrimination.
The scheduling of the inspections caused time delays in returning the vehicles to service and resulted in the fuel trucks being kept out of service for a week (during the massive Angora fire) depriving Soar Minden of that vital revenue, which should itself serve as sufficient punishment.
Now, Mr. Braswell is intending to further punish the entire business and its customers for an additional 21 days.
Soar Minden has appealed this arbitrary decision to the Board of County Commissioners, to be heard on Oct. 11.
Is this how you want your airport to be operated, by a tyrant whose obvious intent is to end soaring at the Minden-Tahoe Airport?
The irony of this action is that it is being taken after two fatal glider accidents, that were, in my opinion because Braswell didn't correct the known safety problems at the airport.
He was not punished, reprimanded or even told to investigate the cause of the accidents and take corrective actions; to this day no corrective action has been taken.
The airport manager is not part of the county justice system, he is not royalty, and he is not a lawyer, judge or jury and should not have this kind of power to unilaterally close down an airport business. If an individual is causing a problem he should appear before a Judge for a hearing and the appropriate punishment, if required, can be administered.
Selective use of an obsolete punishment tool reserved for royalty must cease in Douglas County. I have brought this to the attention of the Board, the County Manager and the District Attorney to no avail. The only way to quell this tyrant is for the citizens of this county to call to their board of county commissioners and express their displeasure, now.
-- Jon Hannan is a six-year resident of Minden and a retired test pilot with more than 50 years flying experience.
