The Friedman Airport Authority Tuesday evening showed impatience toward those who don’t understand that the Hailey Airport cannot remain where it currently is and discussed ways to improve the conversation in future Airport Site Selection Committee meetings.

“We are going to try to respond to questions people ask,” new Authority Chairwoman Martha Burke said Tuesday, “but when people make statements in conversations, we want to know from whom the information came and when it came, to better authenticate it.” Burke also called for questions to be submitted ahead of time “if they’re going to be inflammatory.”

While committee participants may be unwilling or unable to specify in advance what spontaneous remark they may make in future Site Selection meetings, all authority members Tuesday indicated they were weary of unsubstanciated statements masquerading as fact.

“We’ve been getting statements we know not to be true,” Airport manager Rick Baird noted. “It’s becoming a problem in that if you keep saying things long enough, people will believe them.”

While no specific examples were given, the reactions of Horizon Airlines and SkyWest Airlines to a more-distant airport stands as a likely candidate.

At the Jan. 25 Site Selection meeting, committee member Wally Huffman, general manager of Sun Valley Company, said he’d spoken with principals of both airlines and found them unwilling to commit to serve an airport at, say, Moonstone or northern Lincoln County, up to an hour away from the resort.

Mead Hunt consultant Tom Schnetzer countered that he’s spoken with airline officials and believes them willing to evaluate any new airport serving Sun Valley.

Airline representatives were not present at Tuesday’s Airport Authority meeting and haven’t attending any site selection committee meeting after the first few last fall.

Authority attorney Barry Luboviski said his experience tells him no one on either side will get the clear answer they want from an airline.

“The answers you’ll get from the airlines will be nuanced,” Luboviski said. “You’re chasing your tail.”

Authority board member Len Harlig said the problem represents an issue inherent in taking public comment, and noted there may be better ways to manage it.

“There are two sides to the coin,” Harlig observed. “We sit and listen to what people say. But when they ask questions that don’t get answered by the consultants, it makes them think we’ve something to hide. We need a truth squad to deal with what isn’t accurate and provide what answers we can so they don’t think they’re being ignored.”

“The other issue is a mistaken impression that somehow this existing airport will be up for grabs to be expanded to meet the future’s needs,” Harlig continued. “Some folks looking at this process are in hope that when it’s all over, we’ll come back and expand it beyond it’s current fenceline. It won’t happen. It has to be done away from a city and not by expanding this one. Once it’s understood that is the bottom line, it will be a help.”

Harlig noted the importance of the resort to the valley’s economy wherever a new airport goes, it will have to be viable in terms of its attractiveness to those coming here. Even so, he noted, everyone has to understand Friedman’s not the answer.

A related point on which all authority members agreed was the need to ask the FAA for a written statement detailing their regulatory evaluation of the current airport and its future.

The inquiry was among a list of questions posed at the Jan. 25 Site Selection meeting by Maurice Charlat, a member of the Sun Valley-Ketchum Chamber and Visitors Bureau’s board of directors.

CVB director Carol Waller Tuesday evening said she appreciated the Authority’s willingness to listen to the north-valley business community.

“I appreciate that you’ll address the questions,” Waller said. “The question is the business community is saying we need answers.”

Airport Authority members who have had the closest contact with the agency believe the FAA will assert the new, larger and faster aircraft now serving Friedman Airport have exceeded the airport’s ability to accommodate them safely. They also believe the FAA will find Friedman’s locale, bordered on two sides by a state highway and on three sides by residential subdivisions with people weary of turbine noise, prevents it expanding enough to meet federal safety standards for those bigger, faster aircraft. Move the airport, the Authority believes the FAA will insist, or prepare for restrictions that will make the airfield unattractive to airlines.

Substanciating that fate, Baird later said the existing airport is able to meet the requirements of only Horizon Airlines’ earlier and smaller Bombardier DASH 8-200, but the resort community has outgrown that airplane.

“That aircraft wouldn’t fly the Oakland leg,” Baird noted of the nonstop flights now connecting Sun Valley with the San Francisco Bay Area. “The -200 used to fly to Seattle nonstop, but the economics weren’t there to sustain it.” Only Bombardier’s Q400 –a C3 aircraft— has the range to make it to California nonstop and particularly the leg to Los Angeles, another nonstop connection the Sun Valley-Ketchum Chamber and Sun Valley Company have arranged and funded with revenue guarantees.

Harlig said the statement from the FAA may provide the Site Selection Committee with more certainty.

“I understand what Barry said about the airlines,” Harlig said. “Our consultants and staff have listened to what the airlines have said and have come back with their interpretation. Resort people and Sun Valley Company have listened and have come back with their interpretation. Those two haven’t matched up very well. We need a consistent set of answers to the questions we’ve asked, the statement from the FAA in writing on how we got here, so we don’t have to go through the process of competing answers and interpretations. We need something more consistent.”

Baird predicted the FAA statement on Friedman’s future will be here before the Site Selection Committee’s next meeting Feb. 22.

On a related topic, Airport Authority members Tuesday approved conceptual plans for runway and taxiway construction this year and next that will improve Friedman Airport’s ability to handle C3 aircraft, to a point.

The improvements include adding 200 feet to the southern end of the runway, installing a $3.2 million device at its northern end to prevent errant aircraft from crossing Highway 75 and widening the runoff areas alongside the runway, work costing some $4.5 million in all.

The modifications will approximate C3 standards, but only enough to allow Friedman to continue operating until a new airport is built somewhere else.

“The FAA will consider these modifications temporary, not permanent,” Baird said. “If there were any chance the FAA would accept these as permanent, we wouldn’t be doing a site study.”

The impovements will extend Friedman’s runway length to 7,152 feet for takeoff and to 6,680 for landings. During construction expected to take place this fall, Friedman’s runway will shrink about 1,000 feet to keep workers and equipment out of the way of approaching aircraft.

In other business last night, new Authority board member (and new Blaine County Commissioner) Tom Bowman arrived to replace Mary Ann Mix. Bowman brought with him a letter from the Commission assuring the Authority that county leaders understand the airport must move to accommodate the future.

“The Board is in full agreement that no major expansion of the existing facility should be pursued to accommodate C-III aircraft,” the letter states. “At the same time, we are in an educational mode and will want to take time to confirm the work of the Authority that all federal regulatory and legislative avenues for solutions short of expansion have been exhausted.”

Hailey City Councilwoman Martha Burke was made chair of the Authority and Hailey Mayor Susan McBryant now serves as vice-chair. McBryant persuaded Bowman to accept the position of secretary with the argument that producing the meeting’s minutes will quickly bring him up to speed on the issues. Bowman accepted cautiously.

“Does this imply any stepping-up through the ranks?” Bowman inquired.

“Because you’re certainly not comfortable with that?” attorney Luboviski asked, smiling.

“Yes, thank you,” Bowman replied.