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Voters to Weigh in on Blaine Airport

Posted on: Friday, 21 October 2005, 21:00 CDT

By Jon Gambrell, The Bellingham Herald, Bellingham, Wash.

Oct. 21--BLAINE - It's history repeating.

By narrow margins during the past 27 years, Blaine City Council and voters supported keeping its municipal airport open. This November, city voters will see a fourth ballot measure about the airfield's future.

As usual, the issue is bringing out passionate views on each side.

Preparing his SR22 Cirrus for a flight at the airfield, Blaine resident Bob Anderson couldn't understand why anyone would want to close the city's small airport.

The airport, a single asphalt lane on a 34-acre spread near the Canadian border, is in line for a 20-year, $16.8 million improvement plan paid for mostly by the Federal Aviation Administration. That means a longer runway, instrument-guided landings for bad weather and the potential for new business coming into the city.

"The casualness this is being handled with is incredible to me," the 61-year-old pilot said. "It is amazing to me people don't know how lucky they are. It's a gift from heaven."

Blaine Realtor Dennis Hill sees the airport in a much different light. After leading a political action committee critical of the airfield, he believes making the airport's land available for another use could be the chance to bring industrial jobs back to Blaine.

"In some sort of perfect world, we'd have some sort of industry that pays $20 an hour so people can live in Blaine," Hill said. "There should be a national search to find the industry to put in there."

Closing the airport wouldn't be as simple as hanging a "For Sale" sign on the chain-link fence surrounding it. The airfield has three tenants - long-time airport fixture Don Nelson, Yorkston Oil Co. Inc. and the Blaine Airport Hangar Condominium Association, which includes City Councilman Bob Brunkow. If the city closed the airport, each would be entitled to some sort of money for damages, said Gary Tomsic, Blaine's city manager.

The city received roughly $388,000 in grants from the state's Department of Transportation over the last 20 years for repairing the airport's runway, adding fencing and creating a new fuel terminal. That money probably would have to be repaid, said Nisha Hanchinamani, a spokeswoman with the Department of Transportation.

There are also environmental concerns, said Doug Fenton, chairman of Blaine's airport commission. Leaking fuel over the years may have saturated the soil, he warned. The airport's runway would have to be removed as well.

On top of that, there is a chance that any move toward closing the airport would meet considerable legal resistance. Jim Smith, president of the Washington Pilots Association, said his group would consider mounting a legal defense to defend the airfield. The city also would have to pay legal fees to settle any other lawsuits with those leasing land at the airport.

If the FAA comes back and approves the 20-year master plan, it would mean the airport's runway would move farther south, adding length and width to accommodate turbo-prop planes popular in business travel. Airport supporters say that could attract new businesses to Blaine, providing a financial boon to a city still recovering from the Canadian dollar bottoming out years ago, a weak commercial fishing industry and tighter security on the border.

However, supporters admit there are no guarantees a refurbished airport would draw new businesses.

"Just because you have a better airport doesn't mean these companies will relocate to Blaine," Fenton said. "But if it doesn't have an airport, they definitely won't."

Opponents counter that selling or leasing the airport's land would be an economic kick-start the city needs. The Whatcom County Assessor's Office valued the airport and some of its surrounding land at nearly $3.2 million. While assessed value attempts to match current market values, properties often sell for much more than they are assessed.

Hill said the city could sell the airport's land for as much as $9 million to an industrial or manufacturing company. The city also could lease the land to developers to create a large truck stop for truckers waiting at the Pacific Highway border crossing.

"It wouldn't be the prettiest thing," Hill admitted. "Gas stations and bars were the lifeblood of Blaine for 30 years."

But airport supporters such as Anderson balk at the idea of replacing the airport, especially with a truck stop.

"The sad part about airports is it is hard to build a new one," Anderson said. "They are almost an endangered species. We can't just close these things willy-nilly."

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Copyright (c) 2005, The Bellingham Herald, Bellingham, Wash.

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Source: The Bellingham Herald, Wash.

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