Airport Director Deserves A Chance

Emelye, President Obama wanted the sequester. It is a dream come true for him. He just doesn't want to own it or assume responsibility or blame. It is a win -win situation for the President! Gut the military and gov. jobs and blame the Republicans or raise the debt ceiling and spend, spend our way into oblivion. Either way he wins. He just wants to vote"present". Slick? You think? You won't in 10 years when we feel the disastrous effects of his lack of leadership even worse than we do now.

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With the Republican majority's obstruction in the House of Representatives leading to the "sequester" I think we can forget about the FAA giving out any money for quite awhile. Smaller government FTW!

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TonyJames is right kabob! He has amazing knowledge. I wish he could help Sam save the airport.

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You wrong KABOB, Jamestown could have simply installed crush proof concrete at the end of the runway just like Midway in Chicago did. The Chicago plane slid into a city street and not a highway after shooting of the runway. The tunnel was specifically built to expand the runway in the future and any statement from you saying otherwise is wrong.

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By the way, it was determined that it was cheaper to build the tunnel over W. Oak Hill road and have the overrun area go over the road than it was to reroute the road as was done on the other end of the runway.

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The tunnel has nothing to do with a two part runway extention project. The FAA required every airport that has commercial service to put in a 1000 foot "over shoot safety area" in case a plane goes off the end of the runway. This, much like the new gun laws, was a knee jerk reaction to a plane going off the runway in Chicago, hitting a car and killing a person. Of course the Chicago runway services a thousand planes a day and ends 50 feet from a main highway. This is our government at work.

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I forgot to mention... maybe it's feasible to add a bus terminal (instead of replacing air travel) with shuttle service at the airport. At least it makes better use of the parking lot and the building which is empty nearly every time I visit (sometimes I rent cars there). Maybe a taxi service terminal could make sense there too.

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Carlaw, yep you're right, there may be potential for a small biz like that, but you would potentially need a lot of parking. FYI, though I usually have no prob driving to the Buff airport, it was a nightmare drive earlier this week, near 0 visibility in a blizzard, so I can appreciate the need for some to have an easier airport drive this time of year.

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Actually Renaldo someone could start a shuttle service to those airports as a private little business. There is no need to turn the airport into a bus company. These aren't Lego blocks. I love your ideas though. You should be up there helping Sam. :)

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I'd recommend changing the airport into a bus terminal, with regular routes to the Buffalo, Erie, and maybe even Cleve and Pitt airports. With this, people can still have their free parking and avoid driving to an airport outside Jamestown, which are the only advantages towards use of the current Jamestown airport. And a bus terminal has got to be a heck of a lot cheapier and easier to operate and maintain than an airport. In fact, maybe it could profit.

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Carlaw, it's really up to the FAA and their funding. The county applies for the grants and the FAA approves them or not. If they approve, then the county has to budget their 5% match. If Sam wants to try and bring in a once or twice a week Florida flight, the longer runway will likely be needed to make this happen. The runway right now is probably capable with select aircraft but allows for vey little error. Airlines don't like that.

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Leave it to the county to spend money on a project then not finish it. That's terrible!

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No the runway has not been expanded yet, the tunnel was just the first step. There is only grass on top of the tunnel right now. This is where the extension will go. This is a two step process.

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One other thing I want to add, the FAA would pay for 95% of the cost of extending the runway, the local match is just 5% of the cost. The county can not close the facility as any grants the FAA has given towards the facility over the past 20 years must be paid back. All of it.

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Didn't they already expand the runway?? What was the tunnel for? Does anybody remember how much money that was?

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Sam deserves every chance to turn this operation around. Let's not forget, he was given the task just months ago after inept leadership for decades at the facility. I see someone that can see the problems and is already acting on them unlike the previous leadership there.

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I agree Pleasewakeup. It's too bad Sam wasn't put in there a long time ago.

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Thank You Editor for becoming more informed and carrying about our community. Very True Statement, "Deserves a Chance" You can't put people into a responsibility and then expect failure. I support this airport and do wish that we had a better flight option

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zzz snore zzz

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