To the Reader’s Forum:

For years I have tried to fly home. I tried all the airlines. I missed connecting flights, because the flights didn’t leave on time. I watched the rental cars go away. I watched the coffee shop disappear. Is the webmaster gone too? Even today the web site says: “Commercial airline service to Jamestown is currently not available. Please check back with us in the Spring of 2018 for news and updates about commercial carrier service to the Jamestown – Chautauqua County Airport”

An area with Chautauqua Instititution, Lucy, Roger Tory Peterson, Justice Jackson, Lily Dale, Gerry Rodeo, Panama Rocks and so much more can’t get a plane in even once a week. But this airport can get money?

“Chautauqua County Jamestown Airport will receive $423,900 to conduct an airport master plan study and an additional $93,209 to construct a taxiway and rehabilitate airport runway.”

“The Chautauqua County Airport at Jamestown will receive $902,000 in state funding to renovate its aircraft hangar and other facilities.”

But no airline.

I will fly into Erie, or Buffalo, or Cleveland, or Pittsburgh. I will need to cut the trip short to get to the airport. So, Johnny’s will miss out, Lena’s will miss out, and of my favorite shopping spots to get gifts for my neighbors won’t see me before I leave. I lose a day on either side, because my county doesn’t have a working airport.

But they are getting money to improve a runway and taxiway which is more than a year old. I don’t understand. I don’t understand the money when there isn’t a focus on an airline. I don’t understand why an airline isn’t a priority when my hometown has so much to offer. Where are the priorities? What is the vision and who is really working to get the airport up and running?

I miss my hometown.

Kelley Rexroad

Odessa, Fla.