08/06/08

Tuesday night board members of the Friedman Memorial Airport Authority learned of three areas where a replacement airport for the current one could be located. All are south of Bellevue. Two along Highway 20, the other on State Road 75.

Consulting firm Landrum and Brown completed phase one of a feasibility study for the Federal Aviation Administration.

Mark Perryman of Landrum & Brown said, "At this point we've recommended to the FAA they should carry three sites through the environmental impact statement process as well as the no action at the existing airport."

Perryman says the current facility does not meet today's design standards for new aircraft.

"It does meet design standards for small aircraft, but larger aircraft started flying, both commercial and that the Q-400 being flown by Horizon Airlines and general aviation traffic. A lot of the corporate that fly into and out of the Friedman Memorial Airport exceed the design standards of the airport it was originally built for."

Perryman says a total of 18 spots were looked at for a possible airport. All under went a three tiered process to weed out the best of them. The first tier looked at one important criterion.

Perryman said, "Predominantly dealing with the ability for the airport to function in bad weather conditions on a year round basis."

Plus, Perryman says the area needed to be located in a 60-minute drive time area from Ketchum, Hailey and Carey.

Tier two sorted out sites that did not meet a number of criteria such as safety, topography and land use to name a few.

Now it's the public's turn to submit their input on the three proposed sites.

Comments will be reviewed and entered into the EIS