As some of you know, our airport (Iowa City Municipal -- KIOW) is entirely shut down for the month of August during runway reconstruction. This incredibly stupid situation has resulted from a long-series of lame-brained decisions, stretching back more than a decade.
Please relax and bear with me while I rant for a while. I need to get this off my chest.
Back in 1996, our airport commissioners knew that the WWII-era runway/taxiway pavement was deteriorating. Their Master Plan therefore included runway and taxiway resurfacing. The plan also included the ultimate closure of our North/South Rwy 18/36. Formerly the main runway (back in the airline days), it took off right over the growing city. The FAA stated that a GA airport our size didn't need three runways, and would no longer provide federal funding to support that runway.
However, it was written that Rwy 18/36 should not close before the other two runways were repaved, since to do so would mean closing the airport 100% while the intersection of the other two runways was repaved.
Nothing happened. We were saddled with a long-term, do-nothing (full-time) airport manager -- a throw-back to the airline days -- a long-term FBO owner who had made many enemies in City Hall, and a city council that was only interested in the land value of the airport. The only thing saving our airport was the Airport Commission structure itself, an independent governing body made up of volunteers whose charter was to do whatever was best for the airport -- period.
With this independent governing body in the way, the city was powerless to close the airport -- thankfully. However, there was a loophole -- the city council appointed all the commissioners to the airport commission.
Thus began a long effort to appoint lackeys to the commission who would do the council's bidding. Non-pilots became the norm for appointees from that point onward. (And remains so today.)
Fast forward to 2001. Mary and I were hangared in the oldest row of T-hangars on the airport. The asphalt taxiways leading from the WWII-era runways to our hangar were deteriorated to the point where taxiing was becoming dangerous. The pavement was breaking down into large rocks and loose gravel, and the asphalt had broken up into thousands of little "islands", which -- after a rainstorm -- would allow water to bubble up when you stood on them.
Still nothing was being done. The airport was slowly being choked to death by not-so-benign neglect.
So, we decided to take matters into our own hands. In 2002 I formed the "Friends of Iowa City Airport" (FOICA), an airport users's group. Primarily an email group, it quickly grew to over 300 members. We started clamoring for regular maintenance, and for the airport to follow it's own master plan.
By now, the city council had completed their task of planting stool pidgeons on the commission. FOICA members started attending the monthly meetings -- something NO ONE had ever done before, apparently -- and I began publishing unofficial meeting minutes to the FOICA email group. This shed an uncomfortably bright light on what was formerly an entirely private function.
After a few months, much to my amazement, we discovered that the airport commission was seriously discussing disbanding itself! The commission that had been wisely set up after WWII for the sole purpose of protecting the airport from future generations of money-grubbing politicians was actually considering political suicide!
Knowing that this was the first step toward seizure by the city council -- and ultimate closure -- FOICA sprang into action. We packed commission meetings with airport supporters, and several commission members resigned. The mayor, local media, and city manager attended these formerly sleepy meetings, and we made our voices heard.
At last the head stool pidgeon brought the issue to a vote. A motion to dissolve the airport commission was put on the table, and we all held our collective breath. By this point there were only three commissioners left -- the other three had resigned -- and the vote came down to two votes opposed, to one in favor. We had won!
The stool pidgeon immediately resigned after the meeting.
Still, we now had just TWO commissioners, and the city council had to appoint the other four. Over the next few months they approved four new commissioners, only one of whom was a pilot. But what a choice he turned out to be!
This guy was a real spark plug, well connected in the University of Iowa, well-liked, and very high energy. Most importantly, he was a new pilot himself -- something the city council apparently didn't know about him. He started asking the obvious questions -- why aren't we applying for federal grants? Why are our runways falling apart? All eyes turned to our long-term, full-time airport manager -- who had nothing to say.
Amazingly, because past, do-nothing commissions had not given him any direction, he had done precisely what any good gummint bureacrat does -- NOTHING. He had simply laid low, collected his $80K annual salary (plus bennies), and done nothing for the airport.
Thankfully, this spark plug on the commission started looking at airport operations and management, and realized that things were simply not getting done, and that our airport manager was getting paid huge money for doing absolutely nothing. In the end, the commission actually FIRED the airport manager -- which (to my knowledge) is simply unprecedented in gummint. (Of course, the whole thing ended up in court. But the decision stood up.)
Then, the commission, under the guidance of this spark plug, began looking at other ways to run the airport. Without airline service there was no longer any need for a full-time airport manager -- but the city still had memories of the now-retired old FBO owner (who had run the place like his own fiefdom) -- so rather than farming out the operation to their new FBO (as so many airports do) they decided to retain control by hiring a part-time manager.
Where to find such a person? Again, our well-connected spark plug stepped in, and managed to obtain interns from the University of Dubuque's aviation management program. Thus, we were able to get a couple of part-time, bright and highly energetic students, who went after grants with a vengeance while getting on-the-job training, at an extremely low cost. Everything was right with the world!
Soon, the grants started coming our way. First, the taxiways were repaved -- at last! Finally we could stop sandblasting our plane every time we flew. Then grants for hangar rehab, ramp reconstruction, and --ultimately -- runway repaving were applied for and received.
But trouble was brewing. Our spark plug accepted a job offer at another university far from Iowa City, and resigned from the commission. With no one to coordinate the intern program, the commissioners voted to hire one of the interns to run the airport, losing the constant influx of enthusiasm and new ideas. (And, as importantly, the low cost.) And the city council was still quite effective at packing the commission with airport-neutral (at best) commissioners.
Without the spark plug to keep the ship facing into the wind, bad things began to happen again.
In 2006, the commission chair -- a city council plant from the get-go -- decided that it was time to close our North/South runway, even though the Airport Master Plan dictated that this runway remain open until the other runways had been repaved. This inexplicable decision was made with such speed that there were students and instructors in the pattern when it happened. No notice was given, no public discussion took place beforehand. (It has since been widely assumed that someone on the city council had been approached by a developer who wanted to build off the North end of the airport -- but no proof of that has ever been produced.)
This created quite an uproar in the pilot community, as you might expect. But the decision was irreversible -- the stoolie was backed by our city council -- and was made permanent by the chairperson's decision to use grant money to move our AWOS INTO THE MIDDLE of the closed runway! The purported reason for this incredible decision was that the AWOS needed to be more centrally located on the airport, but the real reason was obvious.
Ironically, because an AWOS cannot be located on concrete (it warps the temperature readings) the commission spent tens of thousands of dollars digging up 60' x 100' of the old runway, so that the AWOS could be placed on grass. And, so that the old runway could never be reopened by future commissions.
Then, our commission voted to tear down our historic Boeing/United hangar. This hangar, built in 1930, was one of just seven original Boeing-built airmail hangars left in America. FOICA fought to save the old hangar for five years, but ultimate lost. Even though moving the hangar would have only cost $30K, and refurbishing it only $150K, the hangar was torn down late last year.
Incredibly, in the same meeting that we lost the battle, the commission -- finding itself short of large hangar space -- voted to apply for a $750K grant to build a similar-sized hangar. We were incredulous.
In 2006 grant money for the long-planned (like, since WWII) extension of Rwy 25 was received. It took over a year to add 500 feet of concrete (typical gummint program, eh?), but by 2008 we at last we had the magic 5000' feet of runway, so crucial for biz jet insurance. The other end of that runway was slated for repaving this year, which would leave us with Rwy 12/30 to use.
Enter the "Great Recession" and our gummint's "Spendulus" package. Suddenly, ObamaBux were flowing like water, and it became obvious that -- if we could prove we were "shovel-ready" -- Iowa City could get BOTH runways repaved this year. Cool! (Hey, if you're gonna spend your grand-kids' money, it may as well be on something permanent like airport infrastructure...)
So, the airport manager and commission applied for -- and received -- the extra federal grants. Let the bulldozers roll!
Whoops -- guess what? With rwy 18/36 closed, and both remaining runways torn up, the airport must be shut down entirely. No problem -- just reopen the old runway!
Crap, that AWOS is in the way. No problem, the original runway was 120' wide, still leaving 60' of usable runway. Oops, in the meantime, our airport commission had (believe it or not) leased that part of the airport to a seed company that uses that end of the airport for it's experimental corn crops! And guess what -- they use the old runway to run their tour-buses full of farmers past the immaculately-kept fields of genetically modified corn, apparently in an effort to get them to buy their seed.
I am NOT making this up. We couldn't reopen that runway because our airport commision had leased it to farmers who are driving air-conditioned tour busses up and down it.
Okay, well, no problem -- the remaining part of Rwy 25 (on the East side of the runway intersection) is still 2500' long. That portion of the runway can remain open throughout construction, and NOTAM'd "use at own risk". Airports across the country do this every day, and heck, lots of airport runways are SHORTER than 2500' -- right?
Nope. In a unanimous decision, our current airport commission voted to close the airport for the month of
September, because using that "short" a runway would be "dangerous" and they didn't want the liability if there was an incident.
Aside from the absurdity of calling a 2500' runway "short", you may have noticed that I said "the month of September". Last month, with just 20 days notice, the commission announced that the airport closure had been moved up a full month, to August! Thankfully we were able to convince them to leave the airport open until August 3rd -- the day after Oshkosh Airventure ended -- or pilots attending OSH would not have been able to come home!
Apparently the powers that be in the University had heard about the plan to close in September, and thown a fit. It seems that too many donating alumni fly in for Hawkeye home football games, you see, and we wouldn't want to torque THEM off.
So, everyone on the airport was left scrambling. Guys who had arranged for hangar space at other nearby airports for September were screwed. Both of my planes are now parked outside on the ramp in nearby Washington, Iowa (AWG), because hangar space wasn't available anywhere on such short notice.
And, in a final "coup de grace", the airport commission decided not to grant any rent relief to ANY airport tenants -- including our FBO! We must all pay for the month of August, even though the airport is entirely shut down. (And let's not even contemplate what will happen if we get bad weather, and the construction schedule is delayed...)
This has been a train wreck for everyone concerned, of course. Our fly-in business at the hotel has been decimated. Normally we pick up quite a bit of post-OSH fly-in guests, but that's all gone elsewhere now. Just what we needed in a year when travel is already down 25%. And, of course, our poor FBO is entirely shut down. Their pilots are mowing, moved to other airports, or unemployed. According to one of their staff members, the maintenance shop had about 11 days of work lined up in advance, after which they would be shutting down.
So, here's where we sit -- thanks for listening. I can't fly without driving 1.5 hours (round trip), my planes are parked outside in the often-brutal Iowa summer weather, and my business has been crippled -- all because of incredibly stupid government decisions that were made in the face of so many obviously better choices. I know there's nothing to be done now, but when I start to hyperventilate I just try to remember how nice it will be when the runways are done. That'll be small consolation if we and our FBO don't survive the project -- but it's the best we can do...
