I realize the pointlessness of answering, but for the benefit of the group...here goes:
I've attended the meetings -- and helped stop the initial (insane) plan, which was to do this airport closure in JULY -- the busiest tourist month of the year. To stop that lunacy I would have taken legal action -- thankfully, that wasn't necessary, after the city manager was shown the error of his plans.
I've spoken with the airport manager, whom I consider a friend. I've spoken with the city manager. I live here, I own a business here, I pay beaucoup taxes here, and I'm based at this airport, where I fly over 190 times per year.
When I say "No one knows why we are getting runway lights now, or why the airport must be closed to accomplish this", I'm not making it up. I have speculated here, in answer to a specific question, and used the bits and pieces we airport users have heard to comprise a working theory, which is basically that they got a grant and took it.
This isn't an FAA project -- it's a Texas Dept of Transportation project, with some local funding. I don't believe there is any federal money involved, although it could be flowing through TXDOT.
But of course, all of this ignores the 600-pound gorilla in the room, which is this: Why, with crying, vocal, and obvious needs for hangars and new pavement, are Texas taxpayers buying us new runway lights that no user requested? And why must the airport be closed for a month to accomplish this task? Those are the two questions that simply cannot be answered logically, because the action is illogical.
As for asking the FAA, if you feel like wading knee deep into the FAA bureaucracy to find out the official reasoning, have at it. I'm sure the answer would be...creative.
Wait. After decades of attending airport commission meetings, I think I know how they will answer: "The runway lighting project is part of the long term master plan that includes extending the runway and building new hangars on the North side of RWY 12/30. To this end, grading along the edge of the runway will require heavy equipment to operate in close proximity to the runway, requiring closure of the airport's single runway for the duration, blah blah blah".
Sound about right? Of course, that boilerplate answer won't address the fact that NO ONE WANTS OR NEEDS NEW RUNWAY LIGHTS right now, and in any event they should not be prioritized ahead of desperately needed paving and hangar projects.
Another interesting tidbit: The city sent a letter out to known airport users, announcing the closure. That was the perfect venue to explain the project. They chose not to use this venue -- or any other, to my knowledge -- to explain the logic behind closing the airport to install runway lights.
To me, that can only mean two things:
1. The project either has no logic to be explained
Or
2. The powers that be don't deign the users of the airport important enough to merit any explanation.
Neither answer is good. Somehow, some way, our employees appear to have forgotten who is signing their paychecks.
Okay, you're now free to pick nits. (Spoken as James Earl Jones/Darth Vadar) "It is your...destiny."
