On January 8th a Town Hall meeting was held in Pacific City by Sen. Roblan & Rep. Gomberg to discuss safety issues with State roads, parks and the state owned airport. More than 100 people attended the gathering, filling the room. Most of the people were there to talk about the Dept. of Aviation's plans underway to sell the state-owned airport in Pacific City to a private individual. Many of the people in the room stated opposition to that proposal, and with the way the State had been discussing the sale in private, closed door meetings. Airport stakeholders had not been invited to participate in any process to understand, address and mitigate risks and safety issues. Hearing the concerns of the 40+ pilots in attendance at the town hall meeting, and with the members of the Tillamook Pilots Association (who voted to public state that the airport should remain public) the ODA director agreed to hold work group meetings to seek public input.

ODA has scheduled a public meeting in Pacific City on Friday, March 9th from 6:30-7:30pm. The meeting will be held at the Kiwanda Community Center. Please try to attend to seek information and to share your opinion. You can also offer to become an airport volunteer and advocate by contacting Friends of Pacific City State Airport: website is friendsofpacificcitystateairport.com. Facebook page is Friends of Pacific City State Airport.

My experience with the public agency that runs my airport is that these "meetings to seek public input" are often a waste of our time.
The agency is just paying lip service to transparency & responsiveness concerns.
They have their own agenda and their decisions are pretty much already made, and nothing short of an act of God is gonna sway them.

I hope that's not the case with Pacific City Airport and the Oregon Dept of Aviation.
It might be the best thing for the airport if a private operator bought the airport---but then again, it might not.
Very tough to tell until it's done-- then if it was the wrong thing to do, it's too late to do anything about it.
IMHO the safest thing to do would be to leave things as they are.

Perusing thread titles, this one caught my eye as it reminded me of a local situation.
The Port of Port Angeles in western WA is considering selling the John Wayne Marina on Sequim Bay,
to a developer who could then operate it and alter it as he saw fit.
This marina was developed on land donated by John Wayne (or his estate) many years ago,
apparently he spent a fair amount of time cruising these waters.
John Wayne Enterprises still owns a lot of land in the area.
I dunno if they legally can do much about this situation but I'm guessing they're not real happy about it.

The Port is planning a public meeting about this, but as I've said before,
the outcome of these meetings is usually decided ahead of time, no matter what the public has to say.

There is now a Facebook page for supporting Pacific City Airport staying state owned - "Friends of Pacific City State Airport" The local residents said it would help to show support by getting as many people to join. They also have a sign in book in a mailbox in the central tie-down area. They said the DOA will look at the number of people who fly there along with support on social media.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/148792385833847/about/

They (Friends of Pacific City State Airport) had their first meeting with over 30 people attending - including state Rep David Gomberg and State Sen. Arnie Roblanand. There were also several members of the department of aviation. The link to the article is listed below:

https://www.tillamookheadlightherald.co ... ad07f.html

Seems like the sale of the airport is less likely, but I think it would be wise for those that enjoy flying there to support the FB page and sign in when they fly there.


Josh

I'm not a Facebooker, but would like to support keeping the airport in public ownership.
Any other venue available besides FB to show my support?

You can email Robyn Holdman - [email protected]. She has more information and owns a home on the SE side of the field. There are several committees she started (executive, communication, maintenance, fundraising, and maintenance). I reached out to her last night. They are apparently having a big meeting tomorrow. I can't make it plus the my plane is getting an annual right now - otherwise I would be there. I think just having people fly there and signing the book will help.

The link below is the website for the Friends of KPFC for those that don't have access to Facebook. It has a lot of information about the airport's history, accidents, and upcoming events/meetings for those who wish to support the airport. There are going to plan some events over the summer (BBQ and Fly-in) to raise funds and awareness of the potential sale to a private party. There is also going to be a spring/summer work party at Pacific City State Airport and they need volunteers. The dates for both these events have not been announced yet.

https://sites.google.com/friendsofpacif ... tate-/home


Josh

One of the best ways you can show support for a public airport is land there. Granite Shoals TX was considering closing their grass strip airport and converting it to a soccer field for the kids because no one was using it. The couple of people that lived on it put out the word that they needed traffic so myself and friends started landing there anytime we flew by. Somehow that got it noticed, ultralights started using it frequently and the city decided to keep it an airport. And now they are putting up a donation box which I think is a great idea since there are no businesses on the field or fuel sales to help with cost of keeping it open. Use them or loose them.