Opposition to Paine Field Heats Up

Paine Field Neighbors Call
For Ban on Commercial Service

Editors' note: The following message from "SOC", a group opposed to use of Paine Field for scheduled passenger flights, is published here as a public service.

AIRPORT ALERT ONLINE

October 16, 2005

County Council Meeting
A Big Success!

About 80 of you turned out last Wednesday morning for our very important presentation at the Snohomish County Council meeting. We can't thank you enough for your attendance at a 9 a.m. meeting on a work day! To those of you that attended, you are absolutely awesome! And we appreciate all the rest of you who would have come if you could, but who continue to support us in different ways.

We felt the meeting was a huge success for our mission and for the organization. Mukilteo Mayor Don Doran, and SOC board member, asked the County Council to "Seal the Deal" by signing an Interlocal Agreement (ILA) that would codify the MRD and create a legally binding document for the use of Paine Field.

The ILA would be a permanent solution unlike the MRD, which is an agreement that has been followed for the past 27 years but may not be legally enforceable.

For a full text of Hauth's speech to the County Council, and a full copy of Mukilteo's proposed Interlocal Agreement, please visit the SOC website at www.socnw.org.

Doran told the council, "There is over a quarter century worth of commitments and policy decisions by a myriad of governmental bodies that have de facto led ten and tens of thousands today, and likely hundreds of thousands during the last quarter century, to believe that their quality of life was secure from the invasion of scheduled commercial flights out of Paine Field." Doran asked the council to put the ILA on the council agenda at "some point this year."

SOC President Greg Hauth, who also spoke at the meeting, presented the five council members with a copy of the book, "Take Back the Sky," by Rae Andre. Hauth urged the council members and community residents to read the book to learn the experience of Hanscom Field, a general aviation airport in Lexington, Massachusetts.

"The local community received multiple promises to maintain the airport for general aviation, and then reneged on those promises to bring in just a few small commercial airlines," Hauth told the council. "This story has amazing parallels to our situation, except for one thing. Today, Hanscom Field is a full service regional airport. The quality of life in Lexington has deteriorated as pollution, noise, congestion and other problems from the airport have increased. Read this book. Save Our Communities from a similar plight." ("Take Back the Sky" is available at http://www.amazon.com/).

Hauth urged the County Council to sign an interlocal agreement. "We need a stronger affirmation of the future role of Paine Field--we need this ILA, not a panel to review the MRD. We need an ILA."

"Until it is signed, we will not rest," Hauth promised the council and the audience of SOC supporters wearing black and yellow "NO commercial airline service at Paine Field" buttons. "We will work to do everything in our power to have this county government respect its own promise. We will hold those responsible accountable for their promise."

Hauth asked the councilmen to "act with integrity."

"Prove to us that you respect the people, respect the promises made by the county and that you respect principles. Show us leadership and integrity by your example. Sign the ILA. Seal the Deal."

The only comments from the council were from Chairman Gary Nelson, who said the points taken were "very well received by the County Council," and that the council will be "seriously looking at the interlocal agreement and looking at what perhaps comes out of the panel discussions (referring to a panel to review the MRD that was appointed by County Executive Aaron Reardon and is co-chaired by Doran)."

SOC's appearance at the County Council meeting was an important one for us and to our view, a successful one. However, we have a long way to go yet and cannot afford to take anything for granted or to get complacent about the issue. The panel has just been named to review the MRD, which is a process Reardon has estimated will take about a year. At this point, we don't know if the county will consider or agree to an ILA.

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