Airport: a Referendum on Politics and Way of Life

Due to political blundering, the Town of Taos has stimulated opposition to the airport and jeopardized the project in the works since the 80s. By avoiding rules and regs regarding Taos County planning department approval for the project, until a lawsuit was filed this week, the town administrators (historically and currently) have now afforded residents and neighbors living in alleged flight paths to question the very integrity of the process. According to The Taos News, Town Manager “Slick Rick” Bellis only belatedly contacted “Steady Eddie” Vigil of the County’s planning department.

See the petition link posted below as the opposition hunts and gathers signatures to oppose the project in support of the Sizzling Six, who filed a lawsuit seeking an injunction and court order to mandate the Town request County permission and the County require the Town to stand up for the project. What gives?

<https://www.credomobilize.com/petitions/petition-to-oppose-taos-nm-airport-expansion>

Mayor Barrone works and Manager Bellis worked at the County. Both have taken some pride in the recently completed Land Use Regs (LUR) as well as the construction of the County Complex, a project, which was vetted, however superficially, and approved by the Town’s Planning Department. Bellis himself recently headed up the County’s Planning Department.

I find it strange that a Town project of this magnitude has awarded contracts for millions of dollars without attending to the most basic procedures, procedures expected of home owners and farmers, who erect fences or out-buildings and who can expect a “red tag” from the County if they don’t comply. Code enforcers have chastised some of my best friends and acquaintances, rightly or wrongly.

Now the Town has allowed residents to find a way to question the issue of air “navigation easements, ” a concept made clear in the lawsuit by the Sizzling Six. Even if Steady Eddie Vigil at the County administratively approves the runway project, aggrieved opponents can appeal the decision to the County’s Planning and Zoning Commission, which decision can, in turn, be appealed to the County Commission, which decision can be further appealed to District Court ad infinitum in an effort to satisfy residents.

Somebody blundered by not applying for approval long before construction was to begin.

I am reminded of NFL Boss Roger Goodell and the issue of “domestic violence.” What did he know and when did he know it? Every football fan knows about the arrest records involving his or her hometown team and the potential loss of ballplayers who get sidewise with girl friends, wives, and the law, thereby jeopardizing team prospects. A player like Michael Vick will go to prison if he abuses animals. Beat your wife or girlfriend and you’ll get suspended for a couple of games or be assigned to anger management courses. The “establishment” will go to great lengths to preserve the “brand” in the NFL (or at the local animal shelter).

The question re: delays at the airport project today involve not only Bellis and Barrone but also current and former council members: what did they know and when did they know it? We know from the documents quoted in the lawsuit that Slick Gus, former manager, promised but didn’t deliver in terms of seeking approval for the project from the County. The Town rarely sought to ratify annexation by filing appropriate documents with the County Clerk’s office. But Gus has been gone for more than a decade thanks to Clean Gene Sanchez and his investigation of the Town’s budget.

Regardless of “good intentions,” when government runs roughshod over the people, the people will take umbrage and pinch you in the butt. If you don’t dot the “i(s)” and cross the “t(s)”, then the attorneys will make much out of what the meaning of “is” is. Now the airport has become a symbol, more powerful than the controversial figure of Kit Carson. Airport expansion has become a referendum on “due process,” “the rule of law,” “class inequality,” “climate change,” “the carbon footprint, “protecting natural beauty,” “government transparency,” “real estate practices,” “war,” “corporatization,” and dreams of continuing to live in a quiet corner of the world.

According to pilot and engineer Ian Wilson, who wrote a convincing and insightful “My Turn” in The Taos News recently, the current concept of the crosswind runway, is unnecessary, raises safety questions, and will serve very few. (Airborne Ace Fred Fair, one of the first managers of the airport back in the early 70s, told me all this years ago but who was listening?) The Taos News itself published a study suggesting future impacts of an expanded airport were economically negligible.

Still your boosters “believe” airpower is the answer to economic woes just as restaurateurs and entrepreneurs believe a “sandwich board” on the highway will turn a sow’s ear into a silk purse. And sometimes it happens. While there is much about “empirical evidence” in play here, some claims raise abstract and even “metaphysical” issues on both sides of the debate. We are back to “faith” v. “reason” and “appearance” v. “reality.”

It’s no wonder D.H. Lawrence said that New Mexico was the greatest experience he ever had. For those who enjoy the experience of observing the human condition, controversy brings out the best and the best of the weird. It’s a way of life aqui en Taos.