Hershey: Regarding GWS airport

My friends and colleagues in Aspen may be confused by Glenwood Council member J. Godes’ letter regarding an airport but not Aspen’s airport (The Aspen Times, May 2).

The council member criticizes the GWS airport because he hates our airport. He makes numerous specious claims that this tiny airport is hiding “dark money” or something for a revered local businessman and is just a hobby (tell that to the firefighting crews that used it during the Lake Christine Fire) for rich people. His claims are confusing. I didn’t know the GWS airport was really a dark money/bitcoin scam run by a Columbian drug lord, but I think that is one of Godes’ claims. 

Those claims have already been completely refuted by former State Representative Greg Rippey. The new group running the airport has nothing to do with politics but is a simple 501(c) legally and properly incorporated with the Secretary of State. The voters of GWS (by 80%) told Godes we want to keep our airport as an important asset to GWS and a refueling location for our hospital’s aircraft, and council voted 6-1 to allow this group to run it.  

Godes then makes the fallacious claim that a local law firm, Garfield and Hecht, is in on this conspiracy because they represent a local mining company and our airport. So? As an attorney, let me remind Godes that everyone — including airports, criminal defendants, divorcees, civil litigants, and Jonathan, too — have a right (in some cases, a Constitutional right) to legal counsel. There is no conspiracy, other than a council member, adverse to open government, who wanted to secretly develop the airport for housing and has now been stopped by the people he purports to represent and their lawyers who outmaneuvered him. 

Godes also hopes to build a $100 million bridge with only a $50 million grant — good luck — in an effort to develop more housing “up” four mile and beyond.  I wonder which law firm represents the residents who will stop that? 

Tony Hershey

Glenwood Springs