Vagneur: Put it all out there, PitCo

The photos of my mom are there at the Aspen Historical Society – a portrait of her in a new dress, other photos of her and her younger sister, along with a first cousin, playing out in the ranch yard. Young girls, between 5 and 7 years old. Other photos show my mom’s uncles and a couple of aunts putting up hay in the meadow between Highway 82 and the main house, out there where the runway of the Pitkin County Airport now bifurcates the landscape.

Barry Vaughn – El Jebel resident, pilot, and vociferous airport-expansion backer – says, “There are a lot of very opinionated people here who tend to remember the way things were 10 to 50 years ago; so whenever there’s a chance to remove a transportation inefficiency, there’s pushback.”

In his opinion. 

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Damned right there’s pushback. There needs to be. Otherwise, it all comes unraveled. Kinda like when the government intentionally scaled back train and bus transportation, two “obvious” inefficiencies in favor of the automobile, creating much of the mess we have now. My father, who flew in and out of here in the 1950s on Bert Simon’s first Aspen Airways plane (dirt runway), always said peripheral vision should be used for detecting possible collateral damage. Just because something seems streamlined, easier, or whatever, it doesn’t mean we need to charge ahead like crazed water buffaloes, chasing illuminating mirages of hungry beasts salivating after their calves. 

In case you’re not sure as to what I’m referring, as if you haven’t heard about this for years, it’s about widening the existing Pitkin County Airport runway, enabling 117-foot-wide wingspans (bigger planes) to romp up and down the asphalt flat (opposed to the 95-foot-wide wingspans allowed now). 

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That’s about where the arguing starts – one side equating bigger with better, the other cautioning be careful what you wish for. It’s more complicated than that, but the basic line of reasoning being that with larger planes, we could potentially bring in more visitors from out of town and certainly enable (allow) some of our more high-rolled residents and part-timers to fly their larger aircraft in-and-out at will. 

Statistics always pose a problem for me, as to the actual numbers, but I’m pretty sure I can eyeball public sentiment rather accurately and would attest, should anyone ask, that a majority of Pitkin County residents are against widening the runway. That’s from letters to the editor and chit-chat on the gondola and sidewalk. Hardly anyone appears to disagree with the need for a new terminal, and that’s a hell of a lot less expensive than a complete re-do of the place. 

Pitkin County staffers seem to have come up with the marketing idea that to widen the runway (airside), plus a new terminal, is to “modernize” the airport. I’ve been in marketing a long time and hate to break the news, but the term “modern” and its derivatives have fairly well gone the way of Manifest Destiny and the Dodo bird. Aspen achieved “modern” when we finally got running water year ’round, sometime in the late 1950s.

To be clear: We can decide not to expand the runway and we will still be able to get funding from the FAA for terminal and ground improvements. To say otherwise is a canard, honed-in agenda rather than reality. 

One can read himself blind going over both sides of this issue, but what seems odd to me is that Pitkin County is undertaking an ad campaign to convince us, the voters, that we need an expanded airport for bigger planes. The reasoning for that is entirely up for debate, and neither side appears to be making much headway in the conversation. 

However, it is puzzling to note that Pitkin County is playing its hand by committing to such an expansionist campaign, taking what it believes is the best choice for the county. Doesn’t the county government supposedly represent all of the voters? Not just the ones it feels support its vision?

In fairness to the community, Pitkin County should, in its adverts, using public funds, explain both sides of the issue, pro and con. As it is now, one has the feeling of a railroad job. Get it all out there for the people to digest. Then, in an ultimate display of faith, of putting such a gargantuan decision in the hands of the people, put it up for a public vote. 

Tony Vagneur writes here on Saturdays and welcomes your comments at ajv@sopris.net. If Tony’s mother was still alive, she’d be 98 this year.

Tony Vagneur writes here on Saturdays and welcomes your comments at ajv@sopris.net.