April 23--Both the Nez Perce County Commission and Lewiston City Council voted Monday to give $2,500 each to the U.S. Contract Tower Association to help keep the airport here on the national radar screen.
The jointly owned Lewiston-Nez Perce County Regional Airport is key to the area's economic vitality, said Nez Perce County Commissioner Robert Tippett.
The airport itself won't close if the air traffic control tower is shut down June 15 by the Federal Aviation Administration, but it will be less safe with a mix of commercial, corporate, agricultural and private air traffic, airport Manager Robin L. Turner said.
The Lewiston airport is one of 150 privately managed towers the FAA said it would close to save money when federal budgets were slashed across the board under sequestration.
The FAA didn't follow its own rules in making the cuts, Turner said, and a number of lawsuits have been filed. That would cost the city and county, which jointly own the airport, as much as $200,000, he estimated.
Instead, they will become parties to a larger suit. The airport authority is contributing $2,000, Turner said.
In a news release Monday from U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, to airport officials, Crapo said he and U.S. Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, are co-sponsors of a bill along with almost one-third of the Senate that would prevent the FAA from closing the towers. The bill maintains federal officials have the ability to redirect existing funding to maintain the towers.
The Budget Control Act, which requires the sequester of $85 billion in this fiscal year, gives agencies flexibility in making those cuts, the two senators said.
"The FAA is ignoring public safety in making these cuts in such a draconian way," Crapo said. "There are ways to keep FAA towers open using unobligated research and capital funds from prior appropriations bills, but the FAA has not endorsed these alternatives."
"For whatever reason, they have chosen to play politics with this issue," Risch said. "This bipartisan legislation makes it abundantly clear that these towers are not to be closed."
Lee may be contacted at [email protected] or (208) 848-2266.
Copyright 2013 - Lewiston Tribune, Idaho
