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Show work toward a solution Fronitiiei' Airlines in January placed severe restrictions re-strictions against flights into the Moaib airport as a result of deteriorating runway conditions, and the owner of the airport, Grand County, was notified of the restrictions oiiiJy this week even though the sporadic air service here during the past three months had given Commissioners an idea that something was up. Who might be responsible for the delay in notifying notify-ing the county of the new restrictions (which could have resulted in action to correct the problem), was not fully decided in the meeting held Tuesday with Commissioners 'and Chamber of Commerce directors, but that is really not material. What is important, is that both County officials, of-ficials, local business people and the Airline itself, now have gotten together face-to-face to discuss a mutual problem, and hopefully a solution can be found. The culprit, as has been mentioned many times in these columns, is really the Mancos Shale formation forma-tion on which the airport was constructed. The formation for-mation has caused undulations in the runway surface and cracking of the pavement, and according to Frontier, Fron-tier, the situation has now deteriorated to the point that landings are not being allowed if a 10 knot cross-wind cross-wind exists, or if the runway is wet. No one can argue with the importance of conducting con-ducting flight operations out of Moab as safely as possible, and if the airport is not safe, then it must either be corrected or air service forgotten about. However, we believe the Grand county commission commis-sion has 'acted in good faith on the matter, and we feel they are sincere when they report that repeatedly when they have sought from Stats and Federal agencies, ag-encies, accurate reports on the condition of the runway, run-way, they have been told that the situation is not critical, .and was not particularly worse than it has been during the past few years. Now that both sides on the issue know the facts, it is hoped that the lines of communication can be kept open. If we are to expect, better air service than we have been getting the past few month's, then it is up to the County and State authorities to find an an.swer to the Mancos Shale riddle, and then move to correct the problem. Certainly, a first step would be to obtain any information in-formation the State Road Commission might have on, building highways over the nasty formation; a reputable repu-table engineering firm then should be put to work to determine how much would be required to fix the problem runway, and then methods found to finance such work. Certainly Federal and State Funds would be available to assist materially in the work. On the other 'hand, if Grand county goes to the expense of rebuilding its airport, then: officials have every reason to assured that adequate air service be continued in Moab and upgraded as the traffic demands. To spend funds in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, and then have no Improvement of service would certainly be disheartening, and the County should make every attempt they can after improvements improve-ments are made, to see that good service continues. |
