On 26th July the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) of the King County Council, Mr. MacEwan, posted a disertata and proposals (22 pages) called ‘Airport Relocation Stategy’ for the council to consider. You can read it at – Click Here for direct link
On the 29th of July In a four hour session, discussion among the Municipality of Kings councillors, several pointed out defects in the proposal, including abandonment of established processes and attempts to stiffle democratic rights. The proposal was presented only two days before the session and the public has not been included in the discussions. All the arguments fell on deaf ears with respect to six of the councillors who had already made up their minds. The porposal was passed in a six for and five against vote.
Only after the vote was the public at the meeting allowed offer their input to the proposal. The majority of which was condemnation of the process and the action taken that night and in previous council meetings about the airport.
Basically, the ‘Strategy’ says
- The Council reaffirms that Waterville Airport is closing
- Disengages the MOK for any new airport facility
- MOK only supports negotiate to relocate the airport to 14 Wing Greenwood
- Delay closing of Waterville Airport to 2015 only if aviators take over the relocation. to Greenwood
- The Airport Relocation Committeee is dissolved.
The CAO in his presentation before the discussion and vote, admitted that there is a flaw in the ‘Strategy’ in that the negotiation with CFB Greenwood may not be able to be concluded. In that case, he allowed that ‘he’ would reconsider the possiblity of a different solution to the relocation of the airport.
It should be noted that on the original vote to close the Waterville airport, 10 of the 11 councillors voted for closure. In this vote only six of the 11 voted for the motion that reaffirmed closure.
