Thu, Mar 18, 2004
It's All About Money
Will the Lake Tahoe
Airport continue to fly with a control tower? That's one of the
critical questions to be posed to the South Lake Tahoe City Council
at an upcoming meeting. The city's cost-sharing portion of its
agreement with the FAA may almost double from the $120,000 South
Lake Tahoe pays a contractor to watch air traffic between 8 a.m.
and 8 p.m. The hours were cut down to reduce costs, but the FAA has
insisted the measure fails to go far enough.
"Given the fiscal problems facing the city, adding costs in this
area will mean a decrease in expenditures elsewhere. There are no
funds budgeted to make up the increased local share cost requested
by the FAA," City Manager Dave Jinkens wrote in the staff
report.
The contract between the city and Serco Management Services will
expire by April 1, leaving the city with an imminent problem. Mayor
Tom Davis has sent a flurry of letters to federal representatives
in search of intervention.
"It's a safety issue. At least reducing the hours would be
better than no hours," Davis said. "I'm still working on it. You
know I don't give up easy."
The problem is further accentuated by the tower's importance at
attracting commercial air service, which has been absent from the
airport for about three years. The city contends that closing the
tower "will hamper the efforts to bring commercial service" back to
the airport, which the city supports with a $600,000 subsidy each
year. There's been ongoing talk to find other ways the city may use
the facility. One will emerge as the council plans to debate
whether to move city offices to the airport, the site also slated
for a planned visitors center. At no time in its 39-year history
has the city been housed under the same roof. The city rents the
council chambers and planning offices on 1900 Lake Tahoe Blvd. for
$120,000 annually. This lease, which expires in February 2006, is
expected to go up if renewed - prompting concern from city
officials who see the building as a black hole fiscally.
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