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You aren't a Laconia/Guilford Selectman or on the LAA
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Your right, and given the current political climate in the area, I doubt I would be welcome on either board.
If I was a Selectman in a community that has a substantial reliance on tourism dollars, I would judge every tourist based opportunity that could benefit the community fairly and impartially. Based on what I have read and what I have heard about the current status quo, I don't think I would be very popular on the board if I did that.
If I was on the LAA, I would definitely not be very popular as I don't cater to special interests groups and back room political wheeling and dealing. Even if I didn't personally want skydiving on the airfield, I would weigh all the facts before ever casting judgement, and if the facts supported the business proposal as a benefit to the community as a whole, I would vote for it, even if it wasn't what the special interest group wanted.
Here's the funny part: had the LAA done what it was tasked to do in 2008, we would have been operating on the airfield by May of 2009. It's now two years later, post May 2009. Had they done their job when they were supposed to, this issue (and this thread most likely) would have run it's course. We'd have been proven right and there would be a thriving new adventure sport on the airport. Or (playing devil's advocate), we'd have been proven wrong, and our little "dirt road" business would have folded and we'd have been on our way. And the airport would be carrying on today as though nothing ever happened.
But that didn't happen......
So today, two years later, this issue has become a federal interest item and is about to become a national news item. And the LAA is going to be placed front and center in that.
We never wanted it to become a national campaign, but that's where we were forced to bring it when the LAA threw policy and statute out the window before we ever even set foot on the airport.
Maybe they thought we'd just go away? If that's the case.........they thought wrong.
Blue skies to all and to all a good flight,
Tom
Edit to add: People "in the know" up there have repeatedly told us that the REAL reason the LAA and the two FBOs don't want us there is because they know we will work up there and THRIVE there. That we will become such a large part of the daily ops on the airfield that we will in a sense take it over. (For the record, that was never our intent or desire. We intended a happy medium of flight ops integrated into the daily flow. And we HAD planned to send our happy customers to the two FBOs for flight training, figuring the more business we directed their way, the better it was for everyone involved.)