[EZ-Pass]

Originally Posted by TheNoonans

Good Afternoon To All,

I will be attending the Thursday May 21st, 2009 Laconia Airport Authority (LAA) meeting in hopes of receiving an approval for our operation to begin. If any of you would like to attend the meeting to lend your support (or Mr. Hemmel, to reiterate your concerns), I would invite you all to attend the meeting.

The meeting is being held in the airport's main terminal building at 65 Aviation Drive, Gilford, NH and begins at 5:30pm.

If any of you have local businesses or work for local businesses, I would strongly encourage you to come down and show your support. The decision of the LAA to allow or deny us our federally protected right to operate on the Laconia Municipal Airport will have a significant effect on the local economy. An approval to operate will provide an increase in tourists to the area and will also extend the tourist season beyond Memorial Day to Labor Day. A denial by the LAA will result in a status quo effect on local tourism. It's your inns, restaurants, bars, grocery stores and gas stations that will lose out on additional tourist dollars generated by our operation if this ends up getting delayed further.

To be fair, we understand that despite all the evidence to support our cause, there are a handful of people that don't want us there and no amount of information or evidence will ever change that.

To that group all we can do is offer an apology for affecting their status quo but remind them that the $10,000,000+ a year that is allocated to the airport comes from tax payer dollars and that it is not "free money", it comes with federal obligations, and like us or not, we are one of those obligations. Our right to pursue a federally protected freedom is non-negotiable. We are pursuing a just cause and plan to see this through to it's logical conclusion.

That is what makes community input so vital. The decision made by the LAA will reach far beyond just the end of the runway......it will reach into your businesses, into your jobs and into your cash registers. This decision is as much about the community as it is about the airport.

Blue skies to all and to all a good flight,

Tom

Tom, I wish TheNoonans the best of luck with your meeting with the LAA on the 21st of the month. This writer will not be able to attend, but would love to be there for your support and to meet you. You seem to have been very honest with all us with your replies here on this thread and I for one thank you for it.