Comments on: New Panhandle Airport - Boon or Boondoggle? http://www.ecoastlife.com/wordpress/2007/10/01/new-panhandle-airport-boon-or-boondoggle/ Panama City, Bay County, and the Emerald Coast of Northwest Florida Sun, 06 Jul 2008 01:54:16 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.1 By: May Lattanzio http://www.ecoastlife.com/wordpress/2007/10/01/new-panhandle-airport-boon-or-boondoggle/#comment-698 May Lattanzio Tue, 06 Nov 2007 23:34:27 +0000 http://www.ecoastlife.com/wordpress/2007/10/01/new-panhandle-airport-boon-or-boondoggle/#comment-698 I have just returned via our local Bay County Airport on a round trip to New Jersey. My husband often uses this airport for business and pleasure to points south. It is never crowded; never busy. I have written letters that have been printed in the PCNH and been very vocal about the construction of the new airport as frivolous, environmentally devastating, and totally unnecessary. There is a link through the Joe Company to the Bush family. The corruption that taints good ole boy politics locally also applies to big business. I am old enough to know that there is nothing vaguely resembling free lunch in this complete boondoggle. There are no "gifts" of this size given without favors expected and strings attached. The current airport has an excellent safety record. The Vice President landed here. The runway is sufficient. The parking is sufficient (then why are we building an additional paved parking lot when cars could park on the grass?) and if and when the Olympics come to town, we could use the floors as a curling court. At peak times, too. Just like now. Just like 20 years ago. And with the economy in a tailspin, we aren't going to fill all those empty mansions that have sprouted all over Bay County and condos on the beach so easily. The inconvenience of a 50 mile drive each way would probably persuade me to travel to Tallahassee, not only for necessity, but for my principals, too. I have just returned via our local Bay County Airport on a round trip to New Jersey. My husband often uses this airport for business and pleasure to points south. It is never crowded; never busy. I have written letters that have been printed in the PCNH and been very vocal about the construction of the new airport as frivolous, environmentally devastating, and totally unnecessary. There is a link through the Joe Company to the Bush family. The corruption that taints good ole boy politics locally also applies to big business.

I am old enough to know that there is nothing vaguely resembling free lunch in this complete boondoggle. There are no “gifts” of this size given without favors expected and strings attached.

The current airport has an excellent safety record. The Vice President landed here. The runway is sufficient. The parking is sufficient (then why are we building an additional paved parking lot when cars could park on the grass?) and if and when the Olympics come to town, we could use the floors as a curling court. At peak times, too. Just like now. Just like 20 years ago.

And with the economy in a tailspin, we aren’t going to fill all those empty mansions that have sprouted all over Bay County and condos on the beach so easily. The inconvenience of a 50 mile drive each way would probably persuade me to travel to Tallahassee, not only for necessity, but for my principals, too.

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