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Submitted by emmettoconnell on Sun, 07/02/2006 - 3:10pm.
According to Bernie Friedman, it could happen. This a very interesting email from Friedman that I took a few days to read.

Apparently the Port of Olympia is flying under the radar (pun intended) to change the nature of our airport from a small, regional facility, to a major commercial operation. I've not heard much about this, but apparently Friedman was able to come up with some juicy details. Enjoy:

...I found the Port's comprehensive plan on the Port's web site and went to the section on the airport.  That section refers to the FAA's National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems (NPIAS).  This is basically a five-year, nationwide, airport capital  improvement plan.  It lists all 3300+ airports that qualify for federal funds, and reports how much federal money they are planning to spend on each of those airports.
  
I went to the NPIAS section on Washington airports and found Olympia.  Here is the link (pdf file)
  
What I was shocked to learn is that the feds are planning to spend almost $14,000,000 in capital improvements on the Olympia airport from 2005-2009, and to upgrade the airport's designation from General Aviation (GA) to Primary Airport (PR).  SeaTac is a PR airport.  Olympia is the only airport in the state that is being upgraded from GA to PR.
  
All this, of course, was entirely sotto voce (did I spell that correctly, Zena?) at the Port.  They are not strengthening the runway to allow much heavier planes to land on it, you see; they are merely correcting a line of sight problem.  In other words, typical secrecy and deceit from our wonderful Port.  The 1995 comprehensive plan says the airport use is GA, and I don't recall any public process amending the comprehensive plan to permit PR uses at our airport.
  
I know from past experience that the feds have a lot of say in these projects, but I don't think they can make a local airport operator spend tax money on capital improvements.  I believe these are usually a 90-10 federal to local mix.  I don't see any reason, for instance, why two port commissioners couldn't act just to shut the whole thing down and not operate an airport at all.  Nobody would miss the income from airport operations because by federal regulation all net income an airport operator makes has to be plowed back into airport operations, and cannot be used to fund a port project not related to aviation.

At any rate, what I feared appears to be happening.  A major airport development, with the associated noisy jets, is being foisted upon us without any public notice or opportunity for citizens to be heard.  Of all the evil things the port is doing, this is the worst for our community.

We need to get the word out.  And by the way, when the usual boosters start jeering that all you fools in the South Capital area and Tumwater should have known this was possible when you decided to live so close to the airport, you can answer by saying you decided to live near a General Aviation airport, not another SeaTac.
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Wow.

Drew? What in the name of Jebus is going on here?
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Small Regional airlines have

Small Regional airlines have tried in the past. Would make sense to improve it though. I follow KOLM closely.
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The Castle

Not long ago I checked out an Australian feature film video from Timberland called The Castle (1997, starring Michael Caton) about one family's fight against an airport expansion. It was funny and inspiring. Copies of this should be handed out to all residents in the flight path.

Tumwater is expanding to the south, so this should be interesting to watch. If you have not been in the neighborhood of the old Point Tavern or the intersection of Capitol Blvd. and the road formerly known as Airdustrial Way in the last year, you will be in for a shock if you visit it today.

Although Lacey is usually demonized as being Californicated (Lacey's crime: having the first mall in the area which was one of the death knells for downtown Oly in 60s), it would seem that Tumwater is really the one out of the tri-cities to lack a center. The creation of I-5 wiped out the heart of Tumwater. That poor municipality has had a patchwork quality to it ever since, a sad fate for such a historic town.

But back to Emmett's eye-opening post, the reason for our airport's (I say "our" since I work only a short distance from it) major chunk of change for improvements and expansion as compared to others in it's class might not be based on commercial factors, but rather something to do with the close proximity of McChord and Fort Lewis. Anyone investigating this fiscal aberration needs to investigate the so-called "homeland security" connection (that term sounds so unAmerican somehow, like out of an Orwell novel). Just a thought.

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KOLM is big enough to carry

KOLM is big enough to carry bigger exec jets and tons of bigger turbo props. Big Sky was running flights for awhile.
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NWarty,

You're doing that acronym thing to me again. What is KOLM -- Olympia Airport?
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