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McCook Gazette
Letter to the Editor

Wrong answer

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Dear Editor,

Uh, oh, bad mistake at City Council Monday evening. When a Council appoints a commission, as in the Airport Advisory Board, it is a good idea for the Council to accept their informed decisions. This is two decisions in a row; the renaming of the airport and now countermanding the selection of the airline that the Council has overruled the majority opinion of their appointed authority. The Council's next move should be to abolish the Airport Advisory Board if they are not going to listen to their appointed experts. Bad Decision!

Incidentally I have no quarrel with the selection of Great Lakes vs. Seaport Airlines, and the final decision will not be made locally anyway. Great Lakes charges too much, in my opinion, and ridership suffers as a result. Seaport delivering passengers to Combs is how I do it when I deliver passengers to Denver International Airport.

That operation works really well, will allow much lower fares, and has the advantage of keeping TSA as far away from our airport as possible. I liked the young Turks running Seaport, their equipment is the best and most appropriate for the McCook to Denver run, plus they will buy fuel and domicile crew in McCook -- what is there not to like?

Dick Trail,

McCook

Comments
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Note: The nature of the Internet makes it impractical for our staff to review every comment. Please note that those who post comments on this website may do so using a screen name, which may or may not reflect a website user's actual name. Readers should be careful not to assign comments to real people who may have names similar to screen names. Refrain from obscenity in your comments, and to keep discussions civil, don't say anything in a way your grandmother would be ashamed to read.

  • The Airport Advisory did NOT make a recommendation on the renaming of the airport. They had the item on their plate for months and did not officially act or send a recommendation to the council. Advisory Boards are just that, advisory. The final decision rests with the council. I do agree that if ridership does not greaatly increase McCook could well lose commercial air service. Like everything in our community if folks don't use it we will lose it. Sometimes we just need to pay a bit more to retain a store or service.

    -- Posted by dennis on Thu, Apr 22, 2010, at 12:22 PM

  • We do need to keep spending local. That has been the trouble with this city. Go out of town for everything for less expense. And the city suffers because of it.

    -- Posted by edbru on Fri, Apr 23, 2010, at 8:51 PM

  • Okay, edbru, you really confused me with the spending local and going out of town. When I come back to McCook to visit, I usually drive but I've been known to fly now and then. Great Lakes has left me high and dry a time or two. But what does local spending have to do with the airline coming into McCook?

    -- Posted by McCook Supporter on Fri, Apr 23, 2010, at 9:21 PM

  • Good ol Mr. Dick just can not pass up any chance of slamming Sen. Nelson. Get over it, Dick! Senator Nelson has done more for this area of the state than any Governor/Senator has in years.

    I don't always agree with him on everything, but even you have to admit he has done a lot for Southwest Nebraska. What about the award he just received from the military leaders for his support and actions to help military people?

    All you ever do is slam Senator Nelson, give it a rest Dick, it's getting pretty old, you've made you point many times over, get a life.

    -- Posted by goarmy67 on Sun, Apr 25, 2010, at 11:16 AM

  • I thought the point of the story was to listen to the advisory board.

    I fly in a PC-12 and love it.

    -- Posted by wallismarsh on Sun, Apr 25, 2010, at 4:23 PM

  • What in the world? Are we just a tad sensitive about ol Ben? Dick dosen't even mention him in the piece.

    -- Posted by Chaco1 on Mon, Apr 26, 2010, at 8:24 AM

  • Well he did elude to how much he dislikes the airport being renamed after Senator Nelson. But in typical fashion, Dick follows the same pattern that he uses in his columns, "meanwhile back to me". It seems that after being administered two defeats, we would learn some humility.

    -- Posted by hulapopper on Mon, Apr 26, 2010, at 8:32 PM

  • Dennis, if people are willing to go out of town to buy a item or service when they can get in McCook, they wont miss the store selling that item or service in McCook when it closes.

    There's only two ways for ridership to McCook to increase. The prices come down. Or McCook finds something to offer the country instead of just another one of the thousands of great communities to raise a family.

    -- Posted by npwinder on Mon, Apr 26, 2010, at 11:55 PM

  • npwinder, I agree the cost of the air service is a factor in people not selecting to use it. However, I strongly disagree that folks will not miss a service in McCook if they go out of town to get it. Example: I bet folks miss having a grocery store, hardware store, gas station, cafe....in many of our sister communities. They had those services before but went elsewhere and now those services are boarded up. Many of those communities even had a country doctor, barber, newspaper or clothing store. People did not use them and went out of town for most of those services and now they are gone, followed by their schools, post offices....the same is true with air service. If we do not use it there will come a time when we want to have it but it will be gone.

    -- Posted by dennis on Tue, Apr 27, 2010, at 8:50 AM
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