Item O1
UJ/~OILDD~ 11:3Q
3El57433574
BETTV VAIL
FAX
TO:
Mr. Jim Roberts
Monroe County Adminis-
trator
BETTY VAIL
61 Sombrero Beach Road
Marathon, FL 33050
DATE: 5/29/03
F'.~OM :
TEL. NO.
FAX NO.
305/743-6066
305/743-3574
NO. PAGES INCL. THIS SHEET: ONE
:'11::5 SAGE:
Dear Jim: I plan to make a presentation at the BOCC meet-
ing in June, re the Marathon Airporc. Will you please let
me know where you will put me on the Agenda? Thank you for
YOur help.
Best regards,
Betty Vail
~/
PAGE ell
June 18, 2003
Proposal to:
Mayor Spehar
Commissioner David Rice
Commissioner Sonny McCoy
Commissioner Murray Nelson
Commissioner George Nugent
Betty Vail
Sombrero Beach Road
Marathon, FL 33050
Tel: 743-6066
FAX 743-3574
I am here today to propose that the BOCC give due considera-
tion to turn the Marathon Airport into an Airport Authority
and my reasons for this are: (1) It will provide much needed
input from the community as a whole: (2) It will get the
local businesses involved as well as the citizens, and it
most certainly will help the tourism sectors.
I believe the Authority should be comprised of a Banker,
a Resort Facility, a Realtor, a Manager of a store such as
Home Depot, Office Depot, Kmart, an attorney, a City Council-
man and the BOCC Commissioner representing Marathon, plus
Peter Horton, Dick Ramsay and myself, due to the fact that
we three are probably the persons who have the most exper-
tise in airports and aviation. The airport manager does
sit in on the Authority meetings to answer any questions
that may arise, but does not actively participate otherwise
since the Authority members have the final say.
Since I myself have worked under an Airport Authority, I
am knowsedgeable about this sort of airport management,
and it works extremely well. Particularly in Marathon where
the citizens are disillusioned and frustrated, I believe
that getting everyone involved will help accomplish a re-
vival of the airport in general, plus the fact that the Key
West airport is pretty much maxed out and their citizens
apparently are very much averse to further expansion,
I believe the Marathon Airport can be a vibrant and bustling
entity that will spur the citizens and business people
to take pride in their airport, plus the fact that we have
the hospital nearby along with our library, Pigeon Key, and
many other activities that could accomodate our economy.
In this time of uncertainty due to the various wars, the
economies, the airlines losing business and other situations
that could generate more losses, I firmly believe that now
is the right time to get our airport up and moving. (I
heard recently that Continental Airlines has thought about
returning to Marathon:) If this does happen, it will give
us even more reason to pursue the Marathon Airport Authori-
ty and give the citizens and business some hard thoughts
about becoming involved with our airport to get it up and
running full steam ahead.
Thank you for your
consideration of this
~~
request.
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