It’s too bad Kip Turner is leaving for a bigger, better atmosphere. He was smart enough to step on his own lead rope.
His first comment printed in the Herald was, “The airport needs 130 more acres.”
Failing to get the rest of McCaw Mesa in his control, he then demanded $500,000 for a tent. Then without the consent of adjacent landowners, he had a dead cottonwood eagle tree taken down with a backhoe. Now, bald eagles, golden eagles, red tailed and sparrow hawks have no place to rest where they are out of the flight path of planes.
Last November at the landowners’ meeting at the airport, Turner said the price tag to move things was $35 million. Previously, it was reported at $85 million. This last month at the second landowners’ meeting, it was up again to $85 million. When questioned on a new road cost, Mr. Turner said it was figured in at 10 percent of the total cost.
The next night, in front of 17 people in Durango, the cost was reported at $132 million; $35 million?, $85 million?, $132 million?, next month maybe $267.5 million? Then, the next night, with 20 residents in Ignacio, questions again arose on the cost of roads and sewer revamping. Why not just build a parking building?
How many more temporary managers will “fly” into Durango-La Plata County Airport and attempt to complete the conquest of McCaw Mesa? Have fun on I-70, Mr. Turner; it’s a pretty jogging route to Denver or Salt Lake City.
Paul McCaw
Oxford
