Airport

The below article is to consider fictitious and an assignment given for Newswriting.

The forty-seven airplanes based at the Biddeford Airport may no longer being flying high, at least, not from that airport. A referendum question for the city of Biddeford slated for the June 4^th ballot will ask the question whether residents would wish to close the airport at the cost of $3 million dollars or keep it open.

“I’ve been flying out of this airport for 25 years,” commented Phyllis Landry who was distraught over the thought of having the airport close. “I love this airport. If I couldn’t fly out of here I’d have to go to Sanford or Portland.”

While some residents of Biddeford wish to keep the airport, others disagree. “It continues to be a tax burden,” commented Paul Archambault, a Biddeford resident and chairmen of Shut Our Little Airport. “We came to the conclusion that there is no financial benefit at its existing size and capacity.” Archambault has lived in a house near the end for the runway for 24 years.

This is not the first time the Biddeford airport has experienced turbulence. A few years ago it was at risk of losing funding by the Federal Aviation Administration. “The Biddeford Airport failed to uphold important safety regulations for a number of years,” commented Joe Burtee, a representative of the FAA, “endangering pilots, staff, and local residents.”

The Biddeford Airport complied, posting no trespassing signs and cutting down trees for safety reasons.

“It’s not just about that anymore,” Archambault insisted, “it’s about the money too.” Biddeford residents most pay an annual of anywhere from $47,000 to $72,000 for matinence and only makes $56,000 the few years. “City managements don’t know how to run airports…Biddeford has been trying to do it for years and can’t get it right.”

“The City Council really hasn’t come down on one side of the issue or the other,” commented John Bubier, the city’s manager, “I think they’d prefer to have voters settle this one.”

“The closing of a small, locally run airport is a sad state of affairs indeed,” commented John Becksworth, a Yacht entrepreneur from Biddeford Pool. He is also a representative of the National Association of Small Airplanes. “It would sadden the organization to see the airport go and I would personally find it a tragedy as I would have to move my small summer plan from Biddeford to Sanford.”

Whether Becksworth and Landry will have to move their planes is still up to vote by the town.

“I just hope that the referendum will educate people,” said Roland Pelletier, “times are touch in the economy. We can’t afford to support operations that don’t support themselves.”