Joint-Use Airstrip Support Misguided

* In reference to your Oct. 26 article, “Interim Terminal for Mugu Airstrip Backed,” I offer the following:

The conversion of the Mugu airstrip to joint military-commercial use has been a topic of considerable controversy in the past, and here we go again. This time, Tim Merwin of the Southern California Assn. of Governments and Supervisor Frank Schillo have recycled the same inane and spurious arguments that were proven completely haywire in the past, as they try to hypnotize innocent taxpayers into pouring money down a bottomless rat hole known as the Point Mugu Regional Airport.

Merwin’s study would have the gullible believe that a rational comparison can be made between the Mugu airport and the airport at Palm Springs. That may be so in terms of acreage, but in every other aspect such a comparison is ridiculous. As an example, the airport at Palm Springs is designed to accommodate hundreds of thousands of passengers a year, swarming into the area from Alaska, New York and other distant localities. Do Merwin and Schillo really believe that if Point Mugu were opened up, Ventura County would miraculously become the nation’s second answer to Palm Springs?

Next is the promise of 20,000 jobs. Apparently this incredible dream is another product of the Palm Springs/Mugu look-alike contest. The jobs created in Palm Springs are jobs associated with a hundred golf course operations supported by 200 hotels and 300 restaurants.

And then where is it written that produce worth millions of dollars is waiting to be shipped by air from Ventura County? With the exception of berries and a few specialty crops, farm products are not shipped by air. Perhaps Merwin and Schillo should have this fact explained to them.

Now comes the matter of a terminal facility. Excepting Washington’s Dulles and National airports, no federal funds have or will be available for the construction of new commercial airline terminal facilities. Nearly all such facilities are financed by revenue bonds underwritten by the airline users.

There is no airline interest in a regional airport at Mugu. Absolutely none. To spend $11 million or 10 cents on a terminal building without the absolute assurance that it will be used by a reputable air carrier is an irresponsible waste of taxpayers’ money. Maybe someone should mention this truism to Supervisor Schillo and Tim Merwin.

W. E. Dunkle

Camarillo