Supervisors Take Flak on Airport Planning

* The March 31 article, “El Toro Switch: Bigger Airport, No Rail Link,” certainly comes as no surprise to those who have watched the majority on the Board of Supervisors do their best to hide the facts from the public.

To date there has been almost a complete turnaround of the version of the proposed airport facts as presented to the public when they were asked to make a yea or nay decision on the initiatives.

Just about the only thing left is the direction of the flight path; and I hope the kind people of Villa Park, Orange and Anaheim Hills won’t be too surprised when they suddenly are faced with air traffic over their communities.

The supervisors want to keep those communities in their pocket until they spring the bad news at a later date, but come it will.

MERYL SCHWARTZ

Irvine

* In the March 28 article, “Travel Budget to Push El Toro Plan Soars,” Supervisor Charles V. Smith made a definitive statement: “There’s no point in bringing someone to discuss building an airport when they can only say, ‘We don’t want it.’ ”

What rot! How else can the people who will be affected adversely by having a commercial or cargo airport in their backyard respond? We don’t want a commercial or cargo airport; we don’t need it and we don’t have the money to pay for it. Our health, our sanity and our safety will be at risk.

We don’t need more street traffic; we don’t need more air and noise pollution; we don’t trust the politicians who are spending taxpayers’ money getting to the higher-ups in Washington. Like all the other South County cities, we don’t relish any more money-hungry developers to build any more homes here.

If Smith and his cohorts want a commercial or cargo airport, take John Wayne Airport and make of it the grandiose airport in Newport Beach when they finish paying for it.

IDA M. WOOD

Laguna Woods

* Supervisors Charles V. Smith, Jim Silva and Cynthia Coad have once again shown they are unfit to lead in this county. After assuring El Toro airport opponents that the airport would have fewer flights, they have now reversed themselves and decided that many more flights will go out.

They are also spending our tax dollars to lobby in Washington for this disastrous airport, without including the two supervisors who oppose it.

Because of this and other ethical transgressions in trying to force an airport on millions of residents who do not want it, these supervisors should resign. If they refuse to do so, they should be recalled.

ROGER OWENS

Laguna Beach

* According to Supervisor Tom Wilson in the April 1 Times, if we have a small airport at John Wayne and a medium airport at El Toro, business will flee to Newport Beach, because business persons won’t travel 20 minutes to reach the airport.

But if we have a somewhat larger but still small airport at John Wayne, and no airport at El Toro, business will locate in Irvine, despite a 1 1/2- to two-hour drive to reach Ontario or LAX.

These two statements are not consistent. But then logic does not seem to be driving Wilson’s opposition to an airport at El Toro.

DAVID J. ARTHUR

Costa Mesa