For those of you that live in Laconia, I thought I would offer this post. The Airport Authority consists of mostly appointed positions. The Mayor of Laconia is one of the non appointed seats. I think it's seat of the Chairman, but I cannot find anyone willing to confirm that.
With that said, I have just submitted the following email to the Mayor of Laconia at
citycouncil@city.state.nh.us :
Mr. Mayor,
My name is Tom Noonan. My wife and I submitted a request to operate a skydiving business with the LAA back in late 2008. We have since attended multiple LAA meetings and have been met with a tremendous amount of resistance from the board.
I am writing you today to discuss a specific issue and ask for your official opinion as the Chairman of the Airport Authority.
It seems that recently either the airport manager, or a board member of the LAA provided the Gilford Selectmen a copy of our business proposal without our knowledge or consent. Further, our proposal was then placed on the town's agenda and voted on. All without our knowledge. We believe this was done because a decision from the FAA is due in a few weeks that will most likely pave the way for our approval.
We consider the actions of the person or persons that submitted our proposal and orchestrated our exclusion from the town meeting process as a breach of the ethical responsibilities of the LAA. We are deserving of the same rights and due process of any other business on the airfield. In this case a concerted effort was clearly made by the LAA (in part or in whole) or the Airport Manager (or both) to attempt to defraud the Gilford Selectmen of the opportunity to learn about a business that is projected to bring $1,000,000 of economic impact to the region and a dozen new jobs.
The spirit and intent of the LAA is to ensure that all aeronautical activities receive the same fair and impartial treatment and due process. The LAA has made a clearly concerted effort over the last three years to ignore that role in favor of protecting the business interests of select few people of power in the community. This last example is the most bold to date, and I am asking you to make a statement on the actions, to go on record.
If in your investigation, you find these allegations are true (which they are and easily can be proven), I would ask that you as the Chairman of the Airport Authority, remove any member of the board that was involved in this latest attempt to fraudulently derail our proposal. To do anything less is to endorse fraud and the failure of the board members involved to live up to the role and responsibility of the position they were appointed to.
Your predecessor Matt Lahey ignored virtually every attempt I have ever made in the past to communicate with him regarding the conduct of the members of the LAA. I sincerely hope that your position will not be the same. (At a minimum, I would like to ask that you at least respond to confirm receipt of this email. Mr. Lahey would not even respond to confirm receipt of our emails, despite his secretary confirming well after the fact that he received them all.)
If you wish to learn more about our struggle and the positive economic growth we are trying to bring to the area, I invite you to visit the website:
www.winnipesaukee.com, click on the "General Forums" and then open the thread entitled "Skydive Laconia?". It will chronicle the vast majority of the struggles we have been forced to endure.
Thank you for your time. I can be reached by phone or via email any time. I would like to offer you and the Laconia council the opportunity to ask questions of our proposal and learn more about our proposal. We are happy to meet with you at your earliest convenience. Our business will bring positive economic contributions to the entire region, not just Gilford, hence our treatment by the LAA and the breakdown of this process affects your citizens' economic future as well.
Best regards,
Tom Noonan
I encourage anyone that lives in Laconia to contact the city council and share their thoughts on this process with the Mayor and City Council.
Blue skies, to all and to all a good flight,
Tom