Outrageous

The July 13 issue of Leesburg Today carried an article, “County, Town Spar over JLMA Planning,” focused on the debate over the proposed Crosstrail development at the Leesburg Airport. But the real story concerns County Planning Commissioner John Elgin’s heroic struggle against those who would keep Town government decision making opaque, secretive, and remote from public inquiry.

The Leesburg Airport Commission has exploited public time and facilities to oppose the Crosstrail project, practically from the day it was proposed. In the process, our tax dollars have financed the perverse agenda of local appointive officials who have forgotten (if they ever realized in the first place) that they are public trustees, not lobbyists.

Evidently, the Airport Commission feels threatened by any kind of productive, tax-revenue generating enterprise within sight or sound of the airport. The airport is a first-class facility, thanks to Leesburg taxpayers. But it loses money year after year, with business tenants there regularly declining to renew their leases.

Elgin, Nancy Hsu, County Planning Commission Chairperson Teresa Whitmore, Helene Syska, Suzanne Volpe, and Larry Beerman and Bob Klancher have asked the Leesburg Airport Commission questions we all want to ask: Why is our beautiful airport going broke? Does the Leesburg Airport Commission have any kind of plan to stop this deterioration?

Rather than provide answers to these questions, the Leesburg Airport Commission challenged the County Planning Commission’s right to ask them. As Airport Commission Chairman Dennis Boykin put it, the management of the airport is “not in their (the County Planning Commission’s) purview.” According to the article, Mayor Kristen C. Umstattd is sending a letter to the County Planning Commission complaining of the “rudeness” of Elgin and others in daring to ask legitimate questions of Boykin.

It is bad enough that Boykin and his colleagues should be mismanaging the airport. But it is truly outrageous that they should expect to use public dollars to campaign against Crosstrail and not have to face inquiries about their own third world management practices.