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CITIZENS SAY “NO” TO NEW BAY COUNTY AIRPORT (3/9/04)

Citizens’ groups call upon Airport Authority, FAA, City and County government to follow the wishes of the people and stop this project.

Citizens for the Bay, Panhandle Citizens Coalition, Sierra Club, Friends of PFN and Clean Water Network congratulate the citizens of Bay County for their decisive vote in the Bay County Airport referendum Tuesday night. The votes were ____% Yes and ____% No for moving the airport.

"It’s a great day for the citizens of Bay County", said Diane Brown, spokesperson for Citizens for the Bay. "The voters have said loud and clear, 'We do not want this airport.'”

“The airport ballot question was worded so ambiguously that it was difficult to tell how the voters would approach it. But they were able to come to the decision that this airport is not needed, and WILL cost us, in many ways. They were also able to make up their own minds about this issue. Apparently they did not find all the claims about safety, the promises of jobs and better air service to be believable," Brown added. “This vote also serves as a ‘vote of no confidence’ in all the decision-making to date.”

”We will expect our elected officials to act upon tonight’s results. We now call upon the Airport Authority to bring this project to a halt at their next scheduled meeting. Also, when Bay County and Panama City make their next appointments to the Airport Authority, they will have to choose people who will oppose the airport project, if the Airport Authority has not already stopped it. The County and City will also have to oppose the project at every turn," said John Hedrick, Chair of Panhandle Citizens Coalition

"We also expect our elected officials and the Airport Authority to advise the Federal Aviation

Administration of the results of today’s election and ask the FAA to stop this project, given that it now knows the feeling of the local citizenry towards this project. While this was a non-binding referendum, we expect all our appointed and officials to treat it as if it were binding," said Frank Gorham of Friends of PFN.

"We also hope that we can now start over with planning for Bay County’s future—this time with the citizens’ wishes the guiding factor. It's a new day in Bay County," said Sharon Maxwell, of the NW Florida Group Sierra Club. Linda Young of the Clean Water Network concluded by stating, "This tremendous victory was due in part to the incredible amount of hard work by many dedicated citizens here in Bay County and the Panhandle, who were able to educate many voters in Bay County that contrary to the media campaign of the proponents, this airport isn't needed, would be tremendously expensive, would have burdened the local taxpayers, and caused a lot of irreparable harm to the natural environment."

....Citizens for the Bay spokesperson (Diane Brown) 850-234-5071

Sierra Club spokesperson (Sharon Maxwell) 850-897-5228

Clean Water Network spokesperson (Linda Young) 850-222-9188

Panhandle Citizens Coalition spokesperson (John Hedrick) 850-339-5462

Friends of PFN spokesperson (Frank Gorham) 850-747-0514


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