Airport Terminal

Laura Sturza Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Marion Blakey wants to end 20 years of wrangling over a new Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport terminal, but won't offer a noise curfew in exchange for a new facility, as some local officials had hoped. At a meeting Wednesday in Washington, D.C., with local representatives, Blakey asked them to make a decision in 60 days: Either replace the outdated terminal, or return $42 million in FAA grants used to pay for the $86-million former Lockheed B-6 property that the airport bought for a new facility.

It took a child to show her Christmas My 9-year-old grandson, Michael Rufus, taught me the true meaning of Christmas at 4. It's been five years now, and I have never forgotten his childish and sincere words. One year, I took Michael to the mall to do my Christmas shopping. For years, Christmas to me was gifts, cards, decorations, food, good clothing and the best of everything one could imagine. At the mall, I saw parents with their children waiting in long lines for their pictures to be taken on Santa's lap. I asked Michael, "Would you like to take a picture sitting on Santa's lap?"

Laura Sturza The Burbank-Glen- dale-Pasadena Airport plans to throw in the towel on building a replace- ment terminal, and might be mulling a sale of the B-6 property it had once planned to use for a new building. The airport previously said it needed a new terminal to comply with federal guidelines advocating a distance of 750 feet between a terminal and runway. Burbank's terminal is 300 feet from the closest runway. The FAA decided the airport is safe as is, but maintains that it could be safer with a greater distance.

Laura Sturza Hopes for completing a 40,000-square-foot security expansion at the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport by Dec. 31 were dashed Monday when the Transportation Security Administration failed to provide necessary data. "It would not be good public policy to spend $24 million without the TSA's concurrence that what we're doing is what we need to meet their requirements," Airport Authority Commissioner Charles Lombardo said following the group's meeting Monday.

Laura Sturza BURBANK -- In the city's latest move to support a new airport terminal, Mayor David Laurell proposed a plan to reach an accord through open dialogue with residents. "The pending 40,000-square- foot security project at the airport indicates how outdated the current terminal is," Laurell said at Tuesday's City Council meeting about the Burbank- Glendale-Pasadena Airport's proposed addition. "The security project, in short, highlights the need for a new terminal."

This letter is in regard to the Leader editorial on the proposed addition of space in the airport terminal. My guess is that most Burbank residents accept that some additional space will be needed to accommodate new security requirements. The question is: How much space is truly needed for this purpose? Since the 40,000-square-foot addition that is being proposed is approximately 25% of the total existing footage, it does not seem unreasonable to me to question whether this full amount is actually needed just to meet security requirements.

I've been too harsh on the gadflies and their rantings at the oral communication segment of the City Council meetings. After much thought, I think their performances could be made into a successful situation comedy. The gimmick that would make it fly would be the real-life gadflies playing themselves. The chief writer would be none other than Burbank's humorous Councilman Bob Kramer. Let's make use of our native talent. The performers will probably fight for top marquee billing.

Karen S. Kim BURBANK -- With a month left before ballots are due back to the city for the Measure A election Oct. 9, both sides of the measure met Saturday to hash out issues in a public debate. Proponents of the measure opened the debate. "We have been engaged in a war to control our future as a community," said David Piroli, who spoke for the measure along with measure author Howard Rothenbach. "This community deserves protection, and our community is worth fighting for. Measure A is the people's initiative, and protecting the community we love is what this is all about."

The Leader's write-up about the ROAR initiative essentially suggested that a thorough debate of the issues begin. I am happy to stick to the facts about why Burbank residents should vote no on ROAR. This really isn't about being for or against an airport terminal project. At the heart of my disagreement with the initiative is the simple truth that the passage of ROAR would be bad government. ROAR would waste taxpayer dollars, is unnecessary for maintaining local control over the airport terminal project and, most important, ROAR could undo the progress Burbank already has made in protecting our say. I wish I could recommend that the voters simply read the initiative to understand how ROAR threatens the power the voters of Burbank currently have.