Burley council members discuss next step in getting new airport amid lawsuit blaming city for pilot’s death
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IDAHO FALLS – Burley has been talking about building a new airport for decades with no resolution. Months after a lawsuit alleging the city’s failure to implement federal aviation standards led to a pilot’s death in 2022, officials are now saying the next step in the relocation effort can move forward.
In a phone call with EastIdahoNews.com, City Administrator Mark Mitton says the timing of the conversation has nothing to do with the lawsuit filed by a Salmon couple in June concerning the death of their daughter, who died in a plane crash at the airport.
“I’ve been here as the city administrator over 25 years,” he says. “In 1994 (before I had this job), city officials recognized they needed a new airport. The first study to look at moving the airport happened in 1996. It’s been an issue ever since then.”
It has taken so long to make it happen because many people are involved in the decision, Mitton says, and it’s a difficult process.
“The airport serves a pretty big geographical area, including Cassia and Minidoka Counties, a little bit of Jerome County and even people from northern Utah. Everyone’s been involved and had input, and it’s just difficult to get it moved,” he says.
A master plan for moving the airport was put in place in 2019. During a City Council meeting Tuesday night, council members approved a $318,626 federal grant to begin yet another feasibility study that would look at the environmental impact of moving the airport from 1058 Airport Road to a 500-acre parcel about nine miles east of Burley along Interstate 84 near Declo.
Though this is one of several studies that have been conducted in the last decade for different reasons, Mitton says this one will only take about six months to complete and includes a critical financial piece.
“It’s all farm ground, so we don’t anticipate any (significant impact) to animals or birds. (The study) looks at whether the city can … actually pay for their portion of the airport,” Mitton says.
The main reason for the move is to build longer runways and add safety areas where pilots have more empty space to land and reduce the risk of crashing into buildings. These features are required by the Federal Aviation Administration, Mitton says, and adding them to the current airport is not possible.
“There’s no way to add runway length and safety areas without taking out half of Burley. It would extend clear to the hospital and you’d have to take out (numerous) railroad tracks (running east to west throughout the city). It’s just not feasible,” says Mitton.
The new airport would increase the size of the runways from more than 3,100 feet to about 5,800 feet.
When the study is complete in March 2024, Mitton says there is a land acquisition component that will take a while to complete before construction can begin.
“There has to be very specific appraisals done. They’re called Yellow Book appraisals because they’re about as thick as the old phone books. Everything ever known about the property has to be in the appraisal. There’s review appraisals on those, and then you can start purchasing the property,” Mitton explains.
He estimates construction getting underway in about four years. Meanwhile, the city is working with the FAA to keep the current airport open until the new one is complete.
Noncompliance with FAA standards for decades leads to lawsuit after death of pilot
A Salmon couple whose daughter was killed in a plane crash at the Burley airport last year says the city’s negligence in complying with FAA standards caused her death, and now they’re suing.
Noncompliance with FAA standards has been an issue at the Burley airport for a long time, according to court documents, and had been a concern for many locals dating back to the 1990s. Some have questioned why a noncompliant airport remains open.
A 38-page lawsuit filed in June by Jim and Sharon Infanger alleges a series of exhaust stacks on city-owned property adjacent to the airport emit steam that reduces visibility for approaching aircraft, creating a safety hazard.
Gem State Processing, a potato processing plant in Heyburn on the opposite side of the Snake River, leases the property from the city of Burley, and the lawsuit claims the company installed the smokestacks without permission from its owners or the FAA. Court records show the city of Burley later determined the smokestacks posed a safety hazard but did nothing to prevent their placement or construction.
Brittney Infanger, 30, died in April 2022 after her plane allegedly hit a wall of steam near those stacks.
Regardless of the city’s plan to build a new airport in another location, the Infangers are suing the cities of Burley and Heyburn, along with Gem State Processing and other government entities. They maintain the proximity of the stacks to the current airport is not safe for pilots and should be closed down.
The case will go to trial in Ada County in October 2024. It could last up to 2 weeks.
Though Mitton declined to comment on the lawsuit and did not explain why the airport will remain open, he did say the real issue in this dispute is the lack of safety areas.
Burley city officials are holding a public hearing on the issue Sept. 25. Following that meeting, Mitton says the city will begin the process of selling about 120 acres of airport property to Burley Development Authority, the city’s urban renewal agency. It will help develop the land once the new airport is built.