Opposition to expanding the Kalispell City Airport is gaining steam, with a group of south Kalispell residents alleging back-room deals and a cavalier attitude from City Hall when it comes to citizen concerns.

Spearheaded by Steve Eckels and Scott Davis, the group plans a public meeting Wednesday night as a way to shed light on what members say are heightened safety problems and noise pollution from the airport, and to give citizens a political voice in decisions about the airport.

The meeting starts at 7 p.m. in the commons area at Flathead High School.

Now is the time to speak up, they say, before a Nov. 10 public hearing by the Kalispell Planning Board on a proposal to expand the South Kalispell Airport Redevelopment Plan boundary.

A Sept. 23 open house explained the proposal to enlarge the overall plan area so it captures tax increment funding that could be used to spruce up existing business properties along U.S. 93 South and attract new business - and gives room to relocate and add 1,100 feet to the airport runway and make other improvements at the airport.

A work session with the Planning Board continued the discussion last week.

Discussions on whether to expand the airport has been going off and on for some years. The issue won visibility recently when the City Council considered a rewrite of Kalispell's noise ordinance.

One section in that rewrite, drafted by the city's Adjutant Attorney Rich Hickel, exempted the airport from noise regulation.

Accusations began flying that the exemption was designed to accommodate Federal Aviation Administration rules that, Davis said, prohibit federal grant money going to an airport where a local noise ordinance could limit flight times or aircraft using the facility.

Davis claimed there were back-room arrangements among city officials and airport Director Fred Leistiko, who publicly maintain that a decision on expansion has not been made.

For his part, Leistiko is enthusiastic about details of what he presents as an all-but-adopted plan that has been fully vetted through City Hall.

He talks of the benefits of a B-II class airport - it's now basically a B-I, he said, but not rated because it's privately owned by the city and is not an FAA airport.

It could bring a broader range of aircraft to the city, he said, with an upgrade from the current 60-foot-wide, 3,600-foot-long runway to a new 75-foot-wide 4,700-foot runway.

The 5-degree change in orientation for the runway "has no effect on Main Street," he said. Technology upgrades include an indicator light to guide pilots in on a safe slope for landing, and approach patterns will decrease flights directly over the city.

The south Kalispell neighborhood group, however, warns that the federally funded development would hand over control to federal authorities.

"The city now controls all that goes on there, but if they take FAA money, [federal authorities] decide everything" on how the airport is run and regulated, Eckels said. It switches from being a locally run airport to a federal facility that runs under federal rules.

Getting that federal money is key to expansion on the scale proposed.

Leistiko has laid out a six-year, $15.2 million spending plan to buy land, move the KGEZ Radio towers, rebuild and lengthen the runway and upgrade facilities at the airport - with 95 percent reimbursed by the Federal Aviation Administration.

After it's built, he said, the FAA will allocate $150,000 a year to help the city build facilities to generate revenue, do buildings and grounds maintenance and the like.

Leistiko disputes the south Kalispell group's claim of lost control. The city need only comply with a list of 39 specific items, or assurances, he said, and then it can run the airport at its own discretion.

"When you accept federal money there are assurances that go with it," Leistiko said, to hold the city to its end of the deal.

The city of Kalispell, referred to as the "airport sponsor" in that 14-page detailed list of assurances, must follow federal law for equal treatment and veteran preference, pay Davis-Bacon Act wages on the expansion, get federal approval for project plans and follow other regulations during construction.

The city would have to remove hazards around the airport - the KGEZ Radio towers would fall into this category - and restrict land use around the airport so nothing interferes with airspace.

The city can't allow exclusive rights for airport use, must plow all airport revenue back into the airport or related facilities, let government aircraft for the most part use the airport for free; and give the federal government free land or use of airport buildings for such things as air traffic control, weather reporting and communications.

The FAA list also lays out how the city must dispose of land bought for "noise compatibility purposes," among other uses, and requires that the federal government get its share of the money from that sale.

What's the advantage to the city of being an FAA airport?

"The money," Leistiko answered. "You build to their specifications and they pay 95 percent. We'd get the other 5 percent from the TIF," the airport tax increment finance district the City Council created to cover the area.

But before the city should be considering any expansion, the citizens' group said, it needs to improve the way Leistiko runs the airport now.

They say he is moving forward with an expansion for his personal goals, not for the good of the city.

Leistiko dismisses allegations that he is building himself an empire. Those accusations, he said, come from people who read regulations without a deep understanding of why those regulations are in place.

The south Kalispell group also says the Kalispell airport project is an unnecessary expansion because Glacier Park International Airport just to the north can handle all commercial, practice and training flights.

"We believe that it is ill-mannered, uncivil and socially unacceptable for pilots to disturb local residents when there is the alternative option of using Glacier [Park] International Airport," the group wrote in a beliefs statement. In fact, they claim, Glacier Park International is seeing more aircraft activity.

A big problem, Eckels said, is caused by pilot-training flights operated out of Red Eagle Aviation, the fixed-base operator at Kalispell City Airport - as well as general aviation.

Early morning flights frequently disturb the peace and quiet, and multiple landings and takeoffs continue the problem throughout the day.

Jim Pierce, owner of Red Eagle, explained at a Kalispell City Council meeting this fall that he has addressed the problem in several ways.

He asked pilots to fly only after reasonable times in the mornings and finish before it's late in the evening. He also posted a map, he said, detailing specific neighborhoods and buildings to avoid - homes of people who have filed complaints, Flathead High School during school hours when instruction time is interrupted by flight noise, Legends Stadium where school athletic events are staged.

Eckels acknowledged he has noticed a marked improvement.

However, the noise remains a problem and safety issues persist, those concerned about the airport say.

Continued housing development near the airport has made for inadequate "crash zones," the term some pilots use for the area around an airport that should have minimal development in case plane failure causes a crash landing. Aviation activities at the airport should be decreasing, not increasing, the group says.

Flight paths, frequency, noise and altitude of aircraft aren't being regulated properly, group members claim.

Alternative uses for the airport property haven't been investigated, they say, and perhaps commercial, residential or recreational uses would better serve the public.

The primary goal of Wednesday night's public meeting is to bring discussion to broader scrutiny, the citizens group said. One point in the beliefs statement gets at an underlying worry:

"We believe that lack of information and misinformation may lead the city to make decisions regarding the airport that are not in the best public interest or the best use of resources," it reads.

"For example, who has told council members that the FAA regulates noise, when they don't? Who has told police officers that our noise ordinance doesn't apply to aircraft, when it does? Who is seeking to undo our noise ordinance (city code 19-10) without stating the reason, which is to relinquish airport control to the federal government? Who has told the city council that our noise ordinance (city code 19-10) won't stand up to a Supreme Court challenge, thereby usurping the authority of the court?

"We believe there should be a public investigation to the source of this misinformation."

Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com