Mukilteo will pay to fight flights

Published 9:00 pm Tuesday, May 22, 2007

MUKILTEO – The city is ready to spend more than a quarter-million dollars to prevent passenger flights from landing at Paine Field.

The City Council decided unanimously to set aside $250,000 for legal fees, research and public education that may be needed to prevent airport expansion.

In addition, the council also voted to pay an anti-expansion group $25,000 to inform the public about the harmful effects of bringing commercial air service to the airport.

“It is an exceedingly important subject to continue to keep in front of the community,” said Don Doran, a former Mukilteo mayor and president of Save Our Communities, the anti- expansion group.

The council’s decision Monday night came just days after a 188-page report concluded that a decades-old agreement between Snohomish County and the communities surrounding Paine Field can’t be used to limit commercial service at the airport.

Mukilteo is one of several south Snohomish County cities that has passed resolutions opposing commercial air service at Paine Field. The idea is being advocated by businesspeople and others as a way to enhance the county’s economy and give passengers an alternative to going through Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

Ken Brooks, a Mukilteo resident, told the council that he’s concerned about expansion. He also said that many of his neighbors are unaware of how changes at the airport would affect them.

“Half of my neighbors on my dead-end street are concerned about this, and the other half don’t know anything about it,” Brooks said.

City Councilman Randy Lord said an airport expansion would undermine the council’s work to improve Mukilteo.

“All of these efforts would be in vain if we found our lifestyle was shattered by an airport expansion,” he said.