Securing Mott Airport
The problem with living in redneck land is not the color of the stump but the fact that there is nothing above it. A good example is what's been happening in Dunsmuir, a quaint little town of some 2,500 about an hour north of Redding which came into being as a railroad switching point. It's at the base of a mountain climb, so engines are added and taken off there. The town was originally called something else, but a guy named Dunsmuir said if they would name their town after him, he would build them a fountain. Which they did and he did.
Ironically, Dunsmuir today faces a closure of their train station for passenger service unless they agree to provide a restroom and to heat the waiting room, but that's not the point of this story. Although it does fall in the transportation realm. This is about their airport, which is called Dunsmuir Municipal -- kinda hoity-toity for such a small town -- and Mott by most everyone who flies into it.
Perched at 3258 feet, Mott features a 2700-foot runway, which is quite enough for small planes, and would be a grand place into which to fly, if the place weren't closed. But it is, and has been for almost a year. The reason is that there are some trees at the end of the runway that have been allowed to grow taller than the folks who oversee aviation think is safe. Actually, it is mostly safe, but a sudden downdraft could erase the margin in seconds.
The county is supposed to keep the trees cut down, and the state makes sure they do, otherwise the feds will look askance, and maybe not provide the funding they normally do for airports. Dunsmuir lies in Siskiyou County, a large space with very few people, but still sports five airports, one of which is Mott. A coupla local property owners demanded huge sums for their trees to be topped and cut down. The Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors refused to give into the extortion, but they also refused eminent-domain the problem.
Now you'd think rednecks are always ready to fight for what's right, but the stupes wussed out and the trees kept a-growin'. So the state said, all right, we're pulling the funding for all five of your airports. Weeks and months went by, and finally arrangements were made to cut down the trees and Mott will be re-opened, soon-ish. But that's not the end of our story.
A while back, the people who run Dunsmuir decided they could do without police protection from the Siskiyou Sheriff and decided to police themselves. They said the county price was too high and their deputies were too aggressive. But later they decided that it wasn't cost effective to have their own force and re-opened negotiations with the county.
In the meantime, Dunsmuir's city manager decided to take steps to provide increased security to Mott, and in his capacity as interim police chief, he and the volunteer airport security director ordered some weapons...a coupla shotguns and two M-P5 machine guns. No, I'm not kidding. The Kentucky firm that sold and shipped the weapons followed up on their delivery with a call to the sheriff's office -- seems like they should have called before they shipped -- and that prompted the sheriff to raid the houses of the two officials.
Now a grand jury has been convened to investigate the matter. The two Dunsmuir security aces have filed a federal lawsuit against the sheriff, claiming the raid was a vendetta because they'd criticized him in the past. They say their civil rights were violated. They claim they had authority from the Dunsmuir city council to protect the airport, and that the sheriff is just getting back at them having canceled its protection contract with him.
We still await an explanation on how they were going to protect the airstrip, and from whom.
And that's SetonnoteS...I'm Tony Seton.
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