The Valkaria Airport Advisory Board, which has become the bane of aviation interests and citizens throughout South Brevard, has finally come to the attention of the Brevard County Commission who is looking increasingly likely to abolish it. The VAAB, which is charged only with recommendations to the Brevard County Commission and has no power to actually DO anything on it's own, now has a majority of members that are vehemently anti-airport and who have gone to great lengths to undermine any progress or updates at the airport, including safety and basic maintenance upgrades. What's far worse, VAAB meetings now are essentially little more than an open venue for a few people (some of whom sit on the VAAB itself) to continually slander, lie about, harass, physically and verbally threaten, belittle, and otherwise abuse county staff, airport employees, pilots, other members of the board, and various others. Their behavior would certainly get them ejected, banned, arrested, and very likely sued if they were to act that way in any other venue! Now that the Airport Master Plan has been approved, there is no need for the VAAB and it is in fact constituting a major impediment to the proper operation of Valkaria Airport.

The sound files below are from the Brevard Commission meeting of Aug. 5, 2008. The VAAB issues and the non-stop abuse of county employees was brought up by several citizens during the public comments portion of the meeting, and the Commissioners decided to put it on their agenda for the August 19th 28th meeting.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

If you're as sick and tired of the VAAB debacle as we are, you can help! Here are four ways to help end this sad, ongoing problem:

1. CALL The County Commissioners NOW! Please take the time to make a phone call to the County Commissioners, starting with the one for your district.

   Please stress your disapproval of how some VAAB members as well as members of the public use every VAAB meeting as a venue to slander, harass, and abuse county staffers including the airport manager, county legal staff, the administrative assistant, and members of the public, generally with no intervention at all from the board Chairman.

   Also, tell them that you want them to finally show LEADERSHIP and SOLVE the problem, not try yet another attempt to "fix" it or to "suspend" it and avoid the issue. Let them know that the only proper course of action is to ABOLISH the VAAB and let the Airport Manager operate Valkaria Airport according to the Master Plan. Tell them that you expect them to give their FULL SUPPORT to the airport staff in implementing the Master Plan, and to stop letting a tiny handful of people derail what is good for and desired by the entire community!

   Here are the phone numbers for the Commissioners:

   D1 - Truman Scarborough - (321) 264-6750 D2 - Chuck Nelson - (321) 455-1334 D3 - Helen Voltz - (321) 952-6300 D4 - Mary Bolin - (321) 633-2044 D5 - Jackie Colon - (321) 253-6620

2. Email The County Commission: After you make the phone calls, please take a few moments to email the Commissioners about the VAAB and re-iterate the points you made in the phone call.

   Here are the email addresses for the Brevard County Commissioners and selected county staffers.

   CLICK HERE to open a new email message to the County Commissioners.

   OR - you can copy and paste the following text right into the To: field of your email program.

   Truman.scarborough@brevardcounty.us; Chuck.nelson@brevardcounty.us; Helen.voltz@brevardcounty.us; Mary.bolin@brevardcounty.us; Jackie.colon@brevardcounty.us; peggy.busacca@brevardcounty.us; steve.borowski@brevardcounty.us; morris.richardson@brevardcounty.us; info@eaa1288.org;

3. Attend and Speak at the Commission Meeting: The meeting will be Tuesday, August 19, 2008, Thursday, August 28, 2008 starting at 9:00 AM (TIME-CERTAIN... don't be late!) at the government center in Viera. You can view the Agenda Report below.
4. Spread the Word: Tell your friends about this valuable chance to take away one of the tools that anti-airport activists have created to help them destroy Valkaria Airport and those associated with it, harming all Brevard citizens in the process. Ask them to send their own messages and speak at the meeting as well!

Listen to The August 5th Commission Meeting:

Below are sound files (MP3 format) of the August 5, 2008 Brevard Commission meeting where this came up for discussion in response to public comments. Included are both the public comments and the ensuing board discussion. The Agenda Report below contains a verbatim transcript of the Commissioner's comments (but not the Public's comments).

Click to open Main file: news_0 ... 5_board_public_comments_01.mp3 Brevard County Commission Meeting (8/5/2008) - Public Comments - Part 1 LARGE FILE WARNING: 2.6 MB sound file (MP3 format) - not recommended on dial-up Internet connections.	Click to open Main file: news_0 ... 5_board_public_comments_02.mp3 Brevard County Commission Meeting (8/5/2008) - Public Comments - Part 2 LARGE FILE WARNING: 4.2 MB sound file (MP3 format) - not recommended on dial-up Internet connections.	Click to open Main file: news_0 ... 05_board_discussion_all_01.mp3 Brevard County Commission Meeting (8/5/2008) - Board Discussion LARGE FILE WARNING: 6.7 MB sound file (MP3 format) - not recommended on dial-up Internet connections.
Click to open Main file: news_0 ... en_steves_treated_badly_01.mp3 Excerpt - Helen Voltz tells it like it is! LARGE FILE WARNING: 421 KB sound file (MP3 format) - not recommended on dial-up Internet connections.	Click to open Main file: news_0 ... w_many_noise_complaints_01.mp3 Helen Voltz corners Chuck Nelson concerning some differences between Merritt Island Airport and Valkaria Airport. (Note, Mr. Nelson was incorrect when he said that Valkaria was not operational for a time... though it had a period of severe neglect due to the same folks now on the VAAB, it has been continuously operational as a public airport since at least 1959.) LARGE FILE WARNING: 569 KB sound file (MP3 format) - not recommended on dial-up Internet connections.
Click to open Main file: news_0 ... iscussion_2008-08_original.pdf Agenda Report for the August 19th (rescheduled to the 28th) Commission Meeting - this is the report sent by County staff to each Commissioner to provide them with the relevant background information. Includes the ordinance defining the VAAB and the transcript from the last Commission meeting where the Commissioners discussed the issue. 171 KB Acrobat file (PDF format)