Burley Could Lose Airport Without Regional Cooperation

BURLEY, Idaho (AP) — Idaho's Mini-Cassia region must come to a consensus about relocating its deteriorating airport by early 2016 or it could lose the economic driver it's been trying for 25 years to save.

The Times-News reports that Burley has been trying for two decades to find a new location for J.R. "Jack" Simplot Airport, which has been constrained by a highway, the Snake River and a city that grew around it. But land-use issues and disagreement between the region's cities thwarted progress each time new locations were suggested.

The Federal Aviation Administration said this fall that Burley must either lengthen the airport's runways or find a new location if it wants to keep the agency's funding. Without that money, the city would have to close the airport.