Democracy in action; a hidden jewel

Good move at the McCook City Council meeting last Monday. The council rejected, and soundly, a proposed new tax, couched as a "fee" as if that would make it less objectionable, on cell phone service. Evidently a similar "fee" assessed against telephone land lines has been decreasing in revenue produced for city coffers. City staff, aka the city manager, noted the alarming decrease in revenue from the land line "fee," and having never seen a tax he didn't like, rummaged about and found a new one to slip noose-like around taxpayer necks.

Never mind that a better solution after experiencing decreasing revenue is to decrease expenses by like amount.

Evidently the council had also done their homework by asking friends, relatives and fellow countrymen if they would like a new tax on their cell phones. The answer seemed to be a resounding NO which is exactly how the county voted! Democracy in action!

In the city staff's defense, they are doing exactly what they should and that is trying to keep the City of McCook running financially in the black. Anybody connected to government for any length of time knows that it is always easier to just raise taxes "only a little" than it is to cut expenses.

The standard retort to any objecting tax payer is "OK, what city service do you want cut?" And yes I know that the cost of everything that the city has to purchase, especially fuel, keeps going up, but those costs are normally offset by ever increasing valuations.

If the levy against real and personal property, sometimes incorrectly called the "mil levy," remains the same year to year, then the tax revenue collected will increase as inflation increases the total property valuation.

If valuation decreases it should raise a red flag that the city tax base may be shrinking and government expense should also shrink a like amount. It is a hard thing to do but McCook's council members did it well!

Tuesday I had a surprise visitor, an aeronautical engineer and pilot for the National Aeronautics and Space Agency better known as NASA. I had taught Mike Wusk to fly right here at McCook USofA some 25 years ago and he was coming to spend the night.

Your editor, Bruce Crosby, wrote a short article about Mike Wusk's overnight McCook stay, in the Gazette Wednesday. Mike's response: "Bruce did a very nice job on this piece. I have talked with plenty of reporters in my career. It is always a roll of the dice as to how much they get right, even the ones that specialize in the technical stories.

"Just in our short visit, Bruce got the facts right and obviously did some fact checking homework getting the webpage link and spelling out meaning for the acronym LIDAR. It was a pleasure to talk with him. Thanks for the kind attention, professionalism, and for helping to recognize the great asset your community has in …" your airport.

Now for the rest of the story: Mike called me, on his satellite phone, about five o'clock in the afternoon as they were leaving Pasco, Wash.

His crew had come from Juneau, Alaska, that day and was trying to get as far east toward home as possible before stopping for fuel and sleep. Mike told his crew that he knew just the place. So about 9:30 when the ramp was quiet and everybody else had gone home, I greeted the pretty twin turboprop NASA King Air 200.

In flight, Mike had made arrangements with the Chief for a place to stay. We found the keys to one of Griff's courtesy cars and off the crew went to check in and head for Fullers to eat. Mike camped out with us as he had done the summer he learned to fly.

Flight crews on large aircraft flying long distances lead a strange life. The body clock works on a twenty-four hour day, yet if you fly through three time zones, as the NASA crew had done, it was time to eat while for us natives it was time to hit the sack.

My brother-in-law, Dale Nielsen, a long time crewmember on Air Force C-141 cargo aircraft, said that every time they would fly across the Pacific it seemed like it was always time for breakfast when they landed. Sometimes they would eat eggs, toast and sausage three times a day. And there is always coffee; hot black and strong morning, noon or night!

Next morning, the NASA crew, completing their mandatory 12-hour crew rest period, was surprised and pleased to find the low cost of their motel room also included all they wanted to eat off the menu.

In Barrow, Alaska, they had paid over $140 a night for their hotel rooms with food extra. McCook's was only about 100 bucks cheaper with great food to boot.

Their next surprise was finding the lowest-price jet fuel in the country, no charge for a tie down or the courtesy car and the best service they'd experienced in a long time.

McCook's airport is a jewel, daily generating revenues from out of the blue. For most people it is out of sight and out of mind but for a certain NASA crew a great place to stop. I suspect they will be back next time they pass this way.

That is the way I see it.