I just report, you decide.
Speaking of Cheney, there’s some great news for him from the Department of Transportation. Despite these tight budgetary times, the federal government has awarded a $2,065,000 grant to upgrade Gettysburg Municipal Airport in Gettysburg, S.D.
It’s a very small, single-runway airport. There is no commercial service because only a tad over 1,200 people live in Gettysburg. In fact, the airport is mostly used for medical helicopters and private planes, according to its local manager. The vast majority of the private planes are propeller driven.
But there’s much excitement over plans to make the airport jet-ready. The grant will pay for improving the lighting system by installing new medium-intensity lights and a lighted vertical guidance system so pilots can land more safely. The “Precision Approach Path Indicator system is necessary to enhance the safety margin for night operations,” the DOT notice says. The cracked and deteriorated runway is also going to be rebuilt so the airport will be better able to handle small jets.
And why would this be good news for Cheney? Because that airport is just minutes from one of his favorite luxury hunting lodges, the Paul Nelson Farm, where he’s gone three or four times as vice president, spending several days each time to hunt the ring-necked pheasant.
On prior trips, Cheney’s plane landed at the airport in Pierre, about an hour’s drive away. Now he might be able to take a small jet, even at night, and save the drive.
Let’s see, that grant comes to not even $1,700 for every man, woman and child in Gettysburg.
