FAA,
Airports Financial Assistance Division,
APP-500,
Room 619,
800 Independence Avenue, SW.,
Washington, DC 20591

Issued in Washington, DC on August 27, 2008.
Wayne Heibeck,
Deputy Director, Office of Airport Planning and Programming.
[FR Doc. E8-20459 Filed 9-5-08; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4910-13-M

Regarding: Notice of modification of Airport Improvement Program grant application requirements and of the opportunity to comment.

To whom it may concern:

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the modification of the Airport Improvement Program grant application requirements.

In our community of Eden Prairie , MN , we have fought against the expansion of Flying Cloud Airport (FCM) for over 20 years. The FAA really needs to get an accurate listing of aircraft based at an airport before handing out grants to airports.

One of the main reasons we felt the FCM airport expansion was not justified was because there was no quantification of need. True, if you go into the FEIS you will see projections of numbers of aircraft based at FCM. What you won't see are the methods of arriving at those figures. When you dig into the reports at those levels, you will soon realize that aircraft counts and projections are based on phone call conversations between FBO's and the corporation hired by MAC to do the study. There is no hard data. There are no hard audits. FCM is going through what amounts to a $60 million + redevelopment project based on guesstimates. In the past 20 years, no one has ever gone through and done a legitimate audit of the aircraft actually based at FCM - yet the FAA is expected to pay for improvements, when the figures the improvements are based on are really no more than hearsay. We in the community know that the figures have been inflated to make the "investment" look good - but there is no way we or the FAA can actually verify any of the figures presented in the FEIS for this project. We feel that both the community and the FAA have been duped by MAC and that this project is unwarranted and unneeded - especially now when we all need to watch our budgets.

Sincerely,