An Independent readers asks if the purchase of a new helicopter for Peoria is common sense.
Posted
By Patrick Hysell, Peoria resident
I am responding to your article “Touchdown in Peoria” in the August 2024 issue of Peoria Independent.
It is difficult in writing concerning this subject because we can never get inside a politician’s head to know their real reason for any of their actions. But, there is a belief that people should have common sense when they do things, especially when they are going to be spending the hard earned money of those they represent and work for in our city.
Buying a $3.3 million helicopter, then having a minimum estimate of a $1 million annual budget to operate the aviation unit is a major decision, especially when we have no airport to house the helicopter or the people who support it. Having this unit fly out of Glendale is quite sufficient to meet the needs of Peoria but we have to question why when we already get free service from Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, Arizona Department of Public Safety and the city of Phoenix.
So the real question is why are we spending millions of dollars for something we don’t need? The difference in time in getting a helicopter from the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office is minimal to getting a city of Peoria owned helicopter in the air. The difference in cost is one costs millions of dollars and the other is free. But wait, I almost left out that someone wants an airport for that helicopter here in Peoria. Hmmm…more tax dollars, more air traffic, more noise pollution, more air pollution, more traffic, more unnecessary expenditures that will never go down but will grow and grow. Even with an airport in Peoria and a helicopter located in Peoria, the response time won’t be much different from what we currently get. It doesn’t take a genius to understand that an emergency anywhere within the city of Peoria can be handled quite quickly from existing “free” sources.
Again, I ask why we are spending millions of dollars now. Is this going to be a mode of transportation for certain people that may become the misuse of city property?
By the way, of the $17.6 million allocation of funds from the state of Arizona, what strings are attached to it? What do we not know about those funds? Is it going to have to be paid back to the state? Is it a free gift out of the kindness of their hearts? Oh no…how could I forget, we pay taxes to the state and those are our tax dollars that are paying for it all. Yes, another great example of the misuse of taxpayer funds. So the taxpayer has either through the state or the city now agreed to pay $20,900,000 and $1,000,000 annually for something we don’t need. Whatever happened to common sense?
