I would like to state my sincere appreciation to Congressman Tim Huelskamp and his staff for their assistance in resolving a recent issue at Hays Regional Airport.

Last month, equipment that monitors air speed, temperature, humidity and other conditions broke. Unfortunately, the Federal Aviation Administration was being quite slow in replacing the equipment. Further, they would not allow the city of Hays to fix the equipment itself, allow manual weather observations or use any of the other ten weather stations in town.

Without this information, it would not be safe for flights to take off or land. This could have severely impacted operations at the airport.

Several federally elected officials were contacted to see if a mutually agreeable solution could be reached so operations would not be impacted. Within a few hours of being contacted, Congressman Huelskamp’s office had already scheduled a meeting with the FAA and the issue was resolved within 48 hours. Over the ensuing weeks, his office followed up with the FAA to ensure such a situation does not occur again.

I want to publicly thank Congressman Huelskamp and his staff for their efforts. I believe without his personal intervention a positive outcome would not have been possible.

James Meier
Commissioner, City of Hays