Tuesday, May 13, 2008

As you are already aware, TSA has made a decision not to provide federalized screening at the Florida Keys Marathon Airport (MTH) due to limited resources. Should TSA’s decision stand, the Florida Keys community will lose $43.7 million in projected revenue to our local economy. However, a sound resolution to the issue has been presented, and with your support, we can realize our dream of regional air service at (MTH). Our Congressional Delegation and Chairman Mica have made a proposal to TSA staff, and we would urge your support of this plan. The proposal calls for using of the Screening Partnership Program (SPP) instead of TSA federal screeners at both MTH and our other facility, the Key West International Airport (EYW). In so doing, we believe the screening functions of both MTH and EYW can be combined at a cost equal or lower to the current EYW expense. For at least the last three years, TSA has had to permanently deploy screeners from your National Screening force (NSF) to insure adequate staffing at EYW. Currently 15 of the 25 person screening force at EYW are from the NSF. As you know, the NSF was meant to be a temporary, mobile screening force. Because of the additional NSF expense of temporary housing (daily hotel rooms in a resort town) and meal allowances, an NSF screener is twice as expensive to deploy here in Key West than a regular or locally based screener. We believe that if the TSA were to staff MTH temporarily while they converted both airports to the SPP format, the result would be a classic win/win for both the TSA and the Monroe County airports. Please do all that is in your power to intervene on our behalf to reverse this disastrous decision. If further information is needed, please contact our Director of Airports, Mr. Peter Horton at (305) 292-3518 or on his cell phone (305) 304-0063. His email address is: horton-peter@monroecounty-fl.gov.

6* E-mail