Seems you didn’t do your homework on the editorial “Value of rural airports” (BDN, Feb. 20). UPS has been contacted and has no interest in flying jets into Machias or anywhere in Washington County. Many local businesses have been contacted and have no interest in using an airport – with a rare exception saying “maybe once in a while.”

Airports are brought into an area after the need is there. Not before. Expansion-minded businesses with any foresight would not spend millions of dollars on a far-fetched hunch that maybe it would produce a need.

Washington County is not an affluent county. Many here are not able to pay for heating oil, and price-gouging gasoline companies are making matters practically unbearable. A multimillion-dollar jetport in Washington County is not only insane because there is no need for it, but it would place an added tax burden on its already overtaxed citizens. This airport should never have been considered and should not be built.

Les Simon

Jonesboro