BY Karen McCowan The Register-Guard

A new consultant’s report questions the city’s position that skydiving poses unacceptable risks at Creswell Airport. It also urges the City Council to set clearer airport policies and hold the city administrator and airport manager accountable for improving relationships with unhappy airport users.

City Council members received copies of the report last week from Jim Johnson, a former acting Creswell city administrator. They hired Johnson to advise them on airport issues, including tensions between airport manager Shelley Humble and some airport users, including Eugene Skydivers and Wright Brothers Skydiving.

The rival companies in 2006 lost their long-standing right to land customers in a “drop zone” on Hobby Field east of the runway and on nearby state-owned land. Both city and state officials cited liability concerns following complaints by some pilots that the skydiving operations posed a safety hazard at the airfield.

Bringing back skydiving would increase risks at general aviation Hobby Field, consultant Johnson acknowledged in his report to the council. But he called such risks “manageable” if the city works with skydiving operators to craft a safety plan and the operators abide by its terms.

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