State drops an ultimatum on Creswell, skydivers.

Byline: Karen McCowan The Register-Guard

CRESWELL - The state is demanding that city officials stop two popular skydiving operations here from dropping skydivers on state-owned land next to the Creswell Airport.

"Our position is that these skydiving companies are essentially trespassing on state property," said Joe Harwood, a spokesman for the state Department of Transportation, which owns the four-acre parcel.

In a registered letter mailed Wednesday to Creswell City Administrator Mark Shrives, the state agency warned that it will hold the city liable for any skydiving-related damage or injuries that occur on the land, because the skydiving businesses are airport tenants.

But the owners of Eugene Skydivers and Wright Brothers Skydiving say the state ultimatum won't shut down Oregon's biggest skydiving mecca outside the Portland area.

"We won't quit operating," said Urban Moore of Eugene Skydivers. "If we can't land here, then the city's going to be obligated to show us another drop zone," he said, citing a January 2006 ruling by a top Federal Aviation Administration official. "The FAA says we are an aeronautical activity and must be accommodated."

Dave Wright, owner of neighboring - and competing - Wright Brothers Skydiving, said he will continue to drop skydivers from his Creswell Airport base one way or another.

"If I have permission to land in a field, I'll land there," he said.

That resolve is good news for dozens of customers skydiving in Creswell on a sleepy, midweek afternoon. Jeremy Bracken had driven from Tigard to Eugene Skydivers, where he logged some jumps toward an advanced license.

"This is the closest place to Portland that's open on weekdays," he said Wednesday after landing his neon-rainbow parachute right between two flags that serve as the drop zone's bulls-eye.

"It's just a really laid-back, fun place to jump."

Next door at Wright Brothers, Phil Ebert said he regularly comes from Salem to make recreational jumps and work as a tandem instructor. "I like the scenery here," he said. "And I like the Creswell Airport and its smaller amount of air traffic."

Shrives declined comment Wednesday afternoon, saying he first wanted to read the letter, which The Register-Guard obtained late Wednesday after filing a public records request.

But it appeared unlikely that he would immediately order the companies to quit landing skydivers in the drop zone, which they used for years under a land use permit the city obtained from the state.

"Our usual procedure would be to consult with our City Attorney and then bring it to the City Council for a decision on how to respond," Shrives said.

Department of Transportation property manager Mike Stone noted in the letter to Shrives that his agency had canceled the city's permit for "airport related activity" on the state property in May, after Creswell failed to sign a revised contract requested by the state agency in January.

Stone also cited the state's rising costs in managing the permit. Creswell paid $150 a year to use the land, but the state spent far more than that in staff time after it was drawn into a bitter dispute between city officials and the skydive operators over liability issues. Both Eugene Skydivers and Wright Brothers have continued to land hundreds of skydivers in the drop zone after the permit was canceled in this, their busiest season.

Asked earlier this week about the continued use of the drop zone, Shrives said the matter was no longer in Creswell's hands. "The city's kind of stepped away since ODOT canceled the permit," he said. "That's ODOT land, so at this point, it's their issue."

The state agency doesn't see it that way.

"The department has been getting complaints from citizens that the use of the property continues, and we have been asked to take action," Stone wrote. "We have reviewed the City of Creswell Rules and Regulations Applying to Creswell Airport, Hobby Field and it appears that your tenants may be in violation of several citations by this trespass upon ODOT property."

The complaints came from two area pilots, Paul Preziose and Keith Lockhoven, Harwood said. Both previously have reported what they considered unsafe or illegal behavior by skydivers or skydive pilots. Moore and Wright have responded that skydive pilots are the safest at the airport.

The state also is exploring the possibility of declaring the four-acre parcel surplus property and selling it to the highest bidder, Harwood said. Originally acquired as right-of-way for nearby Interstate 5, the agency sees no reason to keep it, he said.

Both Moore and Wright expressed interest in purchasing the long-time drop zone.

The city has no plans to do so, Airport Manager Shelley Humble said.

"The ODOT property is part of the Airport Master Layout Plan, but we've always looked at it as a safety feature, a buffer zone," she said. "We've never talked about developing that land."