One Accused By Another Of Trying To Squelch The Program At K-State

Two Sedgwick County (KS) commissioners are at odds over the placement of a drone school at Cook Airfield (K50) southeast of Wichita.

Commissioner Richard Ranzau recently accused colleague Dave Unruh of working privately to squelch the program to train drone pilots at the private airfield east of Derby, KS. The Wichita Eagle reports that Unruh called Ranzau's comments "misdirected". He said that he would have preferred that K-State work with Wichita State University on the program, rather than Butler Community College.

The program is designed to allow students to earn an associates degree in drone systems. K-State will provide the actual flight training, while Butler College offers general-education courses at its Rose Hill campus.

The full five-member commission has generally supported the program, but the disagreement cropped up over a $70,000 paving project to improve the dirt road that leads to the airport. Unruh and Commission Chair David Dennis favored waiting to pave the road until after a new flight facility is completed, saying construction vehicles could damage the new road. Ranzau and Commissioner Jim Howell insisted that the road be paved first as a condition of the owners of the airfield participating in the program.

The swing vote was cast by Commissioner Michael O'Donnell. He voted to move forward with the paving project ahead of the construction.

Ranzau said during the debate the Unruh was trying to ultimately kill the program by delaying the road construction. Unruh said after the meeting that he was aware of efforts to work through KDOT to quash the program, but he was not part of it.

But he and Dennis did say they were "uncomfortable" with the partnership with an out-of-county college partnering with K-State on the program, saying that the county financially supports WSU Tech.

(Image from file)

FMI: Original report