A Bright Vision for SAEPOA

Deborah and I have been very grateful for Sandia Airpark and our neighbors. We’re going through a tough time right now, but this is not always the case, and even now, we greatly enjoy living here. We jointly wrote this post to give us a look ahead.

What could be more enjoyable than a friendly neighborhood with pilots who love to fly? Furthermore, we get the pleasure of families who are charitable to spread goodwill to the community inside and outside the Airpark, including the communities of Edgewood, the East Mountains in general, and even the entire Albuquerque area.

Good things about SAEPOA (Why Keep SAEPOA?)

• We allow public use of our private roads/taxiways, by anyone for:
  • Taxiing aircraft
  • Strolling, jogging
  • Walking dogs, horses
  • Biking, driving, etc.
• Our partnerned airport owner provides runway/fuel access for anyone. Pilots fly, use, the runway, roads, and have access whether they are SAEPOA residents or not.
• We sponsor holiday events for families:
  • Annual Santa Fly-In (Dec.),
  • Trick-or-Treats (Oct. 31),
  • July 4^th Barbeque, etc.
• We have many EAA members who do activities like Young Eagles (EAA), in fact the local chapter board is largely SAEPOA members.

Good things we would like to promote at the Airpark:

As we think ahead, we’re thinking of other things we can do, and we’d very much like your ideas on what we can do.

• Fly-In (sponsored by SAEPOA)
• Air Show for kids (with model airplanes, even helicopters, or other manned aircraft) for community
• Do simple fundraising that we coulduse to support better community service:
  • Chili cook-off (e.g., volunteers cook chili to be given freely by the cup; voting costs $1 or more as a donation. Chili with highest $ donation, wins!)
  • Bake Sales
  • Sell hot dogs, chips, drinks (perhaps at an Air Show)

It is our sincere hope that we will be able to do these kinds of things more than we have in the past. It’s largely for this reason that members are invited to come to our house for cookouts to have fun and to plan great things we can do together.

We are also hoping that our Board will gain an interest in these activities, and will drop their plans to dissolve the Association. Hey Board: Join in building the Association and the neighborhood up so that we can better serve each other and the community at large!

Done right, an Airpark like ours should be the envy of all neighborhoods! Please help us build this community. As a bonus, property values will increase with improved community relations.

Please share your thoughts with us in our ongoing discussion, Begining this Thursday, Feb. 13 at 6pm! Thereafter on Fridays, starting February 21. See you then!