Discrimination Complaint Filed Against Miami-Dade County

MIAMI  Two Miami Aviation companies filed an eight- count, 54-page economic discrimination complaint against Miami-Dade County with the federal government in Washington D.C. The complaint by Blueside Services and BMI Salvage alleges failure by Miami-Dade to comply with mandatory federal obligations and assurances under the terms and conditions of accepting airport improvement grants. "It's time for both federal and state governments to take a cold hard look at how Miami-Dade actually spends the aviation grant monies it receives," states Stephen O'Neal, President of both companies.
 BMI is a five-year tenant at Opa-Locka Airport, with a $1.6 million economic impact specializing in the teardown of aircraft, that has been attempting to build its own permanent facilities at the airport because the majority of buildings and facilities at the airport have been condemned. "In the last three years, we have spent over $60,000 on temporary facilities and the permits for their electricity, water and other utilities, yet today we still have to use a generator for electricity, portable toilets for bathrooms and wash our hands from a bucket like a third-world country," says O'Neal. Opa-Locka Airport, once one of the busiest general aviation airports in the nation, currently sits in a state of decay and decline, while 20 miles to the north in Broward County, two general aviation airports enjoy premier facilities. Indeed as a result of this, two Fixed Base Operations at those airports are voted in the top ten nationally every year by General and Professional Corporate Pilots. "So what is wrong with this picture after millions of dollars in grants? How can Broward County get it so right and Miami-Dade so wrong?" asks O'Neal. Blueside's long-term developmental effort at Opa-Locka Airport is to restore as a Fixed Base Operation the historic 1930s U.S. Naval Reserve Air Base, one of America's first U.S. Naval Air bases, which sits on land donated by aviation pioneer Glenn Curtiss.