Fairchild will get new commander
Fairchild Air Force Base’s 92nd Air Refueling Wing will get a new commander next week as Col. Thomas Sharpy takes over for Col. Scott Hanson.
Sharpy comes to Fairchild from Travis Air Force Base in California, where he has been serving as the vice wing commander.
He is a command pilot and has also served as a senior military aide to the vice president of the United States.
Sharpy graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1987. He has served at Columbus Air Force Base, Wurtsmith Air Force Base, Barksdale Air Force Base, Travis Air Force Base, the Pentagon and Dover Air Force Base. He became a colonel last year.
Hanson will serve as the deputy director of the Air Force’s Operations and Plans Directorate, part of the U.S. Transportation Command. He is moving to Scott Air Force Base in Illinois.
Like Sharpy, Hanson was vice commander at Travis Air Force Base before coming to Fairchild. He has been commander of the 92nd Air Refueling Wing since July 2005.
Maj. Gen. James Hawkins, the 18th Air Force commander, will conduct a ceremony at Fairchild May 22 to turn command over to Sharpy.
Hawkins will also present Hanson a Legion of Merit award for his service commanding the 92nd Air Refueling Wing.
McCall, Idaho
Few answers for McCall’s huge debt
More than 200 residents gathered to ask city officials how the resort town will pay off a debt totaling more than $6.2 million.
City officials say they’re not sure.
A federal judge last month ordered the central Idaho town of about 3,500 year-round residents to pay two contractors money owed for building a wastewater treatment site. But Mayor Bill Robertson said the city doesn’t have the money to cover the debt, and city leaders don’t believe Idaho law allows them to raise taxes enough to cover the difference.
Bankruptcy is one option under consideration by the city; in the meantime city leaders are trying to negotiate a payment plan with the construction companies.
The city held the town-hall style meeting Monday for residents. “It is going to hurt, and it is going to hurt all of us,” Robertson told a standing-room-only crowd. “This is an urgent situation.”
Resident Todd Mudie, a builder, said declaring bankruptcy might be the only real option.
Other residents suggested that city leaders should be personally responsible for the debt.
City Manager Lindley Kirkpatrick said officials do not yet know when a decision on payback plans might be made.
From staff and wire reports