Pro-airport group takes on virtual fight

Mathis Winkler

NEWPORT BEACH -- The Web site addresses might be similar -- o7

www.eltoronow.orgf7 vs. o7 www.eltoroairport.orgf7 .

Their contents, however, are worlds apart.

Expanding their campaign for an airport at El Toro into cyberspace,

members of the Airport Working Group recently launched an online war room

to counter anti-El Toro Internet outlets that have been up and running

for quite a while.

“We just got tired of pro-airport El Toro forces not having a Web

site,” said Dave Ellis, a spokesman for the organization.

“We constantly have people say in the community, ‘Where is your Web

site? I want to volunteer and need more information,”’ Ellis said.

While the Airport Working Group recently received a $120,000 grant

from the city of Newport Beach for public relations work in support of an

El Toro airport and can submit invoices for further expenses, the Web

site’s run by volunteers and costs very little money, Ellis said.

Newport Beach resident Cathy Grammer-Margolin, who’s a professional

Web designer, set up o7 eltoronow.orgf7 a few weeks ago and is

maintaining the site.

“Basically, it’s to get information out and to support an airport

alternative for Orange County,” she said.

The site features a news section that’s updated daily and lets viewers

submit questions or comments or pledge donations to the nonprofit

organization.

“There has been a lot of misinformation in all of our mailboxes and

we’re trying to give the facts and the truth related to the airport,”

Grammer-Margolin said.

Also included are links to other related Web sites, such as the

official Orange County Web site and the site for the Federal Aviation

Administration.

But the o7 eltoronow.orgf7 folks themselves have already

encountered some problems to get promotion elsewhere.

A request by the group to be added to Supervisor Tom Wilson’s El Toro

information links list was denied.

Wilson, whose district includes Newport Beach and Irvine, among

others, supports an extension of flight caps at John Wayne Airport beyond

2005 but also opposes an airport at El Toro.

Neither he nor his representatives could be reached for comment

Friday.

While most of the links on Wilson’s official site lead to anti-El Toro

groups, one pro-airport site is also included.

Airport Working Group officials have asked Wilson’s office to review

their request to be added again, Grammer-Margolin said.

Getting a link from Newport Beach’s officials Web site should not be

too difficult. But city officials said Friday that City Council members

would likely have to make that decision.

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Air wars

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