Dan Gryder VS Griffin Airport: Were they harassing him?

We've all probably read about Dan Gryder's recent arrest at the Griffin-Spaulding county airport last week.  I wrote an article covering the story and was surprised when many local Griffinites spoke up to defend Dan.  Here's what the people that know Dan and the airport area had to say.

Several readers point out that Griffin officials at the airport have "had Dan in their cross hairs for years now."  A few readers commented on how Dan had been cited for improper storage of chemicals; the reason being he had fuel in his airplane's tanks.  He also, according to one reader, was cited again for improperly disposing of chemicals when oil dripped from his DC3.  Now, I'm not one to question authorities very often, but this all seems a bit ridiculous.  I also question the local code enforcement's authority at the airport.  I'm no aviation lawyer, but I do tend to believe that the local code enforcement officers have no business in an airport handing out tickets to pilots for storing fuel in their fuel tanks.

Furthermore, one reader points out that "He's also got the court system there in a bind because the city violated state and federal law in trying to evict him from the airport, but the judge has been sitting on the ruling for over three years rather than rule against the local officials there in their little town."

All of these revelations paint a very different portrait of the events last week on that air field.  This new information would suggest to me that the local authorities had almost a personal vendetta against Gryder stemming from the earlier Carvair incident and were quietly harassing him in hopes he would leave the airport. It would also seem that they now have way more attention on their petty and childish actions than they would like.  What is to become of Gryder and the consequences of the incident, both to Dan and to the city, is yet to be seen.  You can be sure this journalist will follow it very carefully.