Grumpy old guy comment warning!
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This is a long-term result of Flight Service consolidation and eventual contracting. At one time the FSS Specialists knew their area and the people. Jurisdiction crossed state and regional lines, a local person knew what was going on. An airport manager could actually walk into a station and talk to the specialists on-duty. The specialists could, in some cases, look out the window and see if a runway was closed, construction in progress, or whatever. As the system got smaller, attention to detail was lost.
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As a Terminal Frontline Manager (Tower Supervisor) fighting with FSS, the Service Areas, and OKC was nearly a daily event. Getting information updated or corrected in publications shouldn’t be the battle of red tape that it is. In one case, my facility had an FDC NOTAM amending an ILS approach. After numerous phone calls, faxes, and emails OKC finally agreed it would be better to publish an updated plate. I wish this was a joke, but it isn’t…they then told me because of publication cycles it would still take almost 1 year to get the new plate published!
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Like every other piece of paper the government curses us with, each page has at least one lawsuit attached to it. Do we really need a NOTAM telling us a tower light, 30mi east of XYZ, at 125ft AGL is out of service? According to the lawyers, the answer is yes.
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And I’ll make this my last…promise. Sometimes people just fail to use their brains. Again, in the process of trying to get information corrected and updated, OKC decided to quickly publish information about 2 NAVAIDs at the facility where I worked. Oh, the only problem, both NAVAIDs were decommissioned before I started working there, and at the time I was in my 20th year at the tower. Oh, we made a mistake. And yes, they published NOTAMs showing the NAVAIDS and decommissioned and quickly pushed through a publication change…9 months later.