The following part of an article on airport development in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, described the need to improve facilities at those airports. Gene E. Bendigo, owner of Bendigo Airport, located in Dauphin County, near Tower City, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, commented on the issue:
The airport is important to Schuylkill County for a variety of reasons, Shadle said.
The most obvious of these, he said, is economic development.
Not only could the lack of an airport discourage some prospective companies from locating in Schuylkill County, it could cause some already located here to leave as well, said Charles H. Hostetter, senior aviation consultant for McFarland Johnson Inc., the airport’s engineering consultant and a former director of aviation for PennDOT.
“It’s one of the top criteria that companies look for when they consider “how are we going to grow?” Hostetter said.
The airport’s deficiencies – lack of a minimum 5,000 foot runway and a “jet fuel farm” – have already complicated economic development efforts.
General Foods recently wanted to come to Schuylkill County to scout possible sites along Route 61 and needed a place to land a jet, Schoeneman said.
So did another unnamed employer seeking to create 3,500 jobs in various parts of the county, said David A. Donlin, executive director of the Schuylkill Chamber of Commerce.
Not knowing the airport had already purchased a used jet fuel truck as a temporary source, Donlin told the company representative he would have to land in Hazleton.
“After the conversation, I thought to myself. I wonder what his impression of Schuylkill County is?” Donlin said.
But the airport will need much more than a capital investment if it is to meet the goals of economic development officials envision, said Gene E. Bendigo, Tower City, owner of Bendigo Airport, Dauphin County.
The airport is in need of a full-time manager and staff, Bendigo said.
“You don’t want a Boeing 747 from Lowe’s fly in her and have the pilot have [to] fuel his own plane,” he said.
State Rep. Bob Allen, R-125, said a delegation, including himself, Schoeneman and Rhoades, would meet with PennDOT’s Deputy Secretary for Aviation and Rail Freight in Harrisburg in two weeks to seek more funding for the airport.
______________________________________
Article from the Pottsville Republican and Herald, 19 May 2000, via Newspapers.com.
Corrections and additional information should be added as comments to this post.