"Director Confident Detroit's Small City Airport Will Remain Open"

Wednesday, May 22, 2002

Director Confident Detroit's Small City Airport Will Remain Open
The Detroit (MI) Free Press


Detroit City Airport's future is still up in the air, but the airport's
interim deputy director told the City Council on Tuesday that he is
confident it will remain open.

In March, Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick told 200 black business leaders that he
wanted to turn the small, east-side airport into a viable piece of the
region's economic fabric or close it. Delbert Brown said he hopes to
save it, but the mayor will have the final word.

Since the last commercial passenger carrier ceased operating at City
Airport in 2000, it has been the domain of private pilots and charter
operations.

"No one knows the future,"Brown said."Right now, I'm going forward with
the airport master plan, which is a 20-year plan, and the first step in
that process is an environmental impact study."

Brown said he hopes to begin the study before the fall, after he secures
the $1 million to $2 million to pay for it. The money could come from
federal grants, he said. He said the study likely will take about two
years.

After the study is completed, Brown said he will consider whether a new
runway should be built. Past talk of lengthening the existing runway was
just that -- talk, he said.

"Without tearing up and digging up the cemetery, it can't be done, so it
becomes an issue of constructing a new runway,"Brown said."It would be
built after acquiring additional land to the west, toward Van Dyke."

Mt. Olivet Cemetery lies north of the airport. The smaller Forest Lawn
Cemetery is west of the airport, separated by a residential area.

Council members, who had requested Brown's appearance for an update on
the airport, said they were pleased with what they heard.

"I think City Airport is critical,"said Councilwoman Alberta
Tinsley-Talabi.

Councilwoman Barbara-Rose Collins said she plans to present an ordinance
to change the name from Detroit City Airport to the Coleman Alexander
Young Airport. Three other council members -- Tinsley-Talabi, Brenda
Scott and Sharon McPhail -- said they would cosponsor the ordinance.
Collins would need one additional vote for passage.

Brown said he'll focus on more immediate fixups at the airport --
including completing the French Road land acquisition project to develop
and improve the existing runway, improving amenities available to those
who use the airport and adding hangar space.


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