"Opinion: Living by Oregon airport is your choice; it was built in 1928"

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Opinion
Living by airport is your choice; it was built in 1928
The Salem (OR) Statesman-Journal


The Nov. 14 article on the Salem Airport expansion (which I support)
contained opposition comments by Mr. Rob Gould, who said, "It's really
getting to the tipping point in terms of an airport located so close and
inside the city boundaries."

Mr. Gould's comments ignore the facts. According to Salem's Web site,
construction started on the airport in 1928 and it opened August 1929.
United Airlines started service Dec. 5, 1941.

The military took possession of the airport during World War II. In 1946,
the War Department returned use of the airport to Salem with the following
stipulation: "The airport must remain open to the public and unrestricted to
public use." West Coast Airlines had scheduled passenger service in 1947.

The airport has been in constant use since August 1929. The airport was
located in the country in 1929 and has not moved into the city, just the
opposite -- the city surrounded the airport.

Unless Mr. Gould or anyone else lived near the airport site in 1928, they
chose to live by the airport so should not complain. I was born in Silverton
in 1926 and knew of the airport before I was 10.

-- Ken Blust, Salem


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