CAA: GA News, "Neighbors support Michigan airport purchase"

["Stephen Irwin" <stepheni@cwnet.com>]

Thursday, May 18, 2000

Neighbors support airport purchase
By MARILYN TRUMPER-SAMRA
Ann Arbor (MI) News


LYON TOWNSHIP - Oakland County's plan to buy and keep alive the 54-year-old
New Hudson Airport is just fine with some surrounding neighbors, who enjoy
watching planes take off and land, the drone of small engines and the moving
slivers of silver against a blue sky.

It's been a good neighbor for a long time, and beats encroaching
subdivisions made by developers who level trees and rolling hills, they say.

"To be perfectly honest with you, the airport doesn't bother me at all,"
said Cathy LaChance, who moved in across the street six years ago with her
husband and four children. "I'd much rather have that airport than have it
torn down and a subdivision go up. That's my big concern. We have 400 houses
going in behind us now. That fills up the schools and the roads."

Then she grins.

"Unless it's a golf course. We love golf courses."

Oakland County officials want to buy the airport near Grand River and
Pontiac Trail for $3.6 million, to stem congestion at the county's two other
airports, Oakland County International in Waterford and Oakland Troy. Both
would be forced to accept New Hudson air traffic should the rural airport
close.

The county commissioners must vote to accept a state grant to cover 95
percent of the cost, with matching funds from the county airport fund making
up the balance. The Michigan Aeronautics Commission

was expected to approve the grant today, said commission Director William
Gehman..

J. David VanderVeen, director of Oakland County's Central Services, said the
commissioners probably will sign the deal at a June 15 meeting. A purchase
agreement is already in place, he said.

Lyon Township Clerk Pamela Johnson said she's fielded a few concerns, but
not many.

"The residents expressed some concerns about expansion, or the type of
aircraft that would be flying out of there," she said. I told them that I
was confident that any plans for improvement would be brought by the county
to the township, and I really think that any expansion would be limited by
the surrounding residential areas."

Officials said New Hudson Airport would be renamed Oakland/Southwest
Airport.

Located close to the road, the small airport opened in 1946 as a flight
school for World War II veterans and is home to 140 private two- and
four-seater planes. It handles about 42,000 takeoffs and landings per year.
That's a surprise to Mary Chalifour, who has lived across the street from
the airport 28 years.

"It doesn't seem like that much. That's hard to believe. The airport doesn't
bother me a bit. I enjoy watching the planes land. I'm so used to it I don't
even hear them."

Paula Carter has lived across the street for 33 years.

"I walk over there all the time, instead of walking along a street where I
can get hit by a car. It's safe there. I enjoy the planes. The airport
doesn't bother me a bit."

Cecelia Woodcock lived across the street from the airport for 27 years, then
sold her home to her son and built a new one three years ago just down the
hill - closer to the airport.

"I'm bothered by a lot of things," she smiles, "but that airport isn't one
of them."

Gehman wants residents to know nothing will change.

"The one thing we want to stress to the neighbors is that we have no
intention of expanding. We're pleased they think it's a good neighbor," he
said.


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