2016 Olympics to benefit airport; Gary vs. Peotone
by Carol Henrichs

Last week Chicago was selected by the U.S. Olympic Committee to be the U.S. candidate to host the 2016 Summer Games.

Chicago must still compete with Madrid, Prague, Rome, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo for the ultimate decision in 2009.

Already, like a couple of rival football teams, there are signs of competition between the Gary/Chicago International Airport and the proposed Peotone project.

The Northwest Indiana Times recently quoted the ever-hopeful Peotone supporter Ed Paesel, the executive director of the South Suburban Mayors and Managers Association (SSMMA) and former Sauk Village mayor as saying, “The Olympics could give major projects such as the Metra extension and the planned airport at Peotone an important leg up in the competition for federal dollars.”

“The airport would play a major role in getting all the people across the world and throughout the world to Chicago," Paesel said. "There's only so much Midway and O'Hare can do.”

Is he kidding? The year 2016 is just nine years from now. Is there enough time for Peotone?

To make the Peotone airport a factor in the 2016 Olympics, many feats would have to be accomplished – feats that haven’t been achieved in the past 39 years.

To build an airport, IDOT would have to acquire the remainder of the land for its one-runway airport. Undoubtedly that would require numerous and potentially lengthy jury trials with folks who have no interest in giving up their homes for the long-touted project.

The planning process, ongoing since 1985 when the SSMMA was given the first $500,000 to study the region’s aviation capacity, would have to be completed.

Environmental studies, with so much change in the region since originally considered, would be like starting anew.

The airport layout plan, in limbo since the Federal Aviation Administration rejected the two-plan approach, must still be decided. And, the governance of a new airport is far from resolved.

The political football that is the Peotone airport is far from the end zone. So, getting an airport built in nine years isn’t likely, but is it possible?

Perhaps looking back at the forward momentum on the project over the last nine years can offer additional perspective.

The year was 1998, 30 years after Beecher Herald headlines hailed the plan to build a new airport between Beecher and Peotone.

It was 10 years after the SSMMA’s Chicago Airport Capacity Study was approved by policy makers, but opposed by industry experts and others with technical expertise.

Nine years ago was the beginning of the unlikely duo of Democrat Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. and Republican Henry Hyde, whose alliance brought the northwest and southern suburbs together.

That was an important election year. Then gubernatorial candidate George Ryan, who has so far escaped prison time for his conviction of multiple counts of corruption during his tenure as governor, pledged $20 million to buy 2,600 acres for the downsized airport project. As governor, he instead allocated $75 million for land acquisition.

The state had begun to market the airport in 1998. Then Project Manager Christine Cochrane said there were “quite a few airlines” interested. And just like today’s woman at the helm, Susan Shea, director of IDOT’s Division of Aeronautics who makes the same unproven statements, Cochrane declined to name them.

Cochrane also touted “many investors who were interested in the project” though only two, and those who are connected to northwest suburban interests, have emerged.

In February of that year, representatives from United and American Airlines came to Peotone to tell 300 airport opponents that ‘even if they do build it, they won’t come.’ They referred to the airlines that just years before had written to Gov. Jim Edgar to state their opposition to Peotone.

In October of that year, U.S. Rep. Glenn Poshard, a candidate for governor came to Peotone and stated his opposition to the Peotone airport.

So, while Paesel was quoted in an Indiana newspaper, he failed to mention the Indiana airport’s potential benefit from the 2016 Olympic games in Chicago.

Gary/Chicago, an existing airport that Paesel and other Illinois officials refuse to recognize, is stealthily working toward becoming the victor in the long-fought battle for Chicagoland airport recognition.

The only thing Gary needs to do to benefit from a 2016 Olympics in Chicago is to find a way to get passengers about 25 miles downtown.

Now that may be doable in nine years.