U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin stepped into the airport fray, when he wrote a letter to state officials predicting that inaction would jeopardize the South Suburban Airport.

Durbin wrote a letter Thursday, Oct. 18, to Gov. Blagojevich, Speaker Michael Madigan, Senate President Emil Jones, House Minority Leader Tom Cross and House Majority Leader Frank Watson.

Durbin told them he had been contacted by officials at the FAA who informed him that because of the state’s inaction, "the viability and future of the proposed South Suburban Airport is in question."

Last February, the state sent the FAA two competing airport layout plans to show the configuration of the field. IDOT’s plan consisted of 5,225 acres in size. The other, favored by U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson’s self-appointed airport authority, ALNAC, (Abraham Lincoln National Airport Commission), moved the site further south toward Church Road. The change added acreage, encompassing 7,855 acres.

The agency responded by telling state officials to choose only one preferred plan.

South Suburban airport supporters have been frustrated by the state’s inaction. Their was little response to their campaign to urge the governor to lease state-owned land to ALNAC. And subsequent requests have gone unanswered. To date, the state has spent $24 million to acquire 1,940 acres. An additional $4 million bought some vacant lots in the Heatherbrook Estates subdivision south of Monee, but that land has been removed from the project and is being resold.

When the state bought the project’s first acres, George Ryan was governor. His former Transportation Secretary Kirk Brown was warned by the FAA that buying land for the unapproved project was risky. The project remains unapproved.

Durbin pledged his support for the development and construction of the airport. He claimed responsibility for securing an expedited environmental review from the federal government and facilitating the return of the project to the NPIAS (National Plan for Integrated Airport Systems) list, which put it back in line for federal funding.

The project had been removed from the list in 1992 when a consensus approved a new airport in the Lake Calumet region of Chicago, during the Clinton administration.

The Peotone project was all but dead for two years until former Gov. Jim Edgar brought it back to life. Even then it didn’t return to the NPIAS list until 2001 when Jackson teamed up with former Congressman Henry Hyde, to bring new life to the project.

"I will continue to work to advance development of the South Suburban Airport, but to move this project forward, we need a strong commitment from the state and consensus from local communities," Durbin wrote.

He added that a key component of the effort is the creation of an airport authority that will ultimately control and operate the airport.

"It is essential that the governing body be composed of a majority of local residents who live in the county in which the airport is located," he said, noting that the vast majority of Illinois airports share this local control approach.

The creation of an airport authority requires action in Springfield, Durbin noted, promising to do his best to move the federal process forward as quickly as possible once the State has submitted a preferred airport layout plan and created a locally controlled airport authority.

What Sen. Durbin calls inaction is seen as finally having a little peace by the local residents who have lived with the airport nightmare for more than two decades.

Judy Ogalla of rural Peotone considers the lull in the action over the last several months as a time of peace where she could actually live her life similar to that of other citizens.

It has been a time when she hasn’t been bothered by state inspectors, condemnation threats, and meetings to attend.

Ogalla plans to convey her message to Sen. Durbin that there is a local consensus and it is against building an airport. The Will County Farm Bureau, Will-South Cook Soil and Water Conservation District and 11 units of local government have adopted a resolution against the development of the proposed airport.

"For me, it’s like having a whole summer of vacation," said Jim Verduin of rural Beecher, pointing out that he has appreciated not seeing what he deemed "upsetting news articles," that talk about his property as if he didn’t exist.

He said he has enjoyed the peace. "There has been no smoke from houses being burned, or dust from backhoes tearing them down. I watch from my deck as the planes land and take-off from Bult Field. I think to myself, ‘this little Peotone airport I can live with. It’s really kinda nice,’" he relates.

But just when he thought life was slowly returning to normal, and he contemplated the reasons he moved to the country in the first place, he is shocked back into reality by Sen. Durbin "trying to resurrect this project from the dead."

"It’s like having cancer in remission," he said. "You know it’s still there and when you least expect it, it raises its ugly head."

The project is never far from the minds of local folks, however. They drive the roads and see the state’s property where friends and neighbors once lived. They pass the IDOT compound that looks out of place in the bucolic setting.

George Ochsenfeld, president of STAND (Shut This Airport Nightmare Down) was critical of Durbin’s attempt to intervene in state politics.

"He should be focused on issues like immigration, health care, education, and the war in Iraq. Perhaps he hasn’t noticed that the state is broke, and the airline industry is in a shambles," Ochsenfeld said.

"The development of the Gary/Chicago International Airport combined with an expanded O’Hare is the solution to aviation demand.

Ochsenfeld concluded, "An airport at Peotone would be a sprawl generator and harmful for the area."