Halvorson threat; get airport moving or else
State Sen. Majority Leader Debbie
Halvorson, C-Crete, the Democratic candidate for congress in the 11th district,
has threatened state transportation officials. She wants an airport layout plan
for the proposed airport at Peotone submitted to the FAA by March 1 or else.
“If she is giving them an ultimatum, what will she do if they don’t submit a layout plan by March 1?” asks George Ochsenfeld, president of STAND.
Last February, the state sent two
competing airport layout plans - one from IDOT and one from the airport authority
spearheaded by U.S. Rep. Jackson, D-Chicago - with the hope that the federal
agency would solve the squabble between the two groups. They have refused to
come to a consensus about control of the proposed project.
FAA officials declined to pick a winner,
telling IDOT to submit only one plan, the state’s preferred plan, for them to
review.
Ochsenfeld said he thinks the right thing for Halvorson to do is to suggest dropping the whole thing.
“If Halvorson really has concerns about what is best for the area, she would be prompted to speak out against the project. It has lingered too long and made too many people upset,.” he said.
But second-guessing his own idea, he said he didn’t think Halvorson has the fortitude to finally stand up for the people of Will County and more specifically, eastern Will County.
Ochsenfeld has a little greater hope that Blagojevich recognizes that pushing forward with the proposed airport could be a disaster.
“If she (Halvorson) makes this a campaign issue, she has sunk to a new low,” Ochsenfeld said. “It would be wrong to use this unneeded, deeply flawed project as a campaign issue to win a seat in congress, especially when we know that she knows better.”
IDOT officials say they are close to
coming up with a preferred plan. But it isn’t clear who is pushing the project
these days. There always seemed to be a guiding force for the project.
It is no longer Kirk Brown, the former
Transportation Secretary who did all he could to guide the project through to
completion. Some say Brown had an obsession with building an airport at
Peotone. He left IDOT at the end of 2002 when his boss George Ryan left office,
disgraced by his part in the license for bribes scandal that ultimately landed
him in prison. By the time Rod Blagojevich was inaugurated, Brown was getting
ready to start a new job – with Hanson Professional Services Inc., the same
firm that Brown hired as transportation secretary to manage state-owned
property and acquire additional property in the airport footprint.
Then there was Christine Cochrane, Brown’s
right hand, formerly the project manager for the third airport and an IDOT
employee. She piloted the airport project office during its heyday under Ryan
and Brown, but was relegated to copilot when Ryan’s pal Brad Roseberry was
slated for the top post. She got the controls back, however in the form of acting
project manager after Roseberry left the position. He had to testify against another
Ryan pal, Scott Fawell, during Ryan’s trial.
In 2005 Peter R. Quattrocchi was named project
manager but he had no history with the project. Cochrane resigned from IDOT in
June 2006.
Even longtime airport advocate Roc Van
Guilder is no longer with the project. His airport experience dates back to the
first airport study completed in 1987 when he was the project manager for TAMS,
the state’s consultant. Later Van Guilder became the land acquisition and
property manager for Hanson Professional Services Inc.. It wasn’t long before he
was promoted to vice president.
Van Guilder and his son Lee, who was also employed by the firm, have been taken to court for directing heavy equipment across private property at the end of last year. A trial has yet to begin, with a court date scheduled for next month. Van Guilder is now employed at AVCON in Florida.
The changing of the guard seems to be the norm at IDOT, with Blagojevich’s Secretary of Transportation Tim Martin resigning during January 2007.
Immediately after, airport leadership fell into the hands of newly appointed Aeronautics Director Susan Shea, who told airport proponents, “I’m here to build you an airport.”
She made few friends with her handling of the proposed project, especially opponents, and most especially those who remember Don Corinna, Bob York, the late Aldo DeAngelis, and other leaders of the project. Shea’s early defiance has tempered into utter silence over the past several months.
She was portrayed in the media as less than honest when she was quoted as saying she knew nothing about the requirements by the FAA regarding the dueling airport plans. The FAA’s Tony Molinaro, however, said he met with state officials prior to the submission, stating that the state should choose one preferred plan.
Shea’s last act was in June when she landed in a state helicopter to hand deliver a certificate of occupancy permit to Jim Bult for his general aviation airport on Kedzie Ave. State officials, presumably led by Shea, stalled as long as they could to grant final approval on Bult’s project.
Finally in September, Milt Sees was named transportation secretary to fill the vacant post.
It seems the only airport promoter these days is U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. Despite his insistence that the airport will be built, and will bring jobs and economic vitality to the poorest communities in Illinois, he leveraged support from his colleagues by saying that Ford Heights “abuts” Peotone. In reality, there are several other communities between the two, both are located in different counties, and lie in two different congressional districts, only one of which is his.
So far, Blagojevich, in whose hands the airport project rests, has been resistant to Jackson’s ambitious efforts to wrest control of state-owned land.
Perhaps a
threat by Halvorson will be all that is necessary to get Blagojevich to move forward
on the project. Ochsenfeld certainly doesn’t think so.
Excellent article as usual. My what a sad history of how our leaders have done business over the years. I agree that Blago has the final say on this, but doubt he will choose or even act. Heck, he is probably the next one to start spending time in court defending himself,so the decision could very well be made by yet another governor? I think 2008 will start off with a whole lot of project push, tough talk, threats, promises,projections,but by the end of 2008 I predict it will all be smoke and mirrors and nothing will be done. Fasten your seat belts you Eastern Will County residents and prepare for another roller coaster ride courtesy of IDOT
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And what about the selling off of several parcels of land within the 1st zone...by the IDOT....this happened already!
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IDOT only sold land that was wrongly purchased -- the first parcels acquired -- likely through a political deal. That area, Heatherbrook Estates subdivision, a neighborhood of very upscale houses, outside the airport boundary, so it should never have been taken in the first place. But, it was politically expedient to buy it, given some campaign contributors and sympathetic township officials who paved the way. It was enough for IDOT to get its foot in the door, so to speak -- to scare others who did own the land they really wanted into selling to the state.
Once the hardship for the remaining neighbors was made public, a few politicians used the situation to look like heros, convincing the state to remove that subdivision from the project. The decision was made shortly thereafter to sell it.
The local folks in eastern Will County would like nothing more than to have the state sell the property for a use other than for an airport.
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