Illinois continues contempt for private land as Illiana Expressway bill gets approved

Illinois State Capitol
(Photo credit: J. Stephen Conn)

It feels like deja vu all over again as the Illinois legislature recently approved a bill  (SB3318) that would allow Quick Take authority for the Illiana Expressway.

Normally, I hate the phrase--deja vu all over again because it is redundant--except in this case, it isn't. While deja vu refers to something that seemingly happened before, in the case of the Illinois legislature's boneheaded move to usurp the rights of landowners, the beat goes on. It might even be more appropriate to say this is deja vu all over again and again and again!

There may be small comfort in knowing that SB3318 squeaked by in the Illinois House with a vote of 61 to 57.

Senator, State, Toi Hutchinson 

IDOT Crystal ball failed in 2010

Chicago Skyline (Photo credit: TomC)

Perhaps time flies, but it is doubtful that the South Suburban Airport ever will.

By now, a new airport south of Chicago was supposed to have not only been up and running, but was supposed to be wildly successful, giving credit to thousands of jobs that would make the Chicago region "recession-proof." Those were the actual words they used to describe the benefit of a new airport south of Chicago.

The year 2010 was a very important one in the life of the "third airport," (South Suburban Airport, Peotone Airport, and Abraham Lincoln National Airport) all names for the same project, by the way.

Airport opposition, not about race

Response to Algernon Penn, the Chairman of Friends of ALNAC, (Abraham Lincoln National Airport Commission) the airport authority created by Jesse Jackson, Jr.

Penn submitted his comments to my blog post Pro-Anti-Peotone Airport forces plan separate events.

Algernon Penn, the Chairman of Friends of ALNAC, (Abraham Lincoln National Airport Commission) the airport authority created by Jesse Jackson, Jr. Penn submitted his comment to my previous blog post Pro-Anti-Peotone Airport forces plan separate events.

Mr. Penn, with all due respect, your inference of racism—evidenced by the title of your response in this blog as “Battling economic segregation, the new movement for southland jobs--is blatantly innappropriate.

Gary Airport to get commercial service; Peotone still a field of dreams

Soon to be flying over the skies at Gary/Chicago Airport

The Gary/Chicago International Airport has once again made an announcement that commercial air service will begin at Gary. This time, the announcement was made by Keith Hanson, who represents the airline. He announced that two flights per week, destined to Orlando, FL will fly out of the Gary airport, starting in February 2012.

Last September, it was rumored that Allegiant would begin service at Gary, but apparently the announcement was premature. The day before a press conference was scheduled, several news sources reported that a big announcement by an unnamed airline would be forthcoming. The marketing firm—Diversified Marketing Strategies of Crown Point, IN, identified the airline as Allegiant. The announcement was cancelled by the airlines .

That isn’t the case presently, as the latest proclamation that Allegiant Air will begin service at Gary, this time, comes from the airline itself. Hanson added that service to Florida may be just the beginning. He added that If it proves to be successful, additional destinations can be added.

While commercial airline service at the Gary airport has been on-again-off-again proposition, it is not for a lack of trying. Indiana officials have long committed to the success of the northwest Indiana airport.

The last commercial airline to utilize the Gary/Chicago airport was Skybus which ceased operation just one week after it began in the spring of 2008. A year prior, SkyValue ceased operation at Gary due to financial difficulties. Other airlines have come and gone over the years, but a subscription for success has yet to be achieved. That certainly isn’t for a lack of trying. The Gary/Chicago airport has had financial help from the federal, state, and local agencies, including the City of Chicago, in an attempt to land long term commercial service there.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the border, Illinois officials continue to: 1) ignore the ready aviation facility at Gary, which is just miles from the south suburbs they claim to be trying to help; 2) try every way possible to coerce support for a new airport in the farm fields near Peotone, IL, almost 50 miles south of Chicago.

The project has been talked about for almost a half-century with little forward progress except to shrink it to about the size of Gary’s airport.

The only real step toward fruition came when the incarcerated ex-Illinois Gov. George Ryan, made a deal with a campaign contributor to buy the first piece of land outside the airport footprint. Since that first parcel in an under-developed upscale subdivision became state-owned, Illinois officials have used scare tactics and threats of eminent domain to scare landowners into selling their property to the state. They have taken full advantage of artificially reduced land prices due to the threat of an airport nearby, and most recently the country’s economy and housing bubble to entice willing sellers who feel they have no other options but to sell to the state. Even still, the state has now obtained only about half of the land it would need for a new airport. Landowners that remain are unwilling sellers who vow to fight the state from taking their property, especially for a project that hasn’t even been approved.

Father of Peotone Airport dies

Everett Klipp dies at 84

Another pilot steering the decades-old saga of the Peotone Airport has passed away.

Everett Edward Klipp, the man credited with devising the Peotone site as the location for Chicago's third airport, has died of natural causes at age 84. While I never knew him, he  was iconic to me. I never even laid eyes on the man until one day, he appeared at a meeting, out of the blue. In 1991, seeing Everett Klipp for the first time was to me, like coming face-to-face with a ghost.

Under different circumstances, I may have liked him. He was a farmer from Manteno, one of eight children. He married his childhood sweetheart. He had planned to be a machinist, the same profession as my father.

Instead, Klipp became legendary as a trader with the Chicago Board of Trade. He is also credited with serving on the (Chicago) Cook County Transit Board, as an officer in the Cook County Republican Party, President of the Lions Club of Matteson Il., and as the inspiration and driving force behind development of the Third Airport of Chicago to be located on the south side of that city.

It was this last statement that is bothersome. Klipp proposed the airport to be located, not just south side of that city as his obituary notes, but between Beecher and Peotone, some forty miles south of the city. In the late 1960's, Klipp paid for a study to determine the benefits of the site he proposed. I suspect it may have been an innovative and forward-thinking idea back then. Times change. But Klipp's initial airport plan didn't change. What the state proposes today is the much the same as Klipp proposed fifty years ago. Granted, the state's plan has been tweaked, though not enough to make it work. It is far from innovative today. It is simply another idea whose time has come and gone.

I had heard early on in my own battle against the proposed airport which began in 1988, about Klipp's involvement. He proposed the site when Chicago Mayor Richard Daley considered building Chicago's third airport.

The state's moniker--third airport--is a misnomer, since there are far more than two airports serving the region. Additionally, Chicago has bought into the Gary/Chicago International Airport, which legitimately makes it Chicago's third airport.

In 1991, I came face-to-face with Everett Klipp during a congressional subcommittee on aviation hearing of the 101st U.S. Congress. It convened in Chicago, at the Mann Park Fieldhouse, on the city's south side. I was asked by the late U.S. Rep. George Sangmeister, D-Frankfort to participate, to testify in opposition to the Kankakee site. I made it clear in my remarks that my opposition was to any rural location for a new airport, especially the Peotone site.

As I sat through the long proceedings, the focus was clearly on the Lake Calumet site proposed by the City of Chicago. The rural sites were included, but were far less newsworthy, as evidenced by the clearing of cameras, reporters, and even some of the nine congressmen, once the Lake Calumet portion of the hearing concluded. I, and a group of airport opponents and supporters scheduled to speak about the three rural sites--Bi-state, Peotone, and Kankakee--patiently waited our turn. When it came time to discuss Peotone, I was shocked when I heard his name called. Everett Klipp was to speak on behalf of the Peotone site.

Just hearing his name gave me chills--not because of his wealth or power--but because his involvement had been so long ago. I had been involved for four years and he had played no part. It was strangely comforting to know this elderly man was the only voice to speak on behalf of the Peotone site.

Looking back, I realize I am nearly the same age today that Klipp was when he testified, which is far from elderly. His  testimony was meant to impress decision-makers because of his stature in financial circles. It had nothing to do with transportation expertise.

Klipp's testimony in 1991 didn't revolve around what Klipp knew best--finances. It was just general support, strangely similar to what had been reported in the newspaper nearly three decades before.

It was then that I realized, it was Klipp's proposal that the state has been using, despite decades of changes in technology, demographics, and aviation itself. My early instincts were correct--this was nothing more than a boondoggle--that had little to do with transportation need.

Preceding Everett Klipp in death is the Godfather of the Peotone Airport, State Sen. Aldo DeAngelis, U.S. Rep. Henry Hyde, and State Sen. Martin Butler. Klipp is survived by ex-Secretary of Transportation Kirk Brown, ex-Illinois Gov. George Ryan, ex-Executive Director of the South Suburban Mayors and Managers Beth Ruyle, ex-Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, as well as Illinois Gov. Patrick Quinn and U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr.

Illiana Expressway gets another green light

The Illiana Expressway has been given the go-ahead—first in Indiana—and now in Illinois. Legislation that would allow the project to move forward through a public-private partnership awaits the governor's signature. That act will simply be a formality since Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn considers the project to be his future legacy.

What a disappointment Pat Quinn has been to so many who had hoped his fight-for-the-little-guy attitude could transform the governor's mansion, still lingering from the ill repute of its former occupants.

Instead, Quinn has embraced previous administration's tactics in his clamor for votes to keep him in the style to which he has become accustomed. Politics as usual is deeply entrenched in the Land of Lincoln.

The Illiana Expressway has been just another politically-motivated bad joke perpetrated on the people of Illinois who have had to pay for it.

It is a smokescreen for the South Suburban Airport/Peotone Airport as pointed out in an insightful column by Guy Tridgell in the May 11, 2010 Southtown Star . Tridgell called the Illiana "our very own Tobacco Road," referencing the 1932 novel by Erskine Caldwell that ends with the tragic death of the main characters.

"The airport has become the crazy aunt of Illinois who's permanently locked up in the attic. She is dying a slow, quiet death," Tridgell wrote.

He concluded, "They don't want to tell the constituents that they have failed, so they have created a new project as a diversion with the hope everyone stays quiet. The Illiana Expressway - the perfect smoke screen."

Tridgell is correct. The Illiana—once a part of the far-reaching, far-fetched 23,000-acre airport project—may be all that is left of Illinois' once grandiose plans.

But while Illinois officials and airport boosters hope the Illiana becomes the yellow-brick road to their avionic version of Oz, they may find that by using the same tactics, same tired arguments, and attempts at factual manipulation, the road may suffer the same fate as the airport.

The game changer, however, may be something Illinois officials rarely think about; it is the one thing that has surprised them in the past—Indiana.

At the same time that Illinois officials are crowing about their passed-too-quickly legislation to build the Illiana Expressway, Indiana officials look at the Illiana as a real tool for economic development and job creation.

Indiana's version of Oz also has an airport—the Gary/Chicago International Airport—that is real, viable, and a potential money-maker rather than the black hole for money that has been the Peotone Airport project. An Illiana Expressway could be a benefit to the transportation network in place in Indiana. Instead of the tar and chip roads that traverse the area where Illinois wants to bring millions of passengers per year, pavement leads to Indiana's airport. The Illiana could be an enhancement.

The Illiana could bring additional access to the Gary/Chicago airport.

Tridgell also called attention to the fact that neither state owns land for the project, nor has an exact location even been identified. Additional studies are needed. It could be decades before a spade of dirt is turned.

Given the amount of time devoted to the Peotone Airport, and the lack of will to make sweeping changes in the way Illinois does its business, there is little doubt that Illinois politicians and their employees will still be hawking the Illiana Expressway in the year 2040 and beyond.

Illinois to go for a Cargo Airport?

Are Illinois officials serious about turning the incredible shrinking airport planned in eastern Will County, Illinois, just 40 miles south of Chicago, into a cargo airport?

IDOT's latest metamorphosis that went from an initial plan to build a mega-airport more than 3 times the size of O'Hare International Airport, to a one-runway commercial facility has now shifted toward a cargo airport. At least that was the gist of a recent news story in DC Velocity Magazine.

The magazine reported, that Will County and the State of Illinois would develop a cargo airport as part of an ambitious multimodal transport complex that would include up to four intermodal rail yards, access to three interstate highways, and up to 135 million square feet of industrial warehousing and distribution space.

This must be IDOT's latest we'll do anything, draw-at-straws option. A cargo airport would be risky, and costly. Only one such airport exists in the world.

Alliance Airport in Ft. Worth, Texas

Alliance Airport in Ft. Worth, Texas, is not just an airport. It is an entire one-of-a kind devel-opment built by Ross Perot, Jr. The airport is owned by the City of Fort Worth, but managed by Alliance Air Services.

The airport is a small part of the development plan which includes 17,000 acres of industrial warehousing, residential communities, corporate living, apartments, hotels, shopping, and even proximity to NASCAR's Texas International Speedway. The plan was so meticulous that it has even inventoried the 36,166 trees on the site. This is the world's first and presently the only in-dustrial airport.

The 5,900-acre airport opened in 1989. Since that time, it has become home to a collection of government, national, and international corporations. There are presently between 60 and 756,000 square feet of vacant industrial properties available for sale or rent within five minutes of the airport, according to the company's website.

Cargo-only airport eyed in Pennsylvania

In 2007, the FAA approved a $1.6 billion cargo-only airport in the Hazleton area of Pennsyl-vania, but it is in the very preliminary stages. By Peotone standards of development, the PA project would be at about the same stage that Peotone was in 1986.

According to the Pennsylvania State Legislative Budget and Finance Committee Report High-lights, "The proposed Hazleton cargo airport could follow a successful track, such as Alliance Fort Worth, or be unsuccessful, such as the North Carolina Global TransPark and MidAmerica Airport near St. Louis."

Peotone Airport opponents are well versed on IDOT's other pet project — the MidAmerica Air-port, calling it Peotone's  "poster child." Mid-America has been virtually void of activity for nearly its entire 11-year existence.

Market Watch.com reported that John D. Kasarda, Ph.D., director of the Kenan Institute of North Carolina, Chapel Hill questioned the wisdom of trying to build a cargo-only airport.

Calling a cargo-only airport a "challenge," Kasarda said it would especially be a challenge in a greenfield site. He said getting regular air cargo service is difficult, even in a dynamic area.

First proposed in 2003, but still just talk

Illinois officials first discussed a cargo airport at Peotone in 2003 though it never got farther than the talking stage.

Susan Shea, IDOT's Director of Aeronautics Division, whose job description now includes five bureaus including The Bureau of the South Suburban Airport, may have missed those discus-sions since they took place prior to her appointment to the transportation department by former Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Shea was an Illinois bureaucrat, but rather than transportation, Shea worked in the education department.

The question of a cargo-only facility had been posed for many years, though it was given little credence. Because of a lack of interest by the airline industry, the state acknowledged that it could consider cargo, not passengers.

“Nothing has been ruled out,” said the 2003 IDOT Spokesman, Mike Monseur, at the time.

Monseur added that no decision had been made as to what kind of facility the Peotone airport would be. He indicated, however, that there had been discussion on just how to use the airport.

“Regarding making it solely a cargo or mixture of both hasn’t been determined,” he said.

Cargo industry suffers economic woes

According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), global airlines are reporting just this week, losses in the range of $11 billion in 2009.

This far exceeds what was reported last year when the first gloomy predictions of $2.5 billion losses were made in March 2008. Revisions throughout the year were revised to as high as $9 billion in losses, but were still exceeded by economic reality.

Giovanni Bisignani, the chief executive of the IATA says such falling yields have never before been seen. And the IATA has been tracking yields for 64 years.

"North American carriers are expected to post losses of $2.6 billion, more than double the pre-viously forecast loss of $1 billion."

IDOT continues long-held patterns 

IDOT officials and another in a long line of Illinois governors continue the Peotone mantra de-spite current economic realities and grim predictions for recovery. As is customary, IDOT is remiss in seeing the big, and/or entire picture as it relates to Peotone.

Officials fail to consider the new cargo facility at the Chicago/Rockford International Airport, improvements and influx of cash to the Gary/Chicago International Airport, and the ongoing cargo operation at O'Hare.

Not only do officials ignore the unlikelyhood of success in developing a cargo-only facility when it has only been done once before, and by a man with seeming very deep pockets, but they gloss over the current chaos within the industry, borne out by real numbers, and the state's own budget shortfalls.

When it comes to the 40-year old discussion to build a new airport in the cornfields of eastern Will County, IDOT is disingenuous at best as it continues its pattern of unbelieveability and lack of credibility.

Does Chicagoland really need another airport?

In the May 25 Tribune transportation section special, "O'Hare: Built in a year," David Young draws a contrast between the rapid construction of O'Hare Airport a half century ago and today's protracted efforts to build public works projects. He cites the current O'Hare expansion and planning for "the region's proposed third airport near south suburban Peotone."

A little noticed advantage of long lead times is that policymakers have the opportunity to reconsider the initial premise before final decisions are literally cast in concrete. Two decades since Illinois taxpayers began footing the bill for Peotone "studies," the question remains whether there's any public benefit to paving over the farm fields of eastern Will County.

Clearly, it's wrong to describe Peotone as the "region's proposed third airport." In a 1988 report, IDOT acknowledged the state of Wisconsin's contention that Milwaukee's Mitchell Field, which serves many people from northern Illinois, is the third regional airport. In a 2008 report, IDOT acknowledged the state of Indiana's contention that Gary-Chicago Airport - a Midway-like facility that has yet to attract regularly scheduled commercial passenger service - is the region's third airport.

Does Chicagoland really need a fifth regional airport?

The Illinois General Assembly should commission an independent study that considers all local infrastructure costs, as well as actual and projected revenue losses that would result from IDOT's plans to remove up to 35 square miles of eastern Will County real estate from the tax rolls. The study should evaluate airport-related costs and benefits based on various scenarios, including an assumption that a Peotone airport would attract no daily commercial passenger service for many years, if ever.

—Patti Schoenbeck, Monee Township Supervisor, Monee

—Brian Cann, Will Township Supervisor, Peotone

—Bob Howard, Washington Township Supervisor, Beecher

Rep. Jackson needs a geography lesson

Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr.

Does Congressman Jackson even know where Peotone is located?

Ford Heights is now a neighbor of Peotone.

At least that is what U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr., (D-Il) said on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives Thursday when he attempted to defend a Republican attack against funding for the Abraham Lincoln National Airport Commission (ALNAC).

House Republicans were unsuccessful in their effort to try to limit pork barrel spending they blame on Democrats.

The national debate targeting ‘earmarks’, which is loosely defined as a request for a specific amount of money to a particular organization or project in a congressman’s home state or district, got personal and close to home Thursday when it was learned that Jackson was asking for $231,000 for ALNAC, as an earmark added to the Financial Services Appropriation Bill.

By a wide margin, the House approved the bill with the earmarks intact.

Jackson will get the funding.

But it was during his defense of the spending request that Jackson said, “Ford Heights, one of the poorest suburbs in the country abuts the airport.”

Perhaps the federal tax dollars ALNAC will receive can provide a little geography lesson for Jackson.

This marks the second instance where the public has been mislead about the airport’s location, which does not lie within his congressional district.

A few years ago, on his website, Peotone was listed under the heading “My Home District.” All of the communities in Jackson’s district were listed there, including Peotone, which was between Park Forest and Phoenix. Peotone remains in the list, but a new header has been added that reads, “Municipalities on the South Side and South Suburbs including the future Home of Chicago's Third Airport in Will County Illinois Peotone.” 

Jackson’s spending proposal was criticized Thursday, by U.S. Rep. John Campbell, (R-Ca), who offered an amendment to the legislation to ban earmarks. The confrontation was shown live on C-Span.

Jackson asked for the funds for what the Republicans are calling “the invisible airport.”

“This earmark would direct $231,000 – taken from taxpayers’ pockets across America – for “Minority and Small Business Development and Procurement Opportunities,” according to the Republican Study Committee.

Not only does the Republican organization recognize that an airport does not exist, but they protest that Rick Bryant is the Executive Director of ALNAC, which was spearheaded by Jackson. Bryant is also Jackson’s paid staff member. Bryant is Jackson’s Deputy District Administrator, who earned $23,999.99 in 2006, according to Jackson’s website.

Republicans charge that Jackson said he wouldn’t pursue federal funds for the airport. They claim that Gov. Rod Blagojevich has been enthusiastic about the new airport only because it would not use public funds.

During Thursday’s confrontation, Jackson played a clip of the governor’s 2005 State of the State address offering support for Peotone. Jackson claims the only thing standing in the way of the airport is Blagojevich’s agreement to lease state-owned land to ALNAC. 

Yet, he failed to mention that only a percentage of the land is owned by the state and the remainder is in the hands of unwilling sellers.                

Campbell questioned the use of small business and procurement opportunities for an airport that doesn’t exist.

“How can that be?” he asked, since even if it were approved today, it wouldn’t exist for many years.

Jackson argued that he is not seeking federal funds for the airport, but rather for small business opportunities to maximize the benefits of women and minorities to work in all aspects of job training.

When Campbell tried to enlist Jackson in a debate on the House floor, Jackson refused to speak, saying he would allow Campbell to continue, but that he would give closing remarks.

He took the balance of his time to turn the debate into a pro-airport commercial, complete with an easel and posters showing the airport layout plan.

Jackson said IDOT is now in the process of submitting ALNAC’s plan to the FAA for approval. And, he added that a Record of Decision could come in six months.

He denounced Campbell’s two terms in congress by criticizing Campbell for jumped into a three-decade old discussion first advanced by (former Gov.) Jim Edgar.

Jackson pointed out facts as he sees them, such as Midway’s runways are too short, O’Hare reached capacity two years ago, and ALNAC is a legitimate airport authority who plans to build Chicago’s third airport with public-private funds.

“I have been almost solely responsible for leading the effort,” he said, “for the last 12 years to attempt to solve the airport capacity crisis.

 “Now is the time for planning,” Jackson said, without the usual preface, that this airport is purported to be the most studied airport in history.