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Army Vetoes Airport ProposalFT. BELVOIR lt;AP)-The U. S. .Army has told Virginia state airport officials it won’t allow the state to build an airport for private planes here, near the Mason Neck bald eagle refuge in Fairfax county.Citing the “mobilization andtraining mission” of the fort, Vincent P. Huggard, acting assistant secretary of the Army for installations and logistics, vetoed the airport proposal.The airport would have been built “in the midst of essentialtraining areas,” he said.“I consider it dead, but it’s still very disturbing that the whole thing ever got as far as it did,” said Elizabeth S. Hartwell, a Fairfax resident who led citizens’opposition to the airport.Opposition to the airport project had been heavy since it was disclosed in August.The opposition grew on the grounds that low-flying aircraft using the facility would have flown along the refuge and driven away the few eagles who live there, while also destroying the quiet of nearby parkland.Huggard said the Army woulddiscuss joint military-civilian use of an existing runway here, but, he added, the joint use “has some inherrent and serious problems regarding security, military opertions, mobilization and theenvironment“I’m delighted,” said Jean R. Packard, Fairfax County board of supervisors chairman, “but if they’re considering joint use we'll certainly want to be in on the first discussions. We want toandpublic safety. Whitham Robert C. Fitzgerald, chairman of the Virginia Airport Authority which hopes to build the airport,wpren’t available for commentbe included in any planning of any facility they want to build in the county.”The Army’s rejection letter, dated Tuesday, was sent to Wayne A. Whitham, state secretary of transportation andWednesday.A spokesman for Gov. Linwood Holton said the governor would await receipt of the Army’s letter before commenting on it. But Holton had said that in any event he would honor the wishes of localcitizens if they were opposed, the spokesman said.The airport would have eventually handled 400 flights a day of small, single-and twin-engined planes and executive jets and would have been in operation by1975.ticVfluPutlVrtcs
Newspaper Details
Winchester Evening Star
Winchester, Virginia, US
Thu, Oct 18, 1973
Page 1
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USA 27 Jan 2021
Other Publications Near Winchester, Virginia
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