Different Groups Battle For Control Of Reliever Airport

What do Will County (IL) and an organization led by Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr., have in common? They both want to run a single-runway reliever airport in Peotone (IL). One of them is going to lose.

At the center of the fight is a 9,000 foot runway designed to handle as many as 85,000 flight operations a year. It's planned for a quiet community called Peotone. County officials want to run the airport. So does Jackson's South Suburban Airport Commission.

What started as a friendly disagreement over who should run the facility, has fallen into a full-fledged name-calling verbal brawl. Jackson's group is made up of Chicago suburbs, announced its presence last September. At the inaugural news conference, none of Will County's elected leaders showed up. They said they weren't invited. Jackson's group shot back, saying the county had delayed acting on the new airport and something needed to be done.

"We believe we've got the most effective process to build an airport in the 21st century," the Chicago Daily Herald quoted Jackson as saying. "We have real money on the table, real developers, a real concept, and we will not only build it, we will succeed."

"I think in the long run they have no business here," said Will County Executive Joe Mikan. "We're looking at doing what's right for Will County. Our proposal is solid, logical; we have the support of the business community and support of labor."

But the South Suburban Airport Commission says much the same thing. Jackson says his group has selected developers who are willing to finance construction themselves and open a year earlier than under Mikan's plan.

The FAA will wrap up the environmental impact study next year, at which time the Illinois Department of Transportation is expected to pick either Will County or Jackson's airport commission to run it. So far, the state appears to be leaning toward Will County.

"When the FAA gets to the point of signing off, the governor will work with IDOT to find a partner," said Abby Ottenhoff, a spokeswoman for Governor Rod Blagojevich. She wouldn't say which team the governor himself favors.

Now, here's the rub: "The reality is that there's not an airline that wants to use it," said Steve Brown, spokesman for Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan.

Some Illinois House Republicans are thinking along the same lines. "I'm afraid it would be a white elephant if the government built it," said State Representative Joe Dunn, who lives in Will County. "If the private sector wants to build it, we should let them."

That would seem to favor Jackson's group.

Now, you knew at some point that Meigs Field would enter the discussion, right?

"With the closing of Meigs Field, Midway is at capacity," said economist Robert Resek. "Southwest is putting flights into Gary; Midway can't take any more flights realistically. O'Hare is at capacity; O'Hare cannot do it. The big airlines are canceling flights; they're trying to put too many planes through. If the landing fees are low enough, the airlines will be there. The population is growing, the South Side is growing. I think it will be really successful if Peotone builds up and the South suburbs of Chicago build up."

Stay tuned. And get a scorecard -- this is going to be in the news for awhile.

FMI: www.dot.state.il.us