Airport name stand reaffirmed
CONNELLSVILLE – Connellsville City Council has taken measures to reaffirm its stance on what name the Fayette County airport should hold, but an airport authority member said it is not as clear to him as it might be to Connellsville officials. Council took unanimous action this week to restate what was laid out in a 1936 agreement between Fayette County and the city of Connellsville that the name of the planned municipal airdrome and aviation landing field would be “The Connellsville Airport.”
Mayor Judy Reed said that the Fayette County Airport Authority has a “moral obligation” to retain the name and proposed the recent action to reiterate what she and others have informed the authority through correspondence and other means that it can not rename the airport the Joseph A. Hardy Regional Airport as undertaken last month.
“(The May 1936) agreement is a valid document,” said Reed. “It is a legal, binding agreement.”
During a special meeting held by authority members in early January, the board approved the name change. The Saturday morning meeting coincided with the birthday of Joseph A. Hardy III, founder of 84 Lumber Co. and Nemacolin Woodlands Resort and Spa in Farmington.
Authority Chairman Jesse Wallace said Friday that the issue will be revisited at next week’s regular meeting, but there is no guarantee that the board will rescind the earlier action.
“I won’t speak for the other members of the board, but with all the legal research, it appears we can stand on what has been done (by the authority),” he said.
Wallace said that the 1936 document was not properly recorded and therefore would have no legal basis in court.
“I don’t believe a judge is going to make (the authority) abide by an unrecorded document,” he said.
Wallace did not state that the board would not take action to withdraw the earlier action or propose a revision of the original resolution.
“We will talk about it,” he said.
Reed, meanwhile, said that the authority was invited to the Wednesday council meeting to participate in a public discussion of the matter, but only former board members, Fred Davis, Al Ambrosini and Martin Griglak attended.
Reed said that only authority board member Myrna Giannopoulos responded to the invitation and declined because of other commitments. Giannopoulos was the only dissenting vote cast when the board took the name-change action.
Griglack, meanwhile, commended council members for their “courage” to maintain a firm stance in the matter.
“This is the right thing to do,” he said.
The three former board members said their attendance was in support of the airport’s original name to be retained.
Councilman Charles Matthews said that in all of his years of public service, it is the airport name-change controversy that has drawn the most comment from city residents.
“I have had more feedback about this than any other issue,” he said. “It is their opinion that the Connellsville name should be kept.”
According to the 1936 document, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) was to issue a $500,000 grant for the “development and construction of a municipal airdrome and aviation landing field in the county, but property was needed to build the site.
The agreement required for the purchase of the 214-acre property in Dunbar and North Union townships, with the county to pay the city 75 percent of all costs incurred with the property acquisition and survey.
“The name of the municipal airdrome and aviation landing field herein contemplated shall be “The Connellsville Airport,” states the document. “In the event of a sale, (the) county will not change the name and in the event of a sale by (the) county, the name shall not be changed by any successor or successors in title.”
After three decades of managing the airport, the city turned over the property to the county in 1966.
The move, said Reed, did not negate the original agreement for the county or the subsequent authority to change the airport name.
“It is and always will be the Connellsville Airport,” she said.