Jan 25, 2007 By Steve Ferris 3 min read

Fayette County Airport Authority Chairman Jesse Wallace said he wants the authority board and Connellsville officials to agree on a name for the county airport. The board voted at a special meeting on Jan. 6 to change the name of the airport from the Connellsville Airport to the Joseph A. Hardy Regional Airport in honor of Fayette County Commissioner Joseph A. Hardy III, the founder of 84 Lumber Co. and Nemacolin Woodlands Resort & Spa.

Wallace said he wanted to meet today with Connellsville Mayor Judy Reed to discuss name change, but she wanted the meeting to be held in public, so he invited her to the board’s next meeting on Feb. 20.

“We want to hear what Connellsville wants,” Wallace said.

He said he is confident that the Connellsville name will be at least part of the airport’s name.

“I feel strongly that Connellsville will be included in that,” Wallace said.

He proposed another name, the Connellsville-Joseph A. Hardy Regional Airport, at the board’s Jan. 16 meeting, but the board did not vote on that name.

Wallace said he believes the current name is the Joseph A. Hardy Regional Airport, but he wants the new name to come from a consensus of authority board and Connellsville officials.

“I hope for a consensus. I want an agreement. We’re there to work together,” Wallace said.

The board approved changing the name at the special meeting, which was held on a Saturday at 8 a.m., to recognize Hardy for his personal support of the airport and his assistance in the effort to revitalize downtown Uniontown.

The name change also was a present for Hardy’s 84th birthday party, which was celebrated later that day.

The change did not sit well with officials and residents from Connellsville.

At he Jan. 16 meting, Reed presented the authority board with a copy of a 1938 contract between Connellsville and the county saying the name of the airport cannot be changed even if it is sold.

City Council members and members of the Connellsville Historical Society also attended that meeting to protest the name change.

Reed said the contract clearly forbids changing the name of the airport.

Wallace said the authority’s solicitor is reviewing the 1938 contract, but declined comment on his findings.

People from Connellsville and other parts of the county and local area have been calling City Hall to object to the name change, Reed said.

Connellsville paid 25 percent of the $15,000 purchase price for the 214-acre acre airport property in 1938. The county paid the rest and no other municipalities in the county contributed.

The city operated the airport from 1938 to 1966, when it sold the airport to the county for $50,000.

The deed transfer in 1966 does not prohibit a name change.

Last year, Hardy loaned the authority $800,000 for start-up money for a runway extension project.

He paid $15,000 to settle a property damage dispute between the airport and a neighboring property owner and pays an airport consultant’s fees.

The three people most recently appointed to the board have done private work for Hardy.