http://www.baynews9.com/content/36/2008 ... 75175.htmlNope. This article is not about the Gary airport. Not directly, at least. But read it. Sounds like a lot of the things people are saying about the Gary expansion. And we all know that St. Pete/ Clearwater actually is a desirable destination! Gary is not and there is not effective ground transportation to downtown Chicago so it's not even a good alternate airport.
Also keep in mind that over the last 10 years they've spent $millions and $millions in upgrades in Clearwater. One odd coincidence is they too had free parking. That fee based parking near the beginning of the airport's path to demise only paid off as long as ATA remained but now I doubt it's worth the salary of the guy collecting the parking fees.
And it too is a small plane preference to the nearby large Metro airport in Tampa. BTW it has a customs office too. About the only commercial flights anymore are for Canadian snowbirds. That's more than I can say for Gary.
So as we face all these budget challenges when these unelected government bodies come around looking for new ways to tax you to "improve" the Gary airport just say Hell No! It makes no sense tossing money into a pit when nobody has a clue what the hell they are doing. Is it any wonder airport director Chris Curry talked the unelected airport board into a golden parachute for himself? He knew the best thing for the airport was to eliminate him and the board and was afraid the state would take over or it would get sold to someone with a clue.
BTW how's that route to Mexico and the new multi $mil customs office coming along anyway?