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Chicago Taxpayers Hit For Meigs Closure
Fines Could Reach $4.5 Million...
AvWeb ^
| October 6. 2004
| anonymous
Posted on 10/06/2004 4:31:31 PM PDT by snopercod
The city of Chicago (in particular, its taxpayers) could face fines approaching $5 million for its midnight assault on Meigs Field 18 months ago. The FAA announced Friday it's proposing the city be fined $33,000 (the maximum) for failing to provide 30 days notice of the closure. The agency also said it was launching an investigation into whether $1.5 million in federal funds that were supposed to be spent on development of O'Hare International were diverted to pay the contractor hired to tear up Meigs. If it's true, the penalty could reach as high as $4.5 million. City spokeswoman Annette Martinez seemed to defend the expenditure to the Chicago Tribune. "Some funds were used to build the airport and it was appropriate to use the airport funds to remove the airport," she said. The FAA apparently sees it differently. "We are looking at whether the city used restricted airport revenues to pay for demolishing the Meigs runway and for its conversion from an airport to a city park," said FAA chief spokesman Greg Martin. Martin said the FAA could order the city to repay the money or impose penalties of up to three times the amount spent. The city has 30 days to respond to the charges.
TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Extended News; Government; News/Current Events; US: Illinois
KEYWORDS: chicago; daly; faa; flying; generalaviation; meigs
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Annette Martinez is your typical democRAT. She sees no difference between building an airport and destroying one with bulldozers in the middle of the night.
1
posted on
10/06/2004 4:31:31 PM PDT
by
snopercod
To: Aeronaut; JETDRVR
2
posted on
10/06/2004 4:31:58 PM PDT
by
snopercod
(What we have lost will not be returned to us.)
To: snopercod
DemocRATS strike again! Blame Mayor Daley!
3
posted on
10/06/2004 4:33:56 PM PDT
by
teletech
(Friends don't let friends vote DemocRAT)
To: All
4
posted on
10/06/2004 4:35:50 PM PDT
by
snopercod
(What we have lost will not be returned to us.)
To: snopercod
Boortz was all over this when it happened, typical Dems...
5
posted on
10/06/2004 4:36:04 PM PDT
by
dakine
To: snopercod; Tijeras_Slim; FireTrack; Pukin Dog; citabria; B Knotts; kilowhskey; cyphergirl; ...
6
posted on
10/06/2004 4:36:42 PM PDT
by
Aeronaut
(Sincerity is everything. Once you can fake that, you've got it made. -- George Burns)
To: dakine
Neil is a pilot, as you may have guessed.
7
posted on
10/06/2004 4:36:49 PM PDT
by
snopercod
(What we have lost will not be returned to us.)
To: Aeronaut
Man, you're on this like a duck on a Junebug!
8
posted on
10/06/2004 4:37:25 PM PDT
by
snopercod
(What we have lost will not be returned to us.)
To: snopercod
Hey, it's Chicago, doncha know?
9
posted on
10/06/2004 4:40:14 PM PDT
by
AmericanVictory
(Should we be more like them, or they like us?)
To: snopercod
Meigs Field will live forever in MS Flight Simulator... :-)
To: snopercod
Mayor Daley has nothing to worry about. He IS mayor for life, you know.
11
posted on
10/06/2004 4:43:50 PM PDT
by
SaveTheChief
("It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech." - Senator Zell Miller)
To: Buford T. Justice
You in a heap a trouble, boy... (Can you tell I love your screen name?)
I love MSFS, too. Over the last couple of days I have been preparing for a checkride (C-172) in unfamiliar territory. So I "flew" it a couple of times on my computer, and feel much more confident now.
12
posted on
10/06/2004 4:54:39 PM PDT
by
snopercod
(What we have lost will not be returned to us.)
To: snopercod
She sees no difference between building an airport and destroying one with bulldozers in the middle of the night. It still shocks me that the people of Chicago put up with these tactics that seem like they came from 1930s Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union.
To: af_vet_rr
The people of Chicago are of the socialist persuasion, the same as the National Socialist party of Nazi Germany. See their brownshirt brothers and sisters at work
[here].
14
posted on
10/06/2004 5:02:36 PM PDT
by
snopercod
(What we have lost will not be returned to us.)
To: snopercod
You in a heap a trouble, boy... (Can you tell I love your screen name?) I love MSFS, too. Over the last couple of days I have been preparing for a checkride (C-172) in unfamiliar territory. So I "flew" it a couple of times on my computer, and feel much more confident now.
Gleason is hilarious... "What we're dealin' with here, is a complete lack of respect for the law."
MSFS is really good, so is X-Plane. I'd love to get my license one day... but for now a computer and scanner will have to do!
To: snopercod
I've never taken off from a taxiway, but that's what some planes left stranded had to do. I landed a King Air on a drag strip once, a Citation too. But the thought of what was done at Meugs is UFB. If I were to close my airport today, I would be required to repay the feds all of the federal (state too) monies offered for snow removal, runway repair, improvements, etc... which I had used over the past 20 years. That's the caveat when a public use airport applies for and spends public monies on it's facility. I suspect $4,000,000 is nothing. Times that figure by 20.
I suggest a good attorney might want to contact a few displaced base operators and see if they might want to stick a sharp pencil up Daley's ass, making him pay big. The 4.5 million is nothing.
16
posted on
10/06/2004 5:08:37 PM PDT
by
blackdog
(I survived John Dupont's wrestling camp and all I got was a lousy tee shirt and a prolapse.)
To: Buford T. Justice
17
posted on
10/06/2004 5:10:52 PM PDT
by
snopercod
(What we have lost will not be returned to us.)
To: blackdog
I hope you're right about the sharp pencil and where it belongs.
Daly tore up Meigs so he could sell it to his real-estate developer buddies.
18
posted on
10/06/2004 5:13:21 PM PDT
by
snopercod
(What we have lost will not be returned to us.)
To: blackdog
Ooops, I hit the "post" button before I asked you about landing the Citation on a drag stip. What was your time for the quarter mile if I may ask?
19
posted on
10/06/2004 5:14:41 PM PDT
by
snopercod
(What we have lost will not be returned to us.)
To: snopercod
Man, you're on this like a duck on a Junebug!Best I could do! ;-)
20
posted on
10/06/2004 5:16:54 PM PDT
by
Aeronaut
(Sincerity is everything. Once you can fake that, you've got it made. -- George Burns)
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