Bolingbrook aims high with
Clow airport vision
by Catherine
Ann Velasco
Reprinted from the
Herald News Online, May 30, 2004
Concerned that aviation will lose another municipal
airport to developers, Arnie Zimmerman heard exactly what he was hoping for from
Mayor Roger Claar on Thursday night.
Clow International Airport isn't going to be turned into a concrete slab of just more commercial development, at least for the next 20 to 30 years, if everything goes the way the mayor plans it.
"My goal is to make it the premier general aviation airport in the Midwest, if not the country," Claar said Thursday night at Charlie's Restaurant, which was packed with pilots and aviation enthusiasts who are starting the Illinois Aviation Museum at Bolingbrook.
In April, the village bought Clow International Airport from the owner, Joe De Paulo, for $13.2 million. Currently, the airport has 70,000 landings and takeoffs each year.
Claar wants to make the airport safer by extending the runway from 3,460 feet to 4,000 feet, and widening it from 50 feet to 100 feet. Runway lights will be added as well as a weather station.
Claar wants to build a pilot's lounge that will look similar to the men's locker room at the Bolingbrook Golf Club. Claar also envisions a two-story building where people can enjoy the view. He would like to see transportation made available to take people to the golf course or a hotel once they fly in.
The parking lot will be increased, and storm water drainage will be added.
"I don't go second class so we are going to do it right," Claar said, adding that the airport will be safer, more attractive and functional.
"We kept 75 acres from being bulldozed and turned to concrete and asphalt — that's what the people who wanted to buy it wanted to do with it," Claar said.
Zimmerman, who has been flying to Clow for almost 50 years, is glad it will remain an airport. He used to own a liquor store in Chicago and remembers pilots from Meigs Field coming into his store to restock their liquor for the businessmen on their planes.
"The airport can bring a lot of money into the community," he said.
Currently, the airport's layout plan is being studied by the Division of Aeronautics for the Illinois Department of Transportation.
The department has seen a decrease in municipal airports, saying many switch over to a private status because the buffer zone needed to be a public airport was sold.
"I think it is a nice amenity for a community to have," Claar said. "We don't need to have any more houses out there. Or retail. ... If someone on the future board wants to sell it, they can. I want to preserve it as an airport for the near future."
Claar is also creating an airport board.
"I don't want to create a (village) department to run an airport," he said.
The village also bought land near the airport with the hope to create something that will bring in revenue.
Claar said that since the airport is now a public entity, the village will need to put fencing around it for liability issues.
Like Lewis University Airport in Romeoville, Clow will be a reliever airport for small corporate planes that can hold about 20 passengers — but not for commercial flights, Claar said. The airport will be renamed Bolingbrook's Clow International Airport.
Clow International started as a grassy airstrip on Boyd Clow's farm. An avid aviation enthusiast, he eventually put down an asphalt runway that used to go east and west. In 1999, he sold most of the land to a commercial developer and the airport to Joe De Paulo, who is now the airport manager for the village.
De Paulo was being offered more than $13 million from developers who wanted to buy the land, so he went to the village.
"We had a lot of developers looking to buy. This is 75 acres of prime property in the midst of all the growth happening here. Those offers were getting very tempting," De Paulo said.
One of the pilots told Claar on Thursday night that there is a waiting list of pilots wanting to move their airplanes to Clow.
"That's what I have been told. Hangar space is at a premium. The more we have, the more we will sell," Claar said.
When asked what the pilots can do to help the airport, Claar suggested that people continue helping the museum get off the ground.
"I would like this to make it on its own. I think it has a lot of opportunity," Claar said.
Where To Now?
The End of an Era: Karl Finishes his Hangar!
Update on the Purchase of Clow by Bolingbrook