Northwest Indiana Discussion

In particular I took issue with the leadership of Chris Curry. Apparently almost half the airport board also shares my concerns.

http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/lake ... 1eacf.html


A divided Gary/Chicago International Airport Authority board on Tuesday took the first step toward fulfilling Gary Mayor Rudy Clay's stated goal of more closely aligning city and airport interests.

City of Gary Internal Auditor Nathaniel Williams, an airport authority member since 2008, was elected authority president by a 4-3 vote.

His own vote and the votes of fellow Clay appointees Cornell Collins and Silas Wilkerson, as well as gubernatorial appointee Ross Amundson, propelled Williams into the president's seat.

Williams was elected after a three-person slate put forward by nomination committee Chairman John Evans, a Porter County appointee, was voted down on a 4-3 vote.

The bloc of Williams, Collins, Wilkerson and Amundson also voted Amundson in as vice president and Wilkerson in as secretary. Both were challenged for the posts by Lake County appointee Delvert Cole, who won the votes of himself, Evans and just-deposed board president the Rev. Marion Johnson.

It was the first Airport Authority board meeting since Clay appointed Gary lawyer Collins to the board. That tipped the board balance in favor of a faction highly critical of a deal last year to extend Airport Director Chris Curry's contract through March 2013.

Johnson, Evans, Cole and former authority member Mike Doyne voted in favor of that contract. Johnson was reappointed to his seat by Clay two years ago, but the two have apparently had a falling out over Curry's contract and other issues.

In presenting the slate of the nominating committee, Evans said the committee was doing so in light of the fact the Airport Authority is made up of appointees from a number of governmental entities, not just the city of Gary.

After the meeting, Evans assailed the just-completed electoral process as a blow against regionalism.

"The mayor of Gary wants to run the airport, and he's made that clear," Evans said.

Evans said in light of the day's voting he would reconsider whether he believes the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority should stay involved at the airport.

Porter County won a seat on the Airport Authority board when the RDA was formed more than four years ago. The RDA is now an important funder of airport projects.

Newly installed President Williams defended Tuesday's process and said he thought the airport still had regional support.

"The more I talk to people in the community, they feel the airport is too much a stand-alone operation and needs better coordination with the city," Williams said.

In a Feb.16 opinion column in The Times, Clay argued at length for more closely aligning the city's interests with the airport's, naming numerous projects he wanted to see completed there.

In a challenge to Tuesday's board action, Evans challenged Wilkerson's election as secretary.

By law, Clay can only appoint a maximum of two members from any one political party. Evans challenged Wilkerson's claimed Republican Party membership. If Wilkerson were determined to be a Democrat, Clay would have one too many appointees from his own political party on the board.

Authority attorney Patrick Lyp was assigned to look into the matter and report back to the board.

Wilkerson voted in Republican primaries in 2008, 2007 and 2006, according to Lake County Board of Elections records. In 2004, he voted in a Democratic primary and before that he often switched between the two.

Indiana voters do not register to vote by party affiliation. Instead, party affiliation is usually determined by what party primary a voter chooses to vote in.


I think the state should have taken over the airport and privatized it years ago. It seems that the mayors of Gary have more been fixed on passing out contracts than utilizing it as an economic engine for Northwest Indiana or the state. What does Gary have to show for all the money dumped into that pit? Remember the "need" of a Customs Office and the fact that there has yet to be any commercial passenger airlines land in years, much less international flights. Well not counting that emergency landing by UAL a while back and that didn't go so well either.

OK so did Gary then redirect it's efforts towards commercial traffic or trying to grow the area near the airport with commerce? Nope! Now it may be a hard time to talk growth but there were plenty of good years when Curry and Gary could have made an effort. So why does it make sense to retain this man's vision which thus far has been a dismal failure? He himself has said airports are supposed to lose money and he has indeed lived up to that expectation.