PARK TWP. — In a few short months, the Park Township Airport will be permanently closed, after a failed millage proposal sealed the airport's fate in March.
From the outside, the airport's fly-in on Saturday, June 13, was a festive event: planes of all shapes and colors taking off and landing every 10 or 15 minutes, wide-eyed children exploring the parked aircraft and hot dogs for sale.
But talking to pilots who flew into the airport revealed a mix of emotions running below the surface, from sadness to frustration to outright anger at the loss of an airport that has been part of the township's history since 1937.
"It's such a shame," said Ken Vos, a retired pilot and former owner of Reliable Sport in Holland.
Vos learned to fly in his 50s after he traded a motorcycle for a Cessna 172, which he rebuilt in one of the Park Township Airport's hangars.
Tim Stark, a Jackson resident, flew his 1967 Cherokee 180 into Park Township on Saturday to "be part of history" and take advantage of one last chance to fly into an airport he'll never be able to fly into again.
"I think it's sad. Airports are easy to close but really hard to create," Stark said. "When was the last time you heard of a new airport being opened in Michigan?"
The Park Township Board of Trustees placed a millage on the ballot in March that would have authorized a 10-year, 0.185-mill tax on township residents to fund improvements and maintenance for the airport.
If the people voted it down, the board said, the airport would be closed.
The millage failed, 3,581 votes to 4,612.
"It was two bad choices. Vote for a millage that we really don't need or close the airport," township resident and pilot Jeff King said.
A lot of the anger at the airport's closure was directed at the Park Township board.
The township's elected officials were consistently divided over the issue, and three board members formed a political action committee to advocate for the airport's closure.
"It was handled very, very poorly by a township board that had its own motives," said pilot and township resident Sam Greydanus.
Pilot Tim Kustudich said he believes the township has always wanted to close the airport.
The airport has suffered from a lack of investment ever since the years when Kustudich kept a plane in the historic hangar at the airport, more than three decades ago.
"They didn't make it so that people would come," Kustudich said. "They never did anything to fix up the runway."
"It was an asset of the township, and like any asset that anybody has, it has to be maintained," said Greydanus.
"It should have been maintained over the last 30 years, if you look at the history of this, and it wouldn't have taken a lot. ... It was irresponsible of this board and boards that preceded it, not taking care of the asset as they should have."
The airport, for Kustudich, was a place to come after work to take to the sky and let off some steam.
"You'd fly here and you'd meet people that you knew, people from different airports," Kustudich said. "Some of 'em from miles away, different states even."
"Everybody (here) is on the same wavelength. That's all we do is talk airplanes. Stories about our landings, stories about our trip somewhere."
The township board has said it will keep the airport land a public asset after the airport is closed and is exploring ways it can lock up the land so future boards can't sell it off for private development.
At a board meeting Thursday, the township board rejected the idea of a conservation easement, which would have placed control of the land in the hands of the state government.
Instead, the board will explore rezoning the land through its master plan documents, creating restrictions on future use that would take some time — and several public hearings — for a future board to reverse.
Still, aviators were skeptical about the board's intentions.
Some said they thought the board was outright lying when they said the land would remain public. Others believe the board won't be able to deliver on a plan for the land that township residents can get behind.
"I fear that not much will happen here, despite all the promises of the board that we're going to do something great for the township and everybody's going to love it," Greydanus said.
"The truth is that almost everybody in the township loved what it was already doing. It's unfortunate that the township never funded this like they did everything else in the township."
The airport is expected to be delisted by Aug. 15 and runway removal begins in September. Pilots are expected to vacate the hangars by Aug. 1.
— Contact reporter Carolyn Muyskens at cmuyskens@hollandsentinel.com and follow her on Twitter at @cjmuyskens.
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