[JYO] BADER FIELD TO BECOME A MEMORY

BADER FIELD TO BECOME A MEMORY
Atlantic City has  formally told the FAA that it intends to close Bader Field 
airport, AOPA has  learned from the FAA's Eastern Region. Under a law that 
AOPA helped get passed,  the city is required to give at least 30 days advance 
notice of a proposed  closing, even if there are no longer any federal grants 
in place. The airport  will likely close in September. "AOPA fought long and 
hard with the state of New  Jersey and three successive Atlantic City 
administrations to save Bader," said  AOPA President Phil Boyer, "but sadly, 
there was 
little local interest in the  airport." When the last federal grant expires in 
September, the airport reverts  to private property, leaving the city free to 
do as it pleases, which is to  redevelop the 143 acres within a stone's throw 
of boardwalk casinos. "The  gambling interests were stronger than the aviation 
interests," said Boyer.  Ironically, the former head of the New Jersey 
Aviation Association, Tom Carver,  is now executive director of the Casino 
Reinvestment Development Authority,  which is offering to pay for studies and 
consultants to the city to turn the  airport into something else. "There's no 
desire to 
retain this as an airport,"  Carver told The Courier-Post newspaper.

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