Proposal will be given to free flight association

By SUSAN BERG

Managing editor

It looks like a compromise may be in the works between Marion Municipal Airport Board members and the city of Marion regarding the Heart of America Free Flight Association using the city’s airport in June.

At Monday’s council meeting, airport board president Ty Zeiner said the airport board met Sunday afternoon and determined requirements for the association to meet.

Those requirements included no vehicles on the airport runway or around the runway, only in the parking lot. The free flight planes would have to be retrieved on foot.

Portable bathrooms needed to be provided because the bathroom facilities at the airport are not designed for large numbers of people.

Zeiner said Dick McLinden makes a living by flying an airplane with much of his work being required on the weekends.

“Dick would be willing to move his plane to Hillsboro if he is reimbursed for expenses,” Zeiner said.

Marion Chamber of Commerce Secretary Margo Yates asked what that expense might be. Zeiner said he didn’t know.

Zeiner recommended the airport be closed to air traffic 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. the days of the event and the runways be marked with a large yellow X.

The airport board would be willing to let this event happen if all of the conditions are met.

“We want to work with everybody,” Zeiner said.

“I want to thank the airport board for its willingness to negotiate,” City Economic Development Director Doug Kjellin said.

Kjellin will contact the association and discuss the conditions.

Prior to Zeiner’s announcement, Yates told the council that the free flight association contest was a form of recreation where other recreational activities are encouraged.

The association is looking at two other cities and wished Marion could be more open-minded to this event.

She cited a pilot being quoted in a story in the Marion County Record that his interest in flying began with working with model aircraft.

Yates said Marion was featured in the National Free Flight Society magazine with about 18,000 subscribers.

“There are no free flight sights east of the Mississippi,” she said.

There are sites in Oklahoma, Indiana, and California. There are free flighters throughout the U.S. and it makes sense for them to gather every year in Marion for an annual contest, she said.

“We could be the free flight capital of the United States,” Yates said.

Landowners around the airport were contacted last year and signed documents, giving the association and volunteers access to their properties to retrieve airplanes.

The association also has insurance through the Academy of Model Aeronautics and the Federation Aeronautique Internationale.

“If this passes us by, I hope someone has an idea of how to raise $8,000 per year,” Yates said.

More communication requested with county

Kjellin said there seemed to be a blockage of information to him from Marion County Economic Development Council. He had requested copies of the council’s agenda and minutes from meetings as a way to stay informed about county efforts but was told by Marion County Commissioner Dan Holub that Marion Mayor Mary Olson had instructed County Economic Development Director Teresa Huffman to only send the information to Olson.

“It seems like we were ‘blacklisted’,” Kjellin said.

“It was not the intent,” Olson said, and would do her best to remedy the situation.

City Administrator David Mayfield and Yates also wanted to receive the information.

Safe routes change order approved

A change order of $40 was approved for the Safe Routes to School project.

Olson asked if signs were included in the project. Kjellin responded the Kansas Department of Transportation project was only for concrete. Any signs on Main Street/K-256 would have to be approved by KDOT.