To the editor:

I am the local representative of the Heart of America Free Flight Association. I have owned a home in Marion for 18 years.

As most probably know by now from reading local newspapers or attending Marion City Council meetings, this association sponsored its annual meeting and contest in Marion last year and eagerly planned to return again this Father’s Day weekend for the 13th year of the competition.

The meet had previously been in the Kansas City area. Doug Kjellin and Margo Yates had frequently described the favorable economic impact this fledging event had upon our city and our immediate surrounding area.

Anyone who has participated in planning a major event — from a wedding to Chingawassa Days — knows well it takes time, thought, and preparation to bring such an undertaking to a successful conclusion. The Free Flight Association made a great point of thanking the community, privately to city officials and publicly through local newspapers. So the desire of the association to return in 2010 could not have been a surprise.

In fact, Mayor Mary Olson, interviewed in the Feb. 20 edition of an area newspaper, cited the competition as a new event of which the city can be proud. Susan Berg, editor of the Marion County Record, reviewed the successes of the year in 2009 and wrote, “Members of the association were so impressed with the community and city officials, and they have decided to return this summer.” Yet the Marion City Airport Board of Directors remained silent until only a few short weeks ago before informing the association that the contestants were not welcome to return.

The Free Flight Association has excellent insurance coverage — indeed a member of the city council commented on this in a Marion City Council meeting. Yet no attempt was made by the airport board to defray repair of the airport grounds created by the rainy conditions of last year’s contest. Dick McLinden has made much of this problem. Why did he not call my attention, or that of Mike Basta, to the terrible ruts until now? We were the two individuals who were careful to thank the community for its hospitality. He could hardly have been unaware of our existence. This is, after all, a small municipal airport not a golf course putting green. Is this the first time the airport grounds have been less than pristine?

McLinden was exceedingly abrasive in his comments about the association in his presentation to the Marion City Council. He depicted the contestants as mad men careening around the airport in Harley Davidsons in search of paper Mache airplanes. He forgot to mention, or was unaware, that two of the contestants were aeronautical engineers. Ty Zeiner was much more diplomatic when he appeared before the council at the subsequent meeting. Indeed Kjellin said these concessions gave him hope that our difficulties could be worked through.

Yet after talking with Basta, I learned that the compromise actually offered by the airport board left a great deal to be desired. The gates to the airport itself would be locked (Can’t trust those dangerous outsiders out on our runway, can we?) All activity will be limited to the airport parking lot. I invite any of you to visit the airport. The graveled parking lot is very small, having been envisioned to house cars for those comparatively few coming and going to access planes. It is approximately 36 feet by 24 feet and surrounded by overhead wires. It is highly possible that, given last year’s favorable response from contestants, 40 to 100 “outsiders” would have attended, filling the entire parking area with their vehicles.

The contestants are then invited to take out their equipment and prepare to launch their airplane from this congested area. These are not radio control airplanes. The small engines are used only to send the planes airborne and then they soar where they will in the Kansas wind. The second great compromise was to allow contestants to walk on the sacred grounds of the airport to retrieve their property. Last year, Kjellin obtained permission from surrounding property owners for the contestants to go on their land around the airport to retrieve their planes. I have been apprised of no complaints.

The great “concession” of the airport board consists of permission to use the small airport parking lot and permission to walk across the airport grounds. These are not, Zeiner’s tact aside, concessions at all.

With this event, Marion had a chance to host an event which would have brought national publicity to our town. It would have grown each year, bringing new money and favorable publicity to Marion and our county. Few places are offered this kind of publicity — on a silver platter. Few turn it down so contemptuously.

Paul L. Thomas
Marion