First Flight Fails To Impress National News Reports
County Officials Reassure Successful Future
Mascoutah, IL (August 18, 2000) -- County officials bristled Thursday at national news reports that downplayed the success of MidAmerica Airport's first scheduled passenger service flights.
Airport Director Rick Hargrove said NBC referred to MidAmerica Airport, which had been the subject on the network's "The Fleecing of America" segment two years ago, in Wednesday night and Thursday morning news reports.
The segment dealt with waste and corruption in government, and it originally compared the airport, which was built with $220 million in federal funds, to the movie Field of Dreams in which a ghostly voice entices a farmer to build a baseball park as a refuge for the spirit of Shoeless Joe Jackson with the phrase "If you build it he will come."
But, the theme of the report on MidAmerica Airport was "What if they built it and no one came?"
The network noted that the resurrected Pan Am airline began operating from the airport on a limited basis Thursday. But it dismissed the company's four daily flights as a very minor success.
"They basically said something was happening here, but that they didn't think it was that big of a deal," Hargrove said. "They made a big deal out of it when we didn't have a carrier. Now they basically admitted that we have made some progress, but they did it begrudgingly."
St. Clair County Public Building Commission Chairman Richard Sauget said he was disappointed to see the national show that ripped the airport. But both he and Hargrove said they were confident that the flights were just the start of a bright future for the oft-criticized airport.
Information provided by the Belleville News-Democrat
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