Residents Don't Want Runway Open After Willow Grove Air Base Closes
HORSHAM, Pa. (CBS) - Signs are popping up in communities surrounding the soon-to-be shuttered Willow Grove Naval Air Station, as a grassroots effort opposing a commercial airport at the base appears to be picking up steam.
The signs are promoting a new website and a new grassroots organization called www.NoAirportInHorsham.org.It's a group of several hundred area residents opposed to keeping the runway open when the military pulls out of Willow Grove later this year.
Resident Dennis Mulligan says the people who live in the area want a say in what goes on the nearly 900 acres of property and many of them don't want commercial planes.
"There are 133 general use airports in the state, and frankly we don't want to be 134, nor do we want to be a feeder airport for Philadelphia International," he said. "So it's a safety concern."
The Bucks County Airport Authority, which operates airports in Doylestown and Quakertown and Montgomery County, each submitted proposals expressing an interest in the runway. A final decision on what will happen to the land is still several months away.
Reported by Brad Segall, KYW Newsradio
