O'Hare opponents launch ad blitz in face of expected cash landing

Foes of O'Hare International Airport expansion are ramping up efforts to scuttle the project at the same time it could stand to gain millions from the federal economic stimulus package.

At a Tuesday news conference, Bensenville village leaders called the O'Hare Modernization Program a "scam" and "runways to nowhere."

Chicago is in the midst of an ambitious plan to build six parallel runways, aimed at reducing delays, improving safety and increasing capacity, plus a western terminal. City officials have said they hope to acquire $50 million from the stimulus package just signed by President Obama Tuesday.

Bensenville Village President John Geils flew to Washington D.C. last week to lobby members of Congress and interest groups such as Citizens Against Government Waste to oppose funding the O'Hare Modernization Program, or OMP.

Tuesday, he was flanked by Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica, who called the project a "boondoggle," plus a few officials from Prospect Heights, Park Ridge, the Illinois Policy Institute and Alliance of Residents Concerning O'Hare.

Geils said O'Hare opponents under an umbrella group called STOP-OMP will issue a series of television, radio and print ads that criticize the expansion as $20 million of "pork" that won't help with delays.

The Federal Aviation Authority called the group's claims untrue, stating that costs for the O'Hare program are $7.52 billion and delays will dip from 16.2 minutes per flight on average to 5 minutes when it's fully complete.

OMP Executive Director Rosemarie Andolino said last week she believed the project lends itself to airport improvement funding in the stimulus package because it's "shovel-ready" and is creating jobs.

"We're putting 1,400 people to work this spring," she said.

At one point, a number of other DuPage County communities were united with Bensenville fighting airport expansion and the village had powerful allies such as Illinois Senate President James "Pate" Philip and former U.S. Rep. Henry Hyde.

Now the DuPage board has changed its position and the new U.S. secretary of transportation, responsible for the FAA, is former downstate Congressman Ray LaHood, who backs the project.

Village leaders bristled at questions that the advertising blitz came because lawsuits trying to derail the OMP aren't working.

Geils said Bensenville had spent "millions" fighting O'Hare modernization but the effort was "the right thing to do."