Prospect Heights mayor joins opposition to longer runway

Mayors of both Wheeling and Prospect Heights have announced their opposition to a runway extension at Chicago Executive Airport, but Charlie Priester, the man hired to oversee a blueprint for the facility's future, wants to keep studying expansion.

In a surprise move to neighbors who fear the disruption to homes and businesses in the path of a longer runway, Wheeling Village President Dean Argiris Monday night portrayed the project as a pipe dream after Priester updated the village board on the study's first phase.

Priester, the chairman of a company that manages charter flights out of a Chicago Executive hangar, says executives want planes that can travel to Asia and the Middle East without having to stop for fuel — aircraft that require a longer runway.

Echoing neighbors who think expansion would benefit a few airport users who don't live in the surrounding communities, Argiris had this to say to the “handful of corporate guys”: Let 'em go to other airports.

“If you guys are still looking at expanding runways, stop. Seriously, Charlie, stop,” Argiris told Priester.

Prospect Heights Mayor Nick Helmer followed suit Tuesday.

“I can't see any purpose to disenfranchising people with their homes and their business to extend the runway,” Helmer said.

This week was the first time Helmer and Argiris publicly opposed the runway extension, but on Tuesday Helmer declined to say what had changed his mind.

Argiris, meanwhile, said he was fed up with what he described as little progress in the study's first phase, started last summer. He urged Priester to turn his focus instead toward enhancing what's already there.

“All we've heard about is runway expansion,” he said. “What about everything else at that airport?”

The two suburbs are joint owners of the airport and each gets to appoint three representatives to its board of directors. The board hired Priester to oversee the study with engineering consultants.

While Helmer and Argiris are publicly on the same page, only one side has to oppose runway extension to derail it. Any changes to the airport's layout need the approval of both Prospect Heights and Wheeling town boards.

Priester said he was caught off guard by Argiris' comments on Monday. He suggested Argiris formed a premature opinion before he “saw the data.”

In late spring, Priester will release the results of the study's first phase, addressing changes in the aviation industry and its affects on Chicago Executive Airport.

Despite the resistance from Argiris and Helmer, Priester still wants to proceed to a second phase and get into the specifics of where to put a longer runway and how much it would cost. Without exploring a runway extension, the study “would be an incomplete plan,” Priester said.

“And we don't do things in an incomplete fashion,” said Priester, who's paid $6,000 a month as the airport's CEO, a new position the airport board created this summer at his request. As CEO, Priester's only responsibility is the study.

Calls to CEA's Executive Director Jamie Abbott went unreturned on Tuesday.

Wheeling Trustee Ray Lang, who sits on the airport board, said Priester was named CEO because he needs a formal title when he meets with state and federal regulators to discuss the airport's future.

“These guys want to talk to the top dogs,” Lang said.

A group called Citizens Against Runway Expansion has set up an online petition opposing the runway extension, and endorsed supporter Mary Papantos for a seat on the Wheeling village board in the April 7 election.

Lang said he thinks the resident pushback played a part in the two municipal leaders declaring “no” to adding on to the main runway.

“That being said I think the folks at the airport, Charlie's group, will still be studying those options, but I think they should do so cautiously because they've already been given a pretty strong directive that anything that comes up with runway extension will not pass,” Lang said.

He stressed, however, that the master plan's scope goes beyond runways. For instance, it will look at ways to address blight and building vacancies around the airport.

As for taking a closer look at lengthening the runway, Lang said he likes “seeing both sides of the story.”

“Put all your options out there and know definitely this could work and this couldn't work,” he said.

Besides pleasing the airport's neighbors, Mount Prospect Mayor Arlene Juracek is also applauding the new stand by the mayors, singling out Argiris for “taking a position early in the game.”

Some Mount Prospect residents have opposed the runway expansion too, fearing increased noise and traffic, she and traffic.

Juracek, who met with some of the airport's leaders, said “we've all” shared concerns that the extension would involve “a massive amount of money and a massive amount of time,” pointing to talk of rerouting Palatine Road to accommodate it.

“Look how long it took the O'Hare expansion with the issues of Bensenville and Elk Grove Village,” she said. “We're talking years and years of disruption. You have a model there to look at.”