Airport responds to mayors' oppostion to runway extension

Chicago Executive Airport managers say they hear “loud and clear” from the airport's municipal owners, Prospect Heights and Wheeling, where mayors came out swinging this week against a runway extension.

But the third-busiest airport in Illinois also released a statement Thursday saying work on a controversial master plan continues.

“I would not want to stop the investment we've made in this process,” board Chairman Robert McKenzie said in an interview.

“It's a very large one and it's important to us that we see what all the options are. To just stop would just be a waste.”

McKenzie and other airport leaders continue to say the blueprint isn't centered on a longer runway or any other specific project.

But neighbors have claimed the study is a veneer for extending the main, 5,000-foot runway.

Wheeling Village President Dean Argiris has said the airport planners need to shift gears.

“Personally, I think the phase one of the plan has been totally focused on expanding the runway and not the big picture to enhance that airport within the blueprint,” Argiris said.

Airport CEO Charlie Priester and engineering consultants are about eight months into the study's first phase.

Thursday's statement says the first portion will look at safety, Chicago Executive's economic impact to the area and its “role in the national airspace system.”

Argiris said he hasn't seen anything persuading him to go to a yearslong — and more expensive — second phase.

McKenzie, though, says a second stage is where the “rubber hits the road.”

“You get into phase two and you start talking about full-blown environmental studies, economic impact studies,” McKenzie said, “things that involve real dollars and expenditures and are more than just sort of a baseline recommendation and input on what this airport can and should be over the next five, 10, 20 years.”