Down River

By John Lipez

The Airport:
Have any strong views on the possibility of Lock Haven’s selling its William T. Piper Memorial Airport?

You can see why City Hall might pursue such a step. The airport is not a money-maker and in recent years has been, the city says, a money loser. One would hope as the city goes through the process of an appraisal the public can get current information on the number of airport tenants, where they come from, what they pay in rentals and what the trend has been in those categories over the last half century or so the city has run the facility.

Certainly, the airport is tied to the city’s history and through the long-gone Piper Aircraft Corporation, tied to general aviation history.

If you’ve been in the Lock Haven area for any length of time, you likely have had a relative or two who at one point worked at Piper. If memory serves, the employment level there approached 2,000 in the company’s hey-day, back in the days when a city police officer had to man the E. Main Street – Race Street intersection to let out Piper traffic at the end of the workday.

How bout these for memories. Down River’s late father Harris actually started at Piper Aircraft in the late 1930s, painting numbers on the wings of Piper Cubs. He later used his time at Piper to get into radio, back in the pre-WBPZ days, hosting an interview show there aired on WRAK out of Williamsport.

Or when Allegheny Airlines used to drop DC-3s into the airport, a brief run at airline service across north-central Pennsylvania many years ago, stops in Williamsport, Lock Haven, Mid-State Airport near Philipsburg, and onto DuBois and Bradford.

There were visits from Hollywood stars, Bob Cummings is one name that comes to mind from better than half a century ago. And there were air shows. Here’s one you can look up: it was June of 1964 there was such a show, the same day, Father’s Day, that the Phillies’ Jim Bunning pitched a perfect game (Down River listening to the radio broadcast while watching the air show).

So there’s history, lots of history; and this column hasn’t even touched on the importance of William T. Piper and his role in the growth of the general aviation industry.

But just as there are no longer locks and a canal connecting the Susquehanna River and Bald Eagle Creek through Lock Haven, just as the Buffalo Flyer no longer stops at Lock Haven’s long gone Pennsylvania Railroad station, Piper Aircraft is now long gone, pulling out nearly 40 years ago.

What’s left? A wonderful Sentimental Journey each June, a more than viable Piper Aviation Museum, hangar space for area flying aficionados, all reliant on an airfield of dreams. Is that enough for the city to maintain ownership and find a way to, at the very least, make operations there break-even?

Let’s see where the site appraisal goes; let’s see what assistance the area aviation community can offer the city as a possible sale moves forward. In a perfect world, William T. Piper Memorial Airport can survive and perhaps even flourish. For history’s sake, for the community’s sake, the airport story will have a happy ending. There are no guarantees, however.

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The Front of the Court House:
Veteran Clinton County Commissioner Jeff Snyder pulled Down River aside the other day and urged patience relative to this column’s recent call for a more aesthetically pleasing entrance to the Clinton County Courthouse. The view here had been that since the park across from the courthouse will be the site of a most attractive Veterans Park, the time is now for an upgrade to the courthouse’s exterior appearance.

Commissioner Snyder said it’s about dollars at this point, that he’s aware there is work to be done on the building’s outside, but at the behest of the county judges, recent and continuing improvements have been concentrated on the courthouse interior (yes, the larger courtroom is gorgeous).

The veteran commissioner said it’s a matter of money; there is only so much to go around at present but promised that during the course of his next term in office, beginning in 2024 (the current three commissioners are a lock for re-election this November), the building’s outside will be addressed.

Can’t happen too soon.