First of all I want to correct the information on the Lawrence County Airport rent that was reported in The Ironton Tribune on June 21, 2013 in the article titled “Development put on back burner.”

The monthly rate on the T-Hangars which are owned by Lawrence County is $110 a month. The box hangars that were built by private owners at no cost to Lawrence County will revert to the county at end of the lease.

Those owners, as provided in the lease, pay the grass tiedown fee which presently is $20 per month. The insurance company values the nine hangars at $57,235 each which make a total present day value of $515,117 which will revert to the county at the end of the lease.

I would be very disappointed if the Lawrence Commissioners succeed in closing the historical Lawrence County airport.

I and many other people have invested a lot of sweat equity and built hangars which will be the property of the airport when the leases expire.  I have helped with mowing the grass and maintaining the equipment for at least 20 years.

This next Labor Day weekend, the airport will have been open 84 years.  If allowed, it will be open another 84 years.

Evidenced by the vacancies in K-Mart area and vacancies in the nearby strip mall anchored by Lowes, in a few years a new strip mall will follow the same path.

For the long term, Lawrence County economy will be enhanced by a convenient, well kept airport.

For the historical part, Irene Crum, who holds the International Altitude record for light planes, learned to fly there,  Howard Mayes, who went on to be a Vice President of United Airlines, earned his pilot license and learned instrument flying here.  He also flew out of Lawrence County airport to altitude record of over 19,000 feet in Aeronca C2n light plane.

Embry-Riddle who opened the airport in 1929, went to be an internationally known Aeronautical University with multisites in the United States.

Don Lee

Huntington, W.Va.