New Jersey Stinks

[AdamZ]

Just read that NJ does not want the 2007 AOPA EXPO!!!!

Read the blurb on the AOPA home page). The want to gouge AOPA $20,000.00 for an aircraft recovery crane and thats only the begining. Aritlce said NJ won't return AOPAs calls and baiscally us they don't want us!!

This really bums me out as we have a summer house near Atlantic City and I was looking forward to hosting some friends from across the country. Once I got beyond being bummed I was royally POed.

I don't live in NJ but If I were an AOPA member who did I'd be on the phone tomorrow screaming bloody hell at any government official I could find as well as writing. If I were and Atlantic City Merchant I would want heads to roll!!! but I guess they don't need any more money.

In Tampa and Philly you couldn't walk 10 feet without running into an AOPAer spending money. MORONS. Well all you folks from N.J. its up to you. I'd be interested to hear what your legislators and gov't officials response is. Someone needs to loose a job over this. Are you gonna sit there or take action?

 

[silver-eagle]

I went to the Expo when it was in Philly. Drove down in the tank (my Suburban). Along with the hotel, parking, and food, I did considerable suvenier shopping. It wasnt a cheap weekend.
Atlantic City is missing out. Here's to Hartford (90 minutes away).

 

[RotaryWingBob]

While it's true that NJ stinks (which is why we moved to PA), my impression is that whoever runs KACY is at fault in this case, not the state...

 

[Anthony]

While it's true that NJ stinks (which is why we moved to PA), my impression is that whoever runs KACY is at fault in this case, not the state...

Doesn't the gov't run KACY?

Adam. I did my rant on the Red Board. I'll spare you here only to say that I don't even like to fly over NJ. My family has a summer home in Wildwood Crest and I spent every summer of my life there growing up.

 

[RotaryWingBob]

Doesn't the gov't run KACY?

Yes, but indirectly:

The South Jersey Transportation Authority was created in 1991 by -- and operates as an instrumentality of the State of New Jersey pursuant to -- the South Jersey Transportation Act (Chapter 252 of the Laws of New Jersey of 1991, as amended and supplemented). The SJTA is the successor to the New Jersey Expressway Authority and the Atlantic County Transportation Authority. On September 24, 1992, under terms of the Act, the SJTA acquired the Civil Terminal Area from the City of Atlantic City consisting of approximately 84 acres in Egg Harbor Township, N.J.

The Airport is operated by AvPORTS, as successor to American Port Services under a Use and Occupancy Agreement with the SJTA. This agreement expires on March 31, 2006.

The Civil Terminal Building was constructed in the early 1960's with a ticketing/ waiting area added in 1989 and a second-floor expansion completed in May of 1996. In June 2004, a 300-seat holding room and new administrative offices were completed. Significant new upgrades are planned for the terminal.

The SJTA also acquired the City of Atlantic City's reversionary interest in approximately 4,312 acres of the Airport which the City had sold to the U.S. government and which the FAA administers. The reversionary interest means that ownership of the property may revert to the SJTA if the FAA determines that it has no use of the airport for government purposes. Upon such reversion, the SJTA must agree to operate the Airport as a public airport for the useful life of the Airport facilities.

 

[4CornerFlyer]

It is not the state of New Jersey that is at fault here. The ACY airport is under control of the city of Atlantic City, not the state. This city government has been hostile to general aviation for decades. They have tried to weasel out of the grant obligations which required Bader field to be open through this year as far back as the 1980's. It appears the city will finally be able to close Bader this year when the obligations expire.

While currently Bader has an operating FBO and at least some modicum of service, several years ago it was all but abandoned. There was no fuel, no lounge, no available restrooms--basicially a pay phone was the only "service" available. Pavement was cracking, shells were everywhere and weeds were growing through cracks on the airport services. On a beautiful summer weekend there might have been two or three planes parked at the airport, compared to about a hundred at neighboring Ocean City.

It was the state of New Jersey that required the city to at least go through the motions of maintaining the airport. The state Division of Aeronautics is very friendly to general aviation. The problem is NJ is that the majority of airports are privately owned, and as suburbia encroaches outward it is difficult for the owners pay taxes on the land and resist pressure to sell while trying to run a marginal business in the face of hostile opposition from homeowners. I believe NJ has had the largest percentage of airports closed over the past 20 years.

When AOPA announced the first convention in Atlantic City in the mid-90's, I wrote to them saying they should not reward a hostile government with all the economic benefit of a large convention. The reponse was that they wanted to show the city how much GA could benefit them. Clearly it was a lessen never learned, and I am glad to see AOPA go somewhere else.

From my former experience as VP of the Ocean City Airport Association, I can tell you that the state was very supportive of the airport. They were willing to kick in their share of ANY grant proposal. Ocean City airport has thrived mainly because iys battles were fought in the 1960's. Developers coveted that land, but we had the advantage of having Roy Gillian as mayor. A Bonanza owner until he died a few years ago, he brought the airport under city control and protected and improved it, and the grant obligations will keep the airport going through the 2020's. Atlantic City has no such hero, only demagogues who complained about those small planes making noise and crashing into houses near Bader. Very similar to what's happened in Chicago with Meigs Field.

While NJ state government has its problems to be sure, I think they have been supportive of GA.

Jon