Cargo hearing draws crowd: More than 100 attend meeting to discuss the airport planned near Hazle Township.

Oct. 18--HAZLE TWP. -- More than 100 people on Wednesday attended a public hearing on a $1.6 billion cargo airport proposed for southern Luzerne and northern Schuylkill counties.

Two people spoke in support of the project, two others simply asked questions, and about 10 more either stated concerns or directly opposed the plan.

State Rep. Todd Eachus, D-Butler Township, arranged the hearing at the Hazle Township Commons municipal building to get public input on the project, which has been met with both support and criticism since developer Gladstone Partners LP went public with the plan in January.

A second hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. to noon today at the same location.

Eachus, a project proponent since its inception, and two of the three Gladstone partners -- attorney Robert Powell and former Hazleton Mayor Mike Marsicano -- explained during a 45-minute slide presentation the project benefits and why they believed the project would succeed.

Jack Deter, an engineer with URS Corp. -- the company Gladstone hired to design the airport, and Scott Wagner, director of the state Department of Transportation's Bureau of Aviation, explained their roles in the project.

Much of what was said during the slide presentation had been stated earlier by Eachus and Gladstone officials -- that the airport would lead to the creation of thousands of high-tech jobs that would increase the area's wage scale and that the airport would attract cargo haulers away from a heavily congested New York air space because of Hazleton's strategic location.

However, Powell announced for the first time that J.P. Morgan -- a leading financial services firm with global scale and reach -- is representing Gladstone in their search for private investors.

Bob Yevak, a Hazleton resident for 50 years, said he has known Powell and Marsicano for many of those years. After acknowledging project opponents at the hearing, he said "outside this room, there's going to be a lot of smiling faces if we get behind these guys."

Eric George, a member of a carpenters and millwrights union that covers the Hazleton area, called the project a "win-win situation. ... I totally support this project and I thank these gentlemen for their foresight," he said.

Mary Dolon, a grant writer for Luzerne County Community College, asked the types and numbers of jobs Gladstone expects the airport and related industries to produce.

"I need that (information) to bring to my strategic plan to raise the funds in order to prepare the work force and I don't know what type of ... industries you're looking at," she said.

Powell said Gladstone would meet with area college officials in November.

Vicki Mackin, president of Concerned Citizens of Schuylkill County, complained that residents of Kline Township or McAdoo -- two communities very close to the proposed airport location -- weren't surveyed for their opinions on the airport.

"And those planes will be zooming right over our heads," Mackin said.

Carol Palubinsky, owner of the Faberge Follies dance studio in Hazleton, asked if Eachus would be willing to put the airport project up for public referendum.

Eachus said there wasn't "a mechanism" for such a public referendum in state government, but there was the possibility of a poll.

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Steve Mocarsky, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 459-2005.

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