Supporters hope to keep
planes flying in Marlboro
Airport faces prospect
of closing after 50 years
at Route 79 location
By karl vilacoba
Staff Writer

MARLBORO — With a municipal master plan amendment adopted by the Planning Board, some interested parties would prefer to see that one of its components never gets off the ground.

Now almost 50 years old, Marlboro Airport, Route 79 at Harbor Road, is facing closure. The airport’s owner of just over two years, Marlboro Holdings LLC, is facing opposition to its plan to close the facility.

"You buy a house and you don’t want to live in it anymore. Should someone else be able to tell you that you can’t sell it?" asked Ken Parker, a member of the ownership group. "We live in the United States of America, last I knew."

But the patrons of the airport — many of whom have been coming for decades — believe the airport is their house, too. Realizing that operations at the airport may soon cease, a loosely based group of supporters has begun a grassroots movement with hopes of preserving the facility.

Known as the Committee to Save Marlboro Airport, the group has circulated a petition against rezoning the property. Group members estimate they have at least 1,000 signatures. An informal barbecue was held at the airport on June 8 in part as an effort to get out the group’s message.

Marlboro High School students Justin Thorpe, 15, and Mike Barbato, 17, are two of several people circulating the petition.

"Ninety percent of the people we talk to sign it," Barbato said. "Some say they want to think about it or would like more information, but very few say no."

The closure of Marlboro Airport first became a public issue during a March 20 Planning Board hearing on the master plan amendment. The document is, in essence, a list of recommendations for land uses voted on by the board to pass on to the Township Council. The council members can then choose to vote on the items individually or ignore them altogether.

In the airport’s case, Marlboro Holdings LLC requested a change in zoning that would allow for the construction of an adult community of about 300 homes. At present, the property is zoned for residential development on 2-acre lots.

In a Jan. 18 letter to Planning Board Chairman Mario Guidice, Marlboro Holdings LLC principal David Berman said the group was interested in phasing out operations at the airport because of safety issues. The letter cited past crashes at the site, the facility’s proximity to the Marlboro Early Learning Center and the need for increased police patrols since Sept. 11 as reasons to close.

Those who oppose the plan to close the airport say they doubt the sincerity of the owners’ safety concerns. A flier distributed by the Committee to Save Marlboro Airport states, "It has never been a secret that since the sale of the airport to its present ownership, there has always been a subversive desire to close the airport and rezone it for another housing project."

Parker said the owners tried to make the airport work, but said the investment has not reaped returns. In a previous interview with the News Transcript, Parker, a pilot himself, said business has dropped off significantly since Sept. 11. Parker said the combination of a student pilot’s fatal crash last summer and the tragic events of Sept. 11 left his flight school uninsurable. A privately owned flight school now leases space at the airport.

"I love the airport, but economics is economics," Parker said.

Berman mortgaged the airport property for a $1.75 million loan from Northfield Savings Bank, of Staten Island, N.Y., on Feb. 20, one month after he wrote to the Planning Board. According to the document, Marlboro Holdings LLC must maintain a comprehensive $10 million insurance policy on the property at all times. On that same day, Berman also signed an absolute assignment of leases and rents from the airport to Northfield Savings Bank.

Marlboro Holdings LLC purchased the airport for $1.1 million in February 2000 from Aletta Genova, as executrix of the will of M. Leonard Genova, according to the property deed.

The property consists of three lots that combine for a total of almost 53 acres. Although the airport maintains a Route 79 address, tax maps show that it has no frontage on that highway. The property line stretches from a woods and wetlands tract on Harbor Road to an NJ Transit right of way that is currently being developed as the Henry Hudson Trail Extension. A Route 79 driveway to the airport runs through an abutting private residential property.

The airport sits on what used to be a farm owned by flight enthusiast Rhea Preston, according to the book Images of America: Marlboro Township. The runways were once no more than grass strips on the flat portion of the farm. Preston was granted permits for the airport in 1954, according to the book. The airport has since switched hands a few times.

State Department of Transportation spokesman John Dourgarian said he had not heard of plans to close the airport. A DOT representative will attempt to reach out to the owners and see if they can offer any resources as assistance, he said.

"Certainly, we’d like to see Marlboro Airport preserved," Dourgarian said. "We don’t have a lot of (general aviation airports) left ... when you lose one it affects all of the others."

Dourgarian said the airport’s safety record was not considered noteworthy. Marlboro is one of 50 general aviation airports left in the state, he said.

Several attendees at the recent barbecue said they believe business can be turned around through further investment. Bill Bienes, a mechanic at the airport, said he believes that building more hangars would draw pilots who need space in a dwindling number of general aviation facilities in the state.

Although it is the council’s decision whether to rezone the airport property, the town’s governing body has no authority over the owners’ right to cease operations. Under current zoning, the owners can build about 25 homes on the 53-acre property. No date has been set to address the property or any other master plan amendment items.

In May, Councilman James Mione said he would prefer to see the facility remain an airport. In terms of public officials, however, Mione’s sentiments have been in the minority. Five other Planning Board members and Mayor Matthew Scanna-pieco made comments in favor of the airport’s closure that night.

Aware of this, members of the Committee to Save Marlboro Airport said they know the odds are long.

"We’re not sophisticated in any political way — we’re just a group of people who know right from wrong," said Jay Thorpe. "It’s really like David and Goliath, except Goliath has no face. Goliath didn’t need to show up at Planning Board meetings."