The year was 1998.

That was the jumping-off point for a new round of attention focused on the Austin Municipal Airport.

Decisions made then would be irreversible as aviation in Austin, as citizens remembered it, would change forever.

Do you remember when Chris Hogan presented seven pages of questions to the Austin City Council on behalf of Burrwood Addition residents, who were targeted for a buyout?

Do you remember then-Austin Council Member Dick Lang, saying a referendum was needed to learn if a majority of Austin taxpayers supported the expansion project?

Do you remember the rest of the Austin City Council saying a referendum wasn't needed and committed to a financial plan to fund the project?

What a difference five years makes.

Today, the plans to expand the runway from 4,800 to 5,800 feet are moving along.

The expansion project is not a done deal, but it's a deal being done in phases.

A review of the

history of the Austin Municipal Airport is in order:

n 1928: Austin American Legion Post No. 91 hosts a convention and air show on two acres of land that will become the city's first airfield.

n 1930: Stout Field grows by 160 acres when Edward Decker donates the farmland for an airfield at the suggestion of Jay C. Hormel. Stout Field is renamed Decker Field.

n 1938: Improvements totaling $28,800 are made to Stout Field, when the airport begins serving the Civilian Air Patrol in a Works Progress Administration project of the Franklin Roosevelt Administration.

n 1951: Aviation is at its peak and Decker Field now has a lighted bituminous runway, new taxi-way and concrete apron, plus radar. Also, a rotating beacon is erected and the airport is fenced. A year later, Braniff Airlines launches commercial service to Austin. Two years later, the airline discontinues the service.

n 1956: The Albert Lea City Council proposed a joint Albert Lea-Austin municipal airport, but the idea fails.

n 1984: The runway is lengthened from 3,800 to 4,796 feet.

n 1995: The city hires a consulting firm to study the municipal airport's feasibility to serve customers as the millennium neared it send. Six options are proposed, but four immediately eliminated. The needs of Hormel Foods Corporation's aircraft are deemed a high priority.

n 1998: Burrwood Addition property owners protest the expansion project. In an unprecedented move, Austin city officials respond to 60 questions asked by the residents. The city's responses, printed in a reduced type-size to fit, appear in the August 11, 1998, edition of the Austin Daily Herald. They fill an entire page of the newspaper. Afterwards, city officials, having complied with the requirements of the open meetings law and otherwise confident they have attempted to respond to citizen concerns, go ahead and formally approve the recommended option and adopt measures to put the project in motion.

The original estimated $7.2 million project grows to an estimated $10 million project currently.

Hormel Foods Corporation is a financial contributor of $1 million to the project.

The city's financial share is over the $2 million level at this time.

(Source of information: Official city documents, plus historical archives.)

Lee Bonorden can be reached at 434-2232 or by e-mail at mailto:lee.bonorden@austindailyherald.com