Do you think Rockbridge County needs and airport? That question has been asked for decades. Why, just last year it popped up again as a study to find out if there's a need. There have been, what some might consider, too many inquiries about a possible airport in the area, and this week we'll flashback to one from 1974, where the proposal was on the front page.
Other front page stories for The News-Gazette on Sept. 25, 1974 were:
- Two stories about Lexington City Schools providing bus transportation to the city's elementary schools.
- A special 1.5 hour school board meeting was attended by 40 parents and school patrons, urging the school board to take affirmative action in bus transportation
- The Lexington City Council requested said meeting, asking the school board to reconsider their decision not to provide bus transportation.
- Lexington gains formal permission to proceed with plans for a new sewage treatment facility
- Rockbridge County had been paying for a school that hadn't been built yet
The story titled "C of C Studies Plan for Landing Strip" doesn't just ask if Rockbridge County could us an airport, it proposes a place for a landing strip. The article cites an "airport feasibility study made in 1964" as the basis for such a proposal. Read the beginning of the story on the front page and then continued in the following image (newspaper page 14) about the proposed location and possible issues. What do you think Rockbridge County would be like if this plan was put into action back then?
Most front page stories were continued on page 14. Following that image is a collage of photos from the paper: the News-Gazette's high school football player of the week Conrad "Tacky" Craney, a photo of the foreign students attending Southern Seminary, and the photo attached to the front page stories about bus transportation for Lexington City schools.
Lastly, take a look at the Classified section for that week. Would you apply for some of the wanted positions?
To read the most recent article about a possible airport in Rockbridge County, click HERE
