Photo courtesy of the Warren County Historical Society A Warren Airways jacket in the collection of the Warren County Historical Society.

Writing about the Warren Airport is one of those stories where you know the end.

It’s Betts Park now. The old runway is paved and serves as the host for a litany of community recreation opportunities that I won’t detail here for fear of leaving something out.

But the transformation from the Warren Airport to Betts Park wasn’t without its controversy.

The idea of a new airport was seen as “out of (the) question” according to a 1965 DuBois Courier-Express article.

“The borough’s request for a county airport came after the latest operator of Warren’s airport asked to be left out of its lease,” the article stated. “The local airport is being put on a ‘limited service’ basis – which means no one will be on hand to service incoming planes or to supervist hangaring of locally-based planes – because Bradford Aeronautical Corp. wants out of its operators lease.”

Photo courtesy of the Warren County Historical Society The first piece of Air Mail flown from the Warren Airport is in the collection of the Warren County Historical Society.

Two distinct, entirely un-related factors doomed the airport.

The first? The Warren Bypass.

“The bypass… represents two bridges, three interchanges, and tons of concrete,” a 1967 Warren Times-Mirror and Observer, explained. “It would start on the west side of Warren at the Warren Motel, cut across the airport, cross the river into Pleasant Township, then run parallel to the Allegheny River to Rogertown and continue on to the Kinzua Dam as Route 59.”

The hope was to take pressure off of Pennsylvania Ave.

“The highway is meant to supplement Pennsylvania ave. in Warren hich now handles between 16,000 and 17,000 cars per day during the summer months,” the report said. “The bypass, it is estimated, will handle approximately 11,000 cars per day during the pearl summer month within the next 25 years.”

Times Observer file photo by Josh Cotton What was once the Warren Airport for the better part of four decades is now Betts Park, probably the most active park in the City of Warren.

“The existing facility is in the path of the Warren By-pass of Route 6, and will soon be taken over by the State Highway Department for that purpose,” a Bradford Era report added.

That was the practical element.

Discussion then shifted to where else a “Warren Airport” could be built.

From a Times-Mirror and Observer article in October 1968: “The principal purpose of a local airport will be to provide facilities for business flying and air cargo transport. It would not be expected to handle commercial flights, but such an airport could provide shuttle service to nearby terminals for commercial passengers.”

Several sites were considered, either proposed by the local airport club or were locations in compliance with FAA regulations including the Scandia Air Park and locations up Liberty St., in Pleasant, in Watson Township and another north of the Kinzua Dam.

But the death knell to that proposal was the second factor to doom the airport: the creation of what would become the Bradford Regional Airport.

From a 1969 Bradford Era article: “A recommendation that Warren County establish an airport authority of its own was unanimously turned down there Thursday by the county commissioners…. Warren County Commissioner Blain M. Mead (R) said that Warren County can not afford the cost of a port authority, even with government help. The county, he said, is involved in the Bradford Regional Airport, and can’t afford two airports.”

A couple years earlier, the county had agreed to contribute $51,000 to the McKean County effort, which Commissioner Mead called an “expensive joke on the people of Warren County.

“Only 11 percent of Warren’s population ever uses air transportation – but all of our people are being asked to pay for it,” he said.

But the Times-Mirror reported in April 1967 (apologies for jumping around with the dates in this portion of the story) that McKean County approved documents to establish the “Bradford – McKean Airport at Mt. Alton” as part of a four-countty consortium – McKean, Elk, Cameron and Warren.

With the county’s involvement in Bradford Regional and the creation of the bypass, the old airport was essentially doomed. There were then broad discussions held over a period of years regarding what the future of the site might be.

The Times-Mirror and Observer reported in April 1967 that an “Allegheny Industrial Park” group had sought to purchase the land for $100,000″ from the Borough of Warren, which had owned the strip since 1934.

“Council on Monday night received a letter from the principals of Allegheny Industrial Park, Ernest C. Miller and J. Albert Loranger, making the $100,000 offer and envisioning an industrial park complex as well as a possible limited area for new residences and shopping center,” that report said.

It wasn’t too long before the idea of a park came into view.

And that idea wasn’t without its detractors.

A “Citizens Advisory Committee on urban renewal” urged the borough in 1968 to “‘reevaluate’ the master plan’s recommendation that the site be used for a recreation area when the bypass is completed….There have been suggestions that the site be used for a motel as well as for public recreation, or else for an industrial complex.”

Ultimately – and obviously – the recreation idea won the day.

The park was settled as a recreation location by 1975 because that appears to be when the Warren Jaycees moved the Fourth of July festivities there for the first time.

From the April 29, 1975 Warren Times Observer: The Warren Jaycees will shift the site of their fun fair and fireworks display for the Fourth of July form midtown Beaty Field to the west end of the old Warren Airport property, members of borough council were told Monday. New safety regulations requiring a 300-foot clearance between people and the fireworks and the desire for a better-drained area for the return of the amusement rides introduced last year by the Jaycees were cited as the reasons for the switch.

Council referred the matter to committee for study to ensure the runway is now damaged by the celebration or the rides. Plans are to install tennis courts on a portion of the hard-surface runway in the future, said Borough Manager Frank Strange.”