PORT AUTHORITY THROUGH THE DECADES #1
Archived news stories of the airport community
JFK 2000 Update
On Work Underway, Full Speed Ahead
BY ROBERT CUBBEDGE
Check out the new control
tower at JFK Airport, now
growing like Topsy.
Behold the new East Parking
Garage as it's slapped together
like a giant erector set
-- bang, bang, bang!
Drive through the highways
and byways of JFK Airport,
where there's construction
of one sort or another at
every turn.
Do these things, as I did,
and you can see at a glance
that reports of JFK 2000's demise
have been greatly exaggerated.
Oh, sure, there are still
problems. Governor Florio
of New Jersey and Governor
Cuomo of New York have put
the kibosh on a hike in Port
Authority bridge and tunnel
tolls. JFK and the other area
airports must still pick up
the slack.
But the projects already
underway at JFK arc racing
full speed ahead, and the
Port continues to reassure
one and all that key elements
of the JFK 2000 program will
be built as planned -- the only
question is when.
Port spokesman William
Cahill has said, in fact:
2021 AIRPORT V 34 OICE WOMAN OF ACHIEVEMENT
"We don't have to set any
deadlines for ourselves.
It's not a matter of whether
we're going to do the program.
It's a matter of how
and when."
That was then, of course.
This is now. But Cahill remains
bullish on JFK 2000.
"There are a couple of
components here," he said
last month. 'Tolls and fares
are two relatively small
sources of Port Authority
revenue. Another source of
revenue is the airlines, and
the airlines are going to have
to contribute toward the cost
of rebuilding Kennedy Airport.
Sooner or later, we'll
have a meeting of minds."
So far the only projects seriously
affected the Rotunda
Building and the people
mover system.
Preliminary work on
these projects has been
stalled, true enough, but everything
else is steaming
along like gangbusters -- the
control tower, the parking
garage, the new roadway system,
the new utilities complex,
the airport's new entrance
from the westbound
Belt Parkway...the list goes
on and on.
JFK Airport's new control tower, as seen from a second-floor window of the JFK International Arrivals
Building. Now' about 60 feet high, it will soon soar more than 321 feet into the air, making it the tallest
freestanding control tower in the I .S.
Animal Corner
JFK's Animal Port, one of a
handful in the world, is operating
on borrowed time—at least on
a month-to-month basis—with the
Port Authority pressing to utilize
Building 189 for more direct aviation
related purposes. That's the
word from Mrs. Kath і Travers, who
rules the roost for the American Society
for the Prevention of Cruelty
to Animals.
The Animal Port building last
year saw more than 14,000 monkeys,
horses, dogs, cats, birds—and an occasional
lion, tiger, panda, bear or
camel—stop by for loving care and
attention before, after or in between
flights. Known by animal people
worldwide, it is one of the few airport
animal hotels in existence. The
Animal Port generates a very significant
amount of commerce at JFK.
A positive thinker, Mrs. Travers
says the "PA has been terrific. We
were supposed to close down February
1 but now we're on a month to
month basis." "We obviously want
them here," Charles Seliga, JFK's
business manager said recently.
Mrs. Travers, once a horse
trainer, joined the ASPCA at JFK
some four and one-half years ago.
The Animal Port has been in existence
since 1958. She lives in a
nearby condo with 20 birds, three
monkeys, a dog and a husband,
ready to respond to any call for help
twenty-four hours a day, seven days
a week. She truly believes Providence
has given her this job, as well
as a mission—to make the world
safe for animal travel.
Customs Fights Drugs
Edwin A. Hotchkiss, chief of
the Customs Service's Contraband
Enforcement Team at JFK calls
his team's mission "terrible." "It's
frightening," he said recently during
an interview with Insight Magazine.
"We're drowning in a sea of
white powder out here."
Mr. Hotchkiss heads a group
of 65 elite, veteran Customs inspectors
charged with the interdiction
of drugs arriving in this
country. This seemingly impossible
task is carried out nationally
by a reported 17,000 individuals,
mostly civilians. This past fiscal
year, Customs agents seized
158,548 pounds of powdered cocaine
and crack at the nation's
borders along with 1,497 pounds
of heroin.
The guess, admittedly uninformed,
is that Customs is intercepting
about 10 percent of the
drugs smuggled into this country.
Customs, which collects some
$20 billion a year in duties, is
charged with enforcing 412 laws
with narcotics now its major investigative
area.
Some 5,600 men and women
inspectors staff the 300 ports
of entry and border crossings
around the United States and its
territories. They process 45 million
airline passengers a year
plus 120 million cars coming
from Mexico and Canada. The
same inspectors handle the $1
trillion worth of cargo entering
each year.