City officials are seeking input from community residents through a survey about a possible recreation area on the Columbus AirPark.
Officials are looking at developing a 5-acre tract of land just south of the Columbus Municipal Airport terminal building known as the Bakalar Green, airport director Brian Payne said.
Bakalar Green is named after Lt. John Bakalar, an Indiana native who was killed when his fighter plane crashed in the European Theater during World War II, according to the Atterbury-Bakalar Air Museum website. The space was dedicated Nov. 11, 1991.
“The Columbus Airport Board and staff have spent several months looking at options for how best to use the greenspace and open areas in the Columbus AirPark to best serve both residents and visitors,” Payne said. “The next step is to ask for community input to see which of the options is most appealing to citizens.”
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Payne said the airport is currently working with five design students from the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology to develop ideas for the space. Students will also use feedback from the public through the design process, Payne said.
Responses from a survey on the issue are due Friday.
Payne said some possible ideas for Bakalar Green include artwork pieces, walking trails, a small performance space or a pavilion designed for gatherings or performances. An interactive fountain or water play space is also among the possibilities, he said.
However, adding a playground on the 5-acre parcel is not being considered since there is already one nearby at Parkside Elementary School.
The goal, in part, is to bring more families to the area and have people explore the Columbus AirPark, Payne said.
Improvements made to the Bakalar Green could also bring more visitors to the Atterbury-Bakalar Air Museum, museum board president Nick Firestone said.
The air museum, founded in 1992, draws several thousand visitors every year, he said.
“Anything that could bring more people to this end of town could be beneficial to the museum,” Firestone said.
Firestone said Bakalar Green has several individual monuments that showcase the former Bakalar Air Force Base. Firestone said he supports the idea of a walking trail since it would allow the public to learn more about the base as they walk past the monuments — then visit the museum nearby, Firestone said.
“There’s a lot of history here and that’s what people can learn when they come to the museum,” he said.
Payne said the idea behind developing Bakalar Green is to create a destination location for people to visit.
The Columbus AirPark currently has more than 60 businesses, which employ more than 2,000 people. It also serves as the home for higher education institutions with IUPUC, Ivy Tech Community College Columbus, Purdue Polytechnic Columbus, the Columbus Learning Center and the Advanced Manufacturing Center of Excellence.
Payne said he hopes to get opinions from students and individuals working at local businesses located on the Columbus AirPark through the survey.
“We’re trying to figure out what’s most interesting to them,” Payne said.
Students from Rose-Hulman are expected to present ideas to the airport board in the spring based off the survey results, Payne said.
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To fill out the survey, visit www.surveymonkey.com/r/airpark
The survey will be open until Friday.
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The Columbus AirPark has seen several developments take place over the last year, including some projects that are still in the works.
- The Atterbury-Bakalar Air Museum unveiled a new artifacts and restoration center in June that will showcase and preserve aviation history. The 1,800-square-foot building known as the Thomas Vickers/John C. Walter Artifacts and Restoration Center, is named after two museum founding members.
- Columbus Municipal Airport constructed a 24,180-square-foot building at the northeast corner of Arnold Street and Ray Boll Boulevard for six additional aircraft hangars.
- Elwood Staffing, 4111 Central Ave., is expanding its Columbus headquarters operation with a two-story office building expected to be completed soon.
- The Columbus Fire Department is building a 12,000-square-foot training facility on Verhulst Street that will be used for simulation exercises. It will include two classrooms with space for 30 people in each classroom, in addition to training space for the Columbus Police Department. Work is on track to be completed by the spring.
- Northside Pediatrics, currently located at 2400 NorthPark Suite 10, is relocating its business to the Columbus AirPark, where it plans to break ground next year on a medical office building off Central Avenue.
- Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. plans to build two full-size regulation soccer fields on the Columbus AirPark that would be used by Columbus North and Columbus East high schools. A lease agreement could be signed next month.
- Two state government offices will be located at 4445 Ray Boll Boulevard on 3.15 acres of land on the Columbus AirPark. The Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles will be one of the tenants, starting Nov. 20. The second government tenant in the 17,510-square-foot building is expected to be announced in early December. They will have a combined workforce of 70 employees.
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