Greenville: an obsolete town? (Part One) (Hattiesburg, Tupelo: car rental, rental, subsidized)

[Chris Balducci]

I drove down to Greenville yesterday (Memorial Day). I first stopped at the Mid-Delta Regional Airport (formerly Greenville Air Force Base) and spent a good bit of time looking at the museum in the terminal which has only one commercial flight per day. This flight comes from an airline which is subsidized (i.e. bribed) to fly to Greenville. The only airplane that took off or landed while I was there was a pilot in an old Cessna single-engined plane. The sounds from the television set broadcasting The Weather Channel echoed throughout the empty building. I think the only other person in there was whoever was working at the car rental office, which had no customers in the hour or so I spent wandering around. In fact, I didn't encounter anyone else in there until I left, when some city police who stopped by on a routine patrol (although about four miles from Greenville proper, the airport is in the city limits). The lack of business at the airport doesn't keep it from having its own Department of Homeland Security offfice and fire department.
I drove around the airport property, looking at vanishing traces of the air force base. Of the few vintage buildings remaining, some are old barracks now serving as a drug treatment center. Some hangars are still used by the airport, others are now empty after being used by a variety of companies to repair aircraft. The old base service station is still standing in suprisingly good condition with a recent paint job, although it too is vacant.
I drove to Greenville on an old road that was once one lane of concrete but had asphalt added to both sides to accomodate two vehicles. It was a bumpy ride until I passed Metcalfe and the road turned into a nicer asphalt job as I approached Greenville from the north.

[guestJ23]

Originally Posted by Chris Balducci

I drove down to Greenville yesterday (Memorial Day). I first stopped at the Mid-Delta Regional Airport (formerly Greenville Air Force Base) and spent a good bit of time looking at the museum in the terminal which has only one commercial flight per day. This flight comes from an airline which is subsidized (i.e. bribed) to fly to Greenville. The only airplane that took off or landed while I was there was a pilot in an old Cessna single-engined plane. The sounds from the television set broadcasting The Weather Channel echoed throughout the empty building. I think the only other person in there was whoever was working at the car rental office, which had no customers in the hour or so I spent wandering around. In fact, I didn't encounter anyone else in there until I left, when some city police who stopped by on a routine patrol (although about four miles from Greenville proper, the airport is in the city limits). The lack of business at the airport doesn't keep it from having its own Department of Homeland Security offfice and fire department.
I drove around the airport property, looking at vanishing traces of the air force base. Of the few vintage buildings remaining, some are old barracks now serving as a drug treatment center. Some hangars are still used by the airport, others are now empty after being used by a variety of companies to repair aircraft. The old base service station is still standing in suprisingly good condition with a recent paint job, although it too is vacant.
I drove to Greenville on an old road that was once one lane of concrete but had asphalt added to both sides to accomodate two vehicles. It was a bumpy ride until I passed Metcalfe and the road turned into a nicer asphalt job as I approached Greenville from the north.

Here we go!! I've never been to the airport,but the town is far from obsolete.

[Listener2307]

By coincidence this was announced this week:

Three Mississippi cities that are losing their federally-subsidized air connections to Memphis will now be served through Atlanta.Silver Airways will provide 12 flights a week between Atlanta and Hattiesburg-Laurel Regional Airport. The airline will fly 18 times a week from Atlanta to Tupelo, continuing on to Greenville.

EAS: Service at Mississippi airports to switch to Atlanta - USATODAY.com

I don't really understand going to Greenville, but I guess it makes sense to someone.

[Chris Balducci]

Originally Posted by guestJ23

Here we go!! I've never been to the airport,but the town is far from obsolete.

Read Part Two of my post.

[Chris Balducci]

The Mid-Delta Regional Airport is what you could call a welfare airport - poor but kept alive by government subsidies. It has always been underutilized and had too much capacity for the traffic in and out of there. It even has a control tower for what may be less than a dozen flights per day, mostly private planes. The only thing noteworthy is its recently-repainted checkerboard water tower - the most-visible reminder of the former air force base. I think Greenville would have been better off to keep the old airport on Raceway Road (site of the Washington County Convention Center) open and let the former air force base be turned into cotton fields.