BELLINGHAM, WA USA – Heritage Flight Museum Executive Director Greg Anders said he is looking for a new home for the museum’s collection of vintage aircraft because the Port of Bellingham has reneged on an earlier promise of a $1-a-year lease for a new museum building on airport property.
“We have lost our future,” Anders said.
A press release issued Friday, Dec. 7, by the museum seemed to indicate that the port had done something to force the museum to leave.
“PORT SQUEEZING FLIGHT MUSEUM OUT,” the release’s headline said. Then it quoted Anders as saying, “The Port of Bellingham has officially rescinded the favorable land lease terms with which we were attracted to move to Bellingham back in 2001.”
Port Aviation Director Dan Zenk expressed surprise at the museum’s announcement. Zenk said he had last discussed the museum’s future with Anders in August. At that time, he gave Anders a letter from port attorney Frank Chmelik outlining what Chmelik portrayed as legal impediments to offering the museum a piece of airport property for next to nothing.
Click here to read more: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2012/12/07/2394706/flight-museum-expects-to-leave.html