Sioux City Journal from Sioux City, Iowa • 65

www.siouxcityjournal.com Sioux City Journal. Sunday. March 23. 2003-G9 Air Museum launches $2.2 million fundraising campaign By Lynn Zerschling Journal staff writer Donors contributing to the construction of the MidAmer-ica Transportation Aviation Museum will be recognized in the "Wall of Honor," which will grace a wall at the new building. The following donor levels were established: Transportation Clique: $30,000 and above, Aircraft Fraternity: Car Brotherhood: Motorcycle Club: Fire Truck Guild: Trolley Alliance: $1 Buggy Society: ,499 and Bicycle Circle: up to $899.

The Siouxland Aviation Historical Association launched a $2.2 million capital campaign last May to build the museum. Co-chairmen are Sioux City business leaders Larry Book and Cliff Tufty. Book is president of Builders and Tufty is president of Motor Parts Central. The association has estimated the new museum would have a $4.3 million annual economic impact on the Sioux City economy. The Mid America Air Museum has evolved into a museum showcasing and preserving the history of travel.

The new name is the Mid America Transportation Aviation Museum. "About six months ago we changed the name and focus," Maurice Topf, chairman of the Siouxland Aviation Historical Association, said. The association is the all-volunteer group that operates the museum and has been the primary backer of the museum. "Our goal is to raise $2.2 million to build a new museum. The campaign is going very well," Topf said.

"We have over one-third of the money raised. We've got our name in for quite a few grants." The museum first moved into five buildings just south of the air guard base at Sioux Gateway Airport in 1996 under an arrangement with the guard and city. That arrangement ended in January when the museum had to move out to accommodate the conversion of the 185th help build the new facility. Plans call for construction of a building. "We've changed the structure inside.

If we raise enough money perhaps we can put a second floor in," Topf noted. The mission of the museum will focus on educational programs. Topf said the association has entered into a partnership with the Sioux City School District to allow fifth-graders to visit the museum as part of their studies. Arrangements are being made for bus tours of students from schools within a 100-mile radius of Sioux City. The museum will feature hands-on displays, two classrooms, a library and a high tech computer room where people of all ages can learn about transportation.

"Our museum is very important for the community because of its educational potential and enjoyment possibilities," Topf said. "We also will have a theater." Plans call for classes to be offered to teachers to help them better use the museum as a teaching tool. Summer classes will be offered to "kids of all ages." Backers of the museum believe it will draw thousands of tourists to Sioux City. "We are really excited about this," Topf said. 4 i w.rt.

Above is an artist's drawing of the proposed Mid America Transportation Aviation Museum. 16 fighters. The museum operates out of a temporary office is located at Fourth and Nebraska streets in downtown Sioux City. Topf said the association decided to expand the focus of the air museum because it already had other vehicles that had been donated and some members of the public expressed a desire to have all forms of transportation displayed there. "We already have a fire truck, two pickups and two Model Ts," Topf said.

"We've got six airplanes and people are coming out of the woodwork with cars and motorcycles. We'll fill it up immediately. It will showcase transportation." Among the vehicles Topf envisions housed there will be fire trucks, aircraft, cars, trucks, motorcycles, pickups, trolleys, military mobile equipment, bicycles, buggies, boats, road building equipment, engines and related artifacts. A fighter jet engine was de livered on a flatbed semi-trailer truck from the Naval Air Station at Norfolk, Va. A J-57 jet engine from a Navy A-4 jet fighter plane has been donated.

"We've got six airplanes already," he said, including a British Argosy four-engine transport and a helicopter. The museum will feature the history of highways Interstate 29, for example. It will devote space to the guard's new mission as well. The city of Sioux City has al- rignier wing into a 35 refueling tanker unit. The tankers require a much larger parking ramp and maintenance facilities than do the F- located a 15-acre plot next to the Sioux Gateway Airport as the site for the new air museum and has earmarked $200,000 to Memorial for victims of 232 crash undergoes renovation By Lynn Zerschling Journal staff writer "cjV "I L-wVilf Hi IMIilllMll.

llTHnw I A lasting memorial commemorating the victims and those who responded to the crash of a jetliner in Sioux City in 1989 received a face-lift this last year. The city of Sioux City and Siouxland Chamber of Commerce joined together to pay to renovate the memorial, called the "Spirit of Siouxland." The memorial is located on the Missouri Riverfront just west of the Anderson Dance Pavilion. It was dedicated in 1994. "I think it's an important part of Sioux City's history," Pat Mustain, a Chamber spokeswoman said. "It's an important part of the riverfront.

The pillars were deteriorating and looking kind of shabby." Parks and Recreation Department Director Kerry Gill said the renovation contained four parts new columns, trellis, flooring and landscaping. the flooring is $8,700." This spring, a new trellis will be installed over the columns. The city will pay Frank Audino Construction Co. $3,200 to build the trellis. The cost is less than the estimate, Gill noted.

Mustain said the Chamber has retained professional landscape designer Kim Rager of South Sioux City to redo the flower beds around the memorial. "She did the whole Anderson Pavilion area. We pay her to do the designing and she oversees the plantings," Mustain explained. Gill said the city also will do some plantings because shrubs had to be unearthed during the project. 'The walkway will remain the same," she added.

A series of large boulders sits in the center of the walkway entrance to the sunken garden. Each of the Minnesota limestone boulders carries an inscription quoting a victim or rescuer involved with the crash of United Flight 232. Mustain said the renovations will ensure that the memorial remains a fitting tribute to the victims and the community. "All citizens want to be proud of this area," she said. new columns amounted to $4,000.

The columns form a semi-circle in back of a 7-foot bronze statue in a sunken garden facing the river. The statue depicts thenjLt. Col. Dennis Nielsen of the Iowa Air National Guard's 185th Fighter Wing carrying an unconscious 3-year-old Spencer Bailey from the wreckage on July 19, 1989. The statue is based on a photograph taken by Sioux City Journal photographer Gary Anderson.

That picture became a symbol of Siouxlanders' caring response around the world. United Flight 232 was en route from Denver to Chicago when it crashed trying to make an emergency landing at Sioux Gateway Airport. A total of 112 people died and another 184 survived. Spencer Bailey of Littleton, was on the plane with his mother, Frances, and older brother, Brandon, then 6. His mother was killed and he and his brother were critically injured.

Spencer's twin brother, Trent, and his father, Brownell, were not on the flight. South Dakota sculptor Dale Lamphere was commissioned to make the bronze statue. Lamphere also made the soaring 30-foot-tall stainless steel statue of the Queen of Peace and the 33-foot-tall stain- Renovation of the "Spirit of Siouxland" Memorial in Chris Larsen Park is nearly complete. (Staff photo by Jerry Mennenga) we replaced me oia wooaen columns behind the statue with precast columns we used at the Rose Garden" during its recent "The Chamber helped us with that," she noted. "All Pro Decorative Concrete, a subsidiary of the Irving F.

Jensen and the Chamber helped us get a good price for that. The city's cost for less steel statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, both in Sioux City's Trinity Heights. After eight years of use, Gill said the flagstone in the sunken garden at the Flight 232 memorial also needed replacement. renovation, Gill said. "The columns definitely needed to be replaced." The city's share of the bill for eight A 4 A n.

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