ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Thursday, August 8, 1996               TAG: 9608080024
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: C-1  EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER

QUESTION: IS THERE A FIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL? ONLY IF OFFICIALS CAN'T DECIDE WHO ACTUALLY OWNS STRUCTURE

The Roanoke Planning Commission next month will consider a request to name the Roanoke Regional Airport tunnel after Marshall L. Harris, former manager of the airport's forerunner, Woodrum Field.

Question is, who owns the tunnel?

The request to name it after Harris was made by Beverly Fitzpatrick, executive director of the New Century Council, in a June letter to Roanoke City Council.

Council referred the request to the Planning Commission, the city manager and the Roanoke Regional Airport Commission.

The Planning Commission at its meeting on Wednesday asked the city planning staff to get input from the airport commission on the request and report back next month. The Planning Commission would then vote on a recommendation to council.

The airport commission in the meantime, received the same letter from Fitzpatrick. The question of tunnel ownership arose at a commission meeting last month, said Mark Courtney, deputy airport director. The question was referred to the commission's general counsel for legal investigation.

"The bottom line is, 'Who actually owns the tunnel?''' Courtney said. "Apparently, it's not clear at this point exactly who does."

The runway above the tunnel is airport property. So is the portion of Airport Road that runs through it. The airport commission granted the city an easement to use that road for public right of way, according to the city engineer's office.

The question is who owns the tunnel itself - a massive concrete structure that took nearly two years to build, between 1983 and 1985. It currently is undergoing $300,000 worth of repairs under an agreement that the airport commission maintain the tunnel, Courtney said.

Whether the tunnel can be named for Harris is up in the air.

Fitzpatrick was not available for comment.

Harris took over in the days when runways consisted of rutted paths and guided the growth and operations of Woodrum Field for nearly 30 years before retiring in 1974. He died in 1978.

There were only six buildings on the airport property when Harris was named manager in 1945, compared with 21 when he retired. When he took the helm, the handful of daily passengers warmed themselves at a potbellied stove in a small hangar that served as the terminal.

Harris was licensed as a glider pilot in 1929, the same year Roanoke acquired Cannaday Field and turned it into the municipal airport. Harris was one of the first pilots in the Roanoke Valley.

LENGTH: Medium:   56 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  ERIC BRADYStaff. Cars travel through the tunnel on 
          Airport Road that Beverly Fitzpatrick wants to name for Marshall L. 
          Harris. color.