Boston Globe -- NorthWest section
July 10, 2003

Hanscom controversy History Channel topic

By Davis Bushnell, Globe Correspondent

The battle between the Massachusetts Port Authority and activist group leaders over the impact of Bedford's Hanscom Field on the surrounding area will be aired at length nationally this Saturday (July 12) at 8 p.m. on The History Channel.

The show is produced in partnership with the Washington-based National Trust for Historic Preservation. On May 29, the nonprofit group, citing increased corporate jet operations at the airfield, put Minute Man National Historical Park and surrounding areas on its list of "America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places."

The one-hour program will be hosted by former NBC and CBS anchor Roger Mudd.

The skirmish between Massport and opponents in Bedford, Concord, Lexington, and Lincoln gets top billing on the program, a chapter in The History Channel's "Save Our History" series. "This is a bigger controversy" than some of the other endangered sites, "so we're giving it more time," said Pam Ridder, the program's producer.

For this lead-off segment, Mudd interviewed Nancy Nelson, superintendent of the Minute Man park; Anna Winter, executive director of Save Our Heritage, a Concord-based historic preservation group; and Massport chief executive Craig P. Coy.

"We believe we presented both sides of the story," Ridder said.

Nelson and Winter asserted that commercial and corporate jet aviation operations threaten the national park and historic landmarks in the four towns, Ridder recalled.

Coy, she said, "did not rule out expansion" at Hanscom. He also said, she added, that the area's density can be attributed to "housing and office developments."

The most recognizable of the other endangered historic places citedby the National Trust are the Eero Saarinen-designed TWA terminal at JFK International Airport in New York City; the Amelia Earhart Memorial Bridge in Atchison, Kan.; and the Hot Springs (Ark.) National Park's Bathhouse Row buildings.

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