Town OKs agreement for plane, long a fixture at Kenney Field
The Korean War-era reconnaissance plane that’s been a fixture in a Town of Tonawanda park for the past five decades isn’t going anywhere. At least for the next five years.
Town officials have approved the first-ever loan agreement with the National Museum of Naval Aviation for the F9F-6P Cougar that landed in the town in May 1959, ostensibly for use as playground equipment. The agreement expires in March 2014 and has a renewal option.
“My understanding was an agreement was never required in the past,” said Town Attorney Daniel T. Cavarello.
Town officials were contacted by the Pensacola, Fla.-based museum earlier this year about working out a formal loan agreement. Numerous attempts to reach a museum spokesman were unsuccessful.
For the first time, stipulations guiding the plane’s continued presence at Kenney Field, at Brighton Road and Colvin Boulevard, are in writing. That includes its use “for display or educational purposes only and to protect the aircraft from vandalism by displaying it behind fences, or by other suitable means to deter easy access.”
Translation: It’s not supposed to be playground equipment.
The agreement identifies the value of the plane as $100,000.
“We are clearly responsible . . . if it’s damaged in any way,” Cavarello said.
The bright orange fencing recently staked near the plane actually is related to another construction project.
“It’s not going to be fenced in at all,” the town attorney said.
Rather, the museum agreed to the town’s proposal to use signs to deter children from climbing on it.
“The agreement itself . . . really only requires the town to be responsible for corrosion control and maintenance,” Cavarello said. Annual statements must be filed with the museum to certify the plane still is in the town’s possession, how it’s being displayed and its condition.
According to Councilman Daniel J. Crangle, the owner of a local collision shop has volunteered to paint and recondition the plane for free.
The aircraft was among 60 of its kind manufactured by Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corp. in the mid-1950s.
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