If approved, the city of Dayton would receive the money. The goal is to see it approved this year, said Turner, a Dayton Republican and former Dayton mayor.
At least two of the site’s five hangar-shaped buildings off West Third Street were severely damaged in a March 26 fire, an event that dramatically complicates the decades-long effort to preserve and develop the buildings.
The city of Dayton owns the property between Third and U.S. 35 today, near Abbey Avenue.
Some $5.9 million has already been allocated for the site, noted Mackensie Wittmer, executive director of the eight-county National Aviation Heritage Area, a private non-profit that works with the National Park Service to showcase Dayton’s role in aviation history.
That amount includes $1.4 million in state funds, $800,000 from community development block grants and the balance in ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funds paid to the city of Dayton, about $3.9 million, Wittmer said.
Further, the city has worked with WJE to assess the site following the fire.
“I think it would be premature to talk about a full restoration, future plans, because it would be that report to be delivered from WJE to the city of Dayton that will inform the Heritage Area, our congressional leadership and the National Park Service on those next steps,” Wittmer said.
Still, that money is appreciated, all agreed in a press conference Tuesday at the former factory, where Turner, Wittmer and Dayton Mayor Jeffrey Mims Jr. spoke.
The new money “is something that’s going to be helping us a lot,” Mims said.
“We’re going to be asking for more,” the mayor also stated. “That’s part of the nature of the affair.”
Earlier this month, Turner and Sen. Sherrod Brown wrote to the Park Service, urging it to fulfill its “statutory obligations” to buy the former Wright factory buildings.
“NPS has been under a statutory obligation to purchase these buildings since 2009, and in 2018, specific funds were appropriated to execute a purchase,” the letter said
“To date the park service has yet to carry out its legal requirement to purchase the buildings,” the letter added.
Wittmer, who is not a Park Service employee, said Tuesday she supports that call from Turner and Brown .
“It is very much still an active conversation,” she said.
Aerial drone photographs shortly after the fire showed collapse and great damage to parts of the roofs of multiple buildings on the site.
The buildings were first built in 1909. The Dayton-Wright Airplane Co. bought the buildings during World War I to make fittings for military aircraft that Dayton-Wright produced at a plant in Moraine.
General Motors acquired Dayton-Wright in 1919, but the automaker did not keep the plant in the aviation business.
Various advocates have tried to protect and advance the development of the site for more than two decades.
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