Chapter Six
Hendricks Field After the War
In retrospect, it seems that the entire City of
Now, (January 1946) that was past. The war was over. The boys were not being shot at so they were
being dismissed from the service and were coming home. Rationing was not being enforced and business
was coming back to normal. Reaction had
set in so the movement was to get as far as possible since all the military and
most of the nonmilitary personnel had left, leaving a feeling of great peace
and quiet.
As a result, there was widespread skepticism among the
citizens of Sebring, as to the wisdom of
the City accepting the cancellation of the lease of Hendricks Field and the
acquisition of some of the buildings and facilities on the property. Only a few members of the Chamber of Commerce
and the City Administration had any vision of the potentials offered by
accepting responsibility for the maintenance of the property.
The City Council was caught in the middle of the
arguments. They were pressured by some
to accept the facilities as the foundation for expanding opportunities for
manufacturing, new industries and trade potentials. Here were good, solid buildings just waiting
for tenants and many of the service men returning home with visions of going
into business for themselves needed the building space that would be
available. And, by installing business
in the area, jobs would be provided for returning veterans. Space for such commercial expansion was not
available in the area except at the abandoned airport.
At the same time, the aviation facilities would eliminate
any demands for financial outlay for decades in the future, for airport needs
and aviation was certain to become an important part of the future American way
of life.
On the other hand, a popular notion was that “it would take
no less than $50,000 a year to maintain the property and the City could not
afford to include that amount in the budget.
The City had made its profit on the investment and should turn the land
back into a cow pasture.” There were
only a half dozen small planes in the community and the little sod field on the
west side of the lake would accommodate them and the foreseeable increase. These arguments were offered by several
well-respected citizens.
How could the City Council please both groups? Both sides had valid arguments and included
levelheaded and respected businessmen and taxpayers. And both sides were very vocal in expressing
their opinions; a few in favor and many opposed.
It so happened that the choice came before an
administration that could not be stampeded into ANY position either for or
against and hence, finally offered a decision that the City would accept the
property if the proponents would agree to guarantee that the City would be
responsible for no expense above the proceeds that could be generated by the
airport property.
The Administration also struck a favorable bargain with the
War Assets Administration that was eager to get the property off its
hands. By agreement, the City was given
(without cost) all the buildings and equipment necessary to operate an airport
(including water works, sewers, etc.), but bay warehouses or similar
structures, not essential to an airport, would be available only by purchase at
very reasonable figures. And the City
was to be high on any priority list in the choice of buildings.
With the City Administration, the Chamber of Commerce and
the objectors all in agreement, the prospects of success seemed rosy until the
actual mechanics of putting the agreement into operation began.
The Chamber of Commerce had applications for space with
firms that wanted to get into business but the wheels of government turned
very, very slowly. A “caretaker crew” of
the War Assets Administration took over.
It was the duty of this crew to dispose of everything that was not
conveyed to the City, and they did a definitely thorough job of it. There were dozens of buildings with
furnishings such as: fans, lighting fixtures, boilers, refrigerators, motors,
and every other removable item... even down to the fuses in the switch boxes,
disposed of. In fact, such a thorough
job was done that it included everything that could be clandestinely removed
from the buildings to be conveyed to the City.
Although the City was given a “right of entry,” there was
no way in which any funds could be made available for months and yet, the City
was at some expense in merely protecting what would later become city
property. The War Assets Administration
was selling many buildings and private contractors were removing them and, at
the same time, removing anything else they could get away with. But the “right of entry” did not permit the
City to occupy or rent out any of the buildings. This condition existed for almost a year and,
as there was no income but some expense, the funds came from the pocket of the
manager. Before the City enjoyed any
income, the figure had reached $1,500 which was never recovered.
At last, it was learned that a warehouse could be made
available to be rented to a man who was clamoring for space. A building of 9,000 square feet, on the
railroad siding seemed ideal for his distribution business (beer). The government was asked to set a rental
figure for a period pending transfer of the building to the City. They stipulated “the going rate in the area.” Three local realtors agreed that one cent a
square foot per month would be fair to all, to which the client agreed. But, when payment was made to the government,
they insisted that the City should furnish adequate fire, storm and liability
insurance, as well as some assurance of police protection. The client did not agree to an increase to
cover the additional costs.
The Eighth Air Depot, Inc., inspected the field and found
exactly what they needed to inaugurate an aviation-related business that would
use buildings to which the City had been given title but the government chose
these buildings in which to transact their business because they could hold
these places as long as they were needed, whereas the others were subject to
sale at which times their operations would be forced to move out.
This maneuvering continued for so many months that it
appeared that the government was doing everything to delay transfer and, had
there been some graceful way to “throw in the towel,” those who had made such
rosy predictions would have gladly conceded defeat. But, several prospective tenants had been
assured of locations, so the only thing to do was to continue to struggle.
And even before the government withdrew, the struggle
became more bitter. At the time the
facilities were built, some materials were in short supply and certain
substitutions had to be made, which could only be considered as temporary, so
some malfunctions began even before the government “caretaking crew” was
withdrawn. But the repairs that this
crew made were makeshift or “bandaids.”
Some failures were not even given attention. One such condition was the failure of roofing
materials. Literally acres of roll
roofing of a rather unique specification had been used. Instead of a half-lap over flint coated
material, the half that was covered did not have a flint coating. As result, after a few years in the hot
Another and more pestiferous failure occurred in the water
lines. The mains were of asbestos pipe
with cast iron fittings. The joints in
the pipe were sealed with rubber rings which remained satisfactory as long as
they remained wet, but where the pipes joined the fittings - these were
caulked. At the time the system was
installed, lead for the caulking was almost impossible to find. (This may have been caused by the tremendous
demand for lead at the
A substitute, known as “leadite,”
was used. This was a brittle substance
that would tend to flake off. A pinpoint
leak would develop and the swirling action with the surrounding sand would cut
a bigger hole in the pipe. The cure was
to dig out the leadite and replace it with lead and
to repair the hole in the pipe. There
are hundreds of these joints on the property and, in the first ten years of the
City occupancy, probably 95% of all the joints were replaced with lead. It became the standard practice to re-caulk
with lead, all the joints in a group, when the hole was open to repair a leak.
One such leak presented a problem worthy of special
note. This occurred in the middle of the
street adjacent to the base of the water tower.
Nothing in the blueprints showed how far below the surface the pipe was
located but after digging for three feet with no pipe in sight, it became
evident that it was necessary to “sheet” the hole because the water table was
high and the sides of the hole began caving in like so much granulated
sugar. When the hole was five feet down,
the sheathing had to be moved out to accommodate a hole ten feet square. (see photos)
The ground water level was so high that two dewatering
pumps were kept working continuously.
The pipe (16 inches in diameter) was found at something like six or
seven feet and the repairs started.
Since this was the only connection to the elevated reservoir and since
it was necessary to valve off the tank, the pumps from the wells had to be kept
running 24 hours a day to supply water to the entire field. And work on the repairs was carried on for
nearly two weeks, day and night. Had it
not been for the high ground water level, this would have been a routine job
but, as it was, it was like working in a swimming pool, underwater. And the job couldn’t wait for the water to
recede.
Repairing leaks in the water lines.
One favorable condition resulted from the delays in the
transfer of responsibilities to the City.
A backlog of applications for space indicated a demand which justified
the Council to advance approximately $22,000 to finance the purchase of
buildings and the railroad siding. No
definite articles of agreement were arranged at that time nor had any of the
fiscal understandings been reduced to writing.
These conditions posed no immediate problems but as the personnel of the
Council changed, so did the relations between the Administration and the
airport.
As had been anticipated, many returning veterans had had
visions of starting their own enterprises.
Some, with savings made while in the armed forces, invested them in
stock and equipment but found that the expected markets were just not
materializing, so the majority of the hopefuls lasted only a few months and
then gave up the race. The turnover of
renters on the field was rather great in the early years.
One group found the location they considered ideal for
their venture. They named their new
company “Veterans Air Lines,” which was descriptive of its components. It was composed of ex-servicemen who had a
dream of an airline in which all employees owned stock and each employee earned
the same salary as every other employee, be he “grease monkey” or the general
manager.
As they were all veterans, they found that they had
priorities that were not enjoyed by ordinary entrepreneurs. They were in line for priorities in the
purchase of Government surplus planes, parts, equipment and materials as well
as having special privileges in government contracts. So, from the very beginning, their success
seemed assured.
When they came to Sebring, they had acquired a couple DC-3
planes (the most efficient, at that time, for their purposes). They had managed to obtain several very
lucrative cargo contracts and were readying two more planes for cargo
service. It seemed that they would soon
require more space than the one large hangar that they had rented and that they
would need more men on their maintenance crew.
They paid their bills promptly and built a good reputation in all
ways. But, without prior indication,
they announced that they were reorganizing their business structure and were
moving from Sebring. (No definite
information was ever obtained but, from hints obtained from the principals, the
impression was gained that the business had been so successful that the owners
of stock in the corporation could not refuse the very profitable offers of
merger with another airline in another location.)
If any one group can be given credit for the continued
existence of the Sebring Air Terminal it would be, without question, the Eighth
Air Depot, Inc. In brief, this company
can be described as an organization of three young men who had been associated
in World War II and who, in their leisure moments in camp, planned a
corporation to repair large cargo and passenger planes and engines. Their names should be definitely and
permanently associated with the airport. For without them, in the beginning,
the project would have failed and all the buildings and facilities would have
been moved because there were other cities and airports who were clamoring for
such things as hangars, water and sewer facilities and other equipment which
Sebring acquired. These three men were
Art Dorman, George Dumont and Bob Kiel.
The story of their association and of the Eighth Air Depot, Inc., is
worthy of a complete chapter of its own.
Turning the property over to the City involved at least
four bureaus of the government - the Army Corps of Engineers, the War Assets
Administration (WAA), the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA), and the Housing
Authority. With the exception of the
Engineers, these bureaus were all new agencies and it appeared that they made
the rules of the game as it progressed.
Of course, the City was new at the game, too, but it had a champion in
its corner, who was a wizard at getting answers to problems - Congressman J.
Hardin Peterson. When the Housing
Authority proposed to remove all the civilian housing units which the City felt
it could use, a call to the congressman settled the question, quickly.
It is almost unbelievable how many different complexities
could develop unless it is considered that each of the agencies had their
positions to defend, and that there were large numbers of properties in the
state undergoing the same procedures as was Hendricks Field... and all this by
what might be considered amateurs in a professional field. The City had a disadvantage in that it was
low in the list having priorities. The
State, the schools and other government agencies all had preferential
positions. Items of property and
equipment which were not specifically set up on the transfer papers, could be
requisitioned by those agencies having priority and requisitions of the City
were eliminated. One item of this nature
(by way of illustration) was the bucket of a dragline. The dragline was specified as being essential
for the maintenance of the field but the bucket, which supposedly was a part of
the machine, was not mentioned so when a state agency asked for the bucket, it
was awarded to them even though the machine could not be considered as a
dragline without a bucket.
The War Assets Administration sold surplus pipe that was dug up adjacent to runways… leaving a mess for the airport administration to fill.
A somewhat similar case was narrowly averted by an
accident. The air traffic control tower
was not one of the specified structures but it was considered as essential to
the operation of an airport, especially inasmuch as all of the equipment in the
tower was on the personal property list.
Several months went by after agreements had been reached, without any
reference to the tower so it was assumed that it was City property. One Friday afternoon, a plane left
Headquarters building & control tower, ca. 1955
It seemed that the first couple of years were spent in
fighting to keep possession of the properties the City thought it had been
granted. While it was successful in some
cases, many skirmishes were lost - machine tools, emergency power plant,
trucks, and other equipment went to others.
The inexperience of the City in negotiations of this nature cannot be
overemphasized. Starting with the origin
of the installation, the City found itself in an area with which it had no
previous experience. It must be
remembered that 1941 was a year of intense emotions as everyone knew we were
standing on the brink of war and everyone was willing to agree to anything that
would favor the position of the
The stipulations had no effect on the operation and
management after the City took over, but one other innocent-appearing clause
did have a devastating effect. This was
known as the “recapture clause” and for twenty years was the major impediment
to progress on the field.
The City had title to the land and negotiated a lease to
the government for the consideration of a dollar a year with no definitely
specified number of years. In the
cancellation of the lease was a clause that, in the event of a national
emergency, the government could reoccupy the property under the previous
conditions. No provision was made for
reimbursing any tenants on the property for any damages resulting from their
ouster. For “nickel-and-dime”
businesses, this offered little threat, but for a firm with any considerable
investment, the hazard made location on the Air Terminal out of the question. Many promising prospects were turned away by
this clause.
As an alternative to this problem, there appeared to be
possibilities that the area could become a government installation - first for
a bomber base, then for a helicopter training base and for other unspecified
uses. It was understood that the
competition for the bomber base laid between
The funds that were advanced for the purchase of the
warehouses, the railroad siding and other facilities, came from the proceeds of
the sale of several blocks of airport land on the outskirts of the field and,
although these sales returned several times the investment, it was agreed that
there were some materials which were not essential to the airport but which
could be used by the City to advantage.
One example of this was the clay in the “hardstands” which the Army had
built on which to park the giant bombers.
The City could use this clay for paving alleys and secondary streets in
town and the airport had the equipment for loading, spreading and leveling the
materials. So this was one other method
of repaying the advanced funds.
But the implementing of this policy established a new
relationship between the administration of the City and the airport. The view became general that, as the airport
belonged to the City, so also were the components of the airport, the property
of the City. After a few years, it
became common practice for the various departments of the City to “requisition”
equipment and material without regard to the needs of the airport - the
utilities, at times, needed transformers; the sanitary department “borrowed”
the bulldozer and road grader for several years; the former for continuous use
at the City dump and the latter for general maintenance. These and other airport assets came to be
considered as general city property to be used without credit to the airport,
but they were always returned to the airport when repairs were needed to keep
them in operation (the repairs to be made at the airports expense).
One policy, however, was remembered and strictly adhered to
- NO CITY FUNDS WERE EVER USED TO MAINTAIN AND/OR OPERATE THE AIRPORT OR ITS
PROPERTIES.
There was really no tangible basis for the estimated
$50,000 annual maintenance cost and it was found that, had the funds been
available, twice that amount could have been spent wisely or, as was the case
in the first few years, half that figure would keep the area in operation but
would not keep pace with depreciation.
Experience was a good teacher. On
one occasion, Sebring was on the outside edge of a hurricane which played havoc
with some of the roofs of the warehouses at the very time when there were no
reserve funds. By juggling credit, the
crisis was met and a policy was adopted at that time. Each month, a portion of the income would be
set aside in an emergency fund. No
matter how hard pressed, SOME money went into this fund.
At the same time, it was decided to make repairs at every
possible point where it could be done in the most permanent manner. The idea of replacing roll roofing was
discarded and in its place, metal roofing was substituted. As buildings having wooden siding would
require repainting, it was estimated that there was such a great area that a
painting crew would never finish so, as rapidly as possible, asbestos siding
which required no painting, replaced the wood.
At the period when the City acquired the buildings, it was already passed
the time when repainting should have been started and many were in need of roof
repairs, but gradually progress began to become evident.
The emergency fund, which was so painfully accumulated,
also began to show some promise but, by this time, the membership of the City
Administration had almost completely changed and the original understandings
were fading, if not entirely forgotten.
At one council meeting, the chairman of the City committee, suggested
that the airport emergency funds be used on a city project. The following day, some airport projects
which had been put on “the back burner,” were given immediate action. This move did not improve relations between
the two administrations - neither did it damage them - it merely brought them
to the surface.
A majority of the City Administration sough to find points
where criticism could be leveled at the operation of the airport and it seemed
that no operational policy could meet with council approval. An example of this attitude appeared when one
councilman expressed his opinion that any prospective executive would be
discouraged if he discussed bringing his business to the Air Terminal in
offices that had never been made attractive but were as bare and dreary as they
had been ten or twelve years previously when they were first acquired. So, to counter this criticism, the offices
were “dolled up” and given a modern appearance.
This drew a response from another councilman, in open meeting, that “the
money spent to beautify the offices could better be used to upgrade other
facilities on the property.”
Office in headquarters building, refinished by the City.
Except for the influences of the Eighth Air Depot, Inc., it
is questionable if the Air Terminal would ever have gotten off the ground. This was not only the first firm on the field
but it was also the most reliable. In
every instance, their check was in the mail on time while in many other cases,
much time and pressure were expended to collect past due accounts. The “Eighth” also brought other accounts to
the Air Terminal. They bid on a
government contract and were awarded a project that required a couple hundred
mechanics and a great deal of material to overhaul the planes in the
contract. Their search for replacement
parts revealed a possibility of a profitable dealing in materials available in
government surplus channels. To engage
in this venture, they brought in two firms (the Miami Aircraft Supply Co., and
the American Industrial Sales Corp.).
These firms soon found heavy financial backing and began to bring in railroad
boxcar loads of all manner of industrial materials. So great was the volume that they rented
seventeen buildings at one time and had large quantities on the grounds outside
the buildings, waiting for space and cataloging.
The action of moving these stores into buildings caused the
Air Terminal quite some grief. While the
original design of the warehouses provided for protection against termites, it
could not prevent them from being carried into the buildings when the materials
were taken in after having been exposed for some weeks. This lesson learned was very expensive.
In the negotiations of the provisions of the cancellation
of the lease with the government in 1946, the “recapture clause” seemed
innocent enough and was not viewed as a negative factor in the establishment of
commercial enterprises on the airport property.
In conversations with prospective tenants however, it was found to be
the greatest stumbling block in the struggle to entice substantial firms to
consider the Air Terminal as a base for their organization.
The government was adamant in its refusal to eliminate this
clause and, at the same time, it continued to send parties to inspect the
property with respect to its possible use as a point of military operations, in
whole or in part. Such parties attracted
much notice in the news media and this had a negative effect as did the fact
that the frustration that the publicity generated inspired the Sebring public
to court government occupancy as an answer to the problem of obtaining reliable
and continuing users of the facilities.
Several prospective tenants found difficulty in obtaining
adequate financial backing for ventures that gave promise of stability because
of these restrictions and so, the Air Terminal, in its efforts to acquire
tenants, had to resort to rates below value in some cases and in others, it was
found that as costs of labor and materials advanced, rental rates could not be
increased to meet conditions.
Many factors contributed to the difficulties of the Sebring Air Terminal in adequately maintaining the buildings and facilities in the first ten years of operation by the City, but the greatest impairment was the “recapture clause.” It can be imagined why the government was hesitant to remove restrictions while the nation was in a “state of emergency” because of the Korean conflict. One inspection after another kept the issue in the headlines and depressed the market for the facilities offered by the airport.
In the late 1950’s, the fortunes of the airport took a
turn for the better. The sequence of
events was, in general, as follows:
1) The State signed a contract for the use
of several buildings at prices and conditions favorable to the City. This permitted the airport to borrow money to
improve facilities and increase rental rates as well as to improve cash flow.
2) The City administration entered into the
action by modifying its position and advancing monies for operation.
3) The government modified its position on
the “recapture clause.” The threat of
war in the Korean area abated and the constant flow of inspections and rumors
of government use subsided.
4) Several different offers were made to
take over the field by private interests who would pay the City a royalty for
the privileges. This stirred up
controversy and public interest.
5) Nationwide, money seemed to be more
readily available, and locally it appeared that business had settled down and
the businesses which had been established on an experimental basis had either
failed and vanished or had succeeded and become stable.
6) The Council appointed an “Airport
Advisory Committee” consisting of five “blue ribbon” civic leaders, then the
Council proceeded to make important actions, hold meetings with prospects, and
to make deals, all with relation to the airport but without any reference or
consultation with the members of the Advisory Committee and on some matters,
the Council acted contrary to the advice of the Committee. So, the Committee resigned en masse, in
protest.
7) The Council replaced all the airport
personnel and sold many of the ancillary assets (power lines and franchise,
machine tools, certain buildings, etc.) to obtain funds to upgrade maintenance.
8) By this time, the attitude of the City
Council had changed 180 degrees.
Originally, the Council had adopted a “hands off” policy placing the
entire responsibility on the appointed airport personnel with no city money
involved. By 1960, the policy changed;
the airport management could not make even the least important decision without
Council approval, and the restrictions which limited the operational costs to
airport income were removed.
9) Almost suddenly, it appeared that
EVERYONE in town became intensely interested.
By almost universal demand, and act was passed by the legislature
creating an “airport authority.” This
removed all responsibility for maintenance and/or policy making from the City
Council and vested it in the “Airport Authority.”
The first
fifteen years or so in the life of the Sebring Air Terminal, were stormy. The first part of this era was very difficult
because there was practically no interest or cooperation on the part of the
local citizens and very little by the Council.
They seemed to want no part of the project.
The next period
suffered because the elected administration wanted absolute authority but was
not sufficiently informed to act wisely.
The legislation creating the Airport Authority and separating the
operation from the City Administration, together with the elimination of the
recapture clause, changed everything and the airport entered into an entirely
new chapter in its life.
Individuals who purchased buildings for off-site use, for the most part, complied with the provisions of their contracts which required them to clean up the debris…
but in many instances, where the costs of such cleanup were greater than the $50 performance bond, they elected to forfeit the bond and leave the trash.
Even where a cleanup was performed satisfactory to the WAA, hundreds of hours of work remained in removing concrete piers and debris
which made the property unsightly and made mowing and other work impossible.