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As mentioned in the "about us" link, our club is associated with McCook Field in name only. However, a local news article shown below hints of a restoration of part of the area which used to be McCook Field. $40M center may inspire McCook Field restorationTuesday, February 17, 2009 DAYTON — Jerry Bowling III can't drive through his McCook Field neighborhood without remembering how it once was and hoping for what it might become. For 47 years, he has lived in this working-class neighborhood where homes sit side-by-side with industry. He watched its reputation slide through the years from being "the cradle of aviation" to more of a destination for watching porn flicks and strippers in a back room of the McCook Theater. As president of the neighborhood association, he remains entrenched in the community's latest battle: Seeking cleanup of a contaminated groundwater plume that has resulted in nearly 200 homes requiring a vapor abatement system. Potentially hazardous vapors from the spill also forced the closing of Van Cleve at McGuffey Elementary School in 2007. Still, Bowling remains hopeful as the neighborhood goes through more change. Parkside Homes, a public housing project that stood here for 60 years, was torn down this winter. Its disappearance once more revealed the site of the neighborhood's namesake, the airfield and aviation experimentation station that preceded Wright Field. And just a block away, the Salvation Army's $40 million Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center is being built on 17.5 acres at Keowee and Webster streets. The campus will feature an early childhood center, a technology cafe, after-school tutoring for schoolchildren, a recreation center, worship center and a 30-bed shelter for women and children. Bowling believes the campus, slated to open next year, has the potential to transform the neighborhood. Behind the wheel of his black pickup truck, he turns a corner and spots the steel framework for a 70-foot tower that will reach skyward from the worship center and arts building. "For us," he said, "it's like a beacon of hope."
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copyright 2009 McCook Field Squadron FAC |
