Bill and Hillary Clinton, in a rare visit to Arkansas as a couple, attended the formal dedication Friday of the $67 million terminal renovation at the state’s largest airport, which is now named in their honor.
The former president and the former secretary of state headed a lineup of the state’s political luminaries that included the governor, two U.S. senators and a member of Congress. The dedication marked the culmination of the first phase of an improvement project to remake Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field.
This phase included a remodeling of the ticket lobby, the addition of an in-line automated baggage-handling system, expansion of the passenger security checkpoint, new administrative offices, energy-saving upgrades and other improvements. Additional work remains, including renovating the restrooms and adding recharging stations in the terminal and concourse for computers and cell phones.
The second phase will cost an estimated $175 million and include remaking the terminal common area, baggage area and concourse and expanding the number of gates from 12 to 16. That work is expected to last through 2020.
“What an exciting day for the airport, the city of Little Rock and the state of Arkansas,” said Kay Kelley Arnold, the chairman of the Little Rock Municipal Airport Commission, which oversees the airport and is the guiding force behind the improvements. “Our vision is definitely taking flight, and we’re honored all of you could be here to help us celebrate and dedicate our latest renovations and our new name.”
Airport officials estimated about 2,000 people attended the dedication ceremony, which was moved from outside the terminal to a large Hawker Beechcraft hangar on the airfield because of wet and unseasonably cool weather. A little more than 2,000 tickets were requested for the event, which was free and open to the public,according to Shane Carter, an airport spokesman. A small number of chairs remained empty.
Entertainment was provided by the Philander Smith College collegiate choir and chamber singers, the 106th Army Band of the Arkansas National Guard, and the Parkview High School choir and jazz band.
The Clintons used the occasion to recall the role the airport has played in their lives.
It was the place from which Bill Clinton embarked on his first airline flight on his way to attend Georgetown University nearly 50 years ago.
“So it always symbolizes freedom to me,” he said. “I could go somewhere else, see something else, but not lose my attachment to home. Thanks to this airport, we are always able to find our way back home.”
And it was the airport through which Hillary Rodham Clinton said she first arrived in Arkansas almost 40 years ago, her future husband there to greet her. She later served the commission as its legal counsel.
“This is a profoundly deep honor for me to be here for the naming of this airport that has played such a role in my own life,” she said.
And both Clintons, in their years of public service, have since logged “millions of miles” in the air “representing America’s interests around the world,” said Republican U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin, in remarks that typified the event’s light mood. “So when you think about it, it’s sort of fitting that they have their own airport.”
The dedication also was a reunion of sorts. Arnold once worked on Clinton’sgubernatorial staff. Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola, according to Hillary Clinton, is one of the couple’s former law students from when they taught at the University of Arkansas School of Law in Fayetteville.
Political figures from the present and the past sprinkled the crowd. They included Attorney General Dustin McDaniel and House Speaker Davy Carter of Cabot and two former governors - ex-Sen. Dale Bumpers and Jim Guy Tucker - and former U.S. Rep. Vic Snyder of Little Rock, who was credited with steering federal economic stimulus money and other federal grants totaling $40 million to the airport while he was in office.
Partisan politics were checked at the door, but an ambiguous remark from Arnold could have touched on the former first lady’s future, or at least left many in the crowding believing that. After stepping down as secretary of state earlier this year, speculation about Hillary Clinton making another run for the White House in 2016 immediately began.
When Arnold noted that the airport was the only one named after a “president, a first lady and a secretary of state,” she paused for applause before adding, “And we’re just getting started.”
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 19 on 05/05/2013