Hearings finally came to an end before the Schuylkill County Zoning Hearing Board on Thursday night at the courthouse in Pottsville on the application of Gladstone Partners, L.P. of Pittsburgh, for the construction of a cargo airport in East Union Township.

Normally the zoning hearing board has 45 days after the conclusion of a hearing to render a decision but the board requested and was granted by all parties involved more time to reach a decision because of the voluminous amount of testimony recorded from more than one year of hearings. The board will render its decision early in August.There was opposition to the applications from many sources.The East Union Township supervisors claimed the hearings should have been held before its local zoning hearing board which was established a day after Gladstone submitted its application to the county board. After a hearing before a Schuylkill County judge the court ruled the county board had jurisdiction to hear the case.Service Electric Cablevision spent a vast sum of money bringing in experts who testified the planes coming in and taking off from the proposed airport would interfere with the television service it provides the communities in the area.Thursday night the hearing dealt with comments from persons who have some standing in the issues and a score of citizens appeared and voiced opposition to granting the variance. People from Hazel Township and Sugarload, Luzerne County, Zions Grove, North Union Township, Sheppton and Oneida, East Union Township, all raised objections.The opposition was for reason of noise, bottleneck traffic, release of diesel fumes by taxing planes harmful to the health of the residents, devaluation of real estate values, heavy fog cause risky landings.Questions were even raised that the airport could be sold to the Chinese. "We have a quiet community and we don't need this kind of progress," Carol Ann Palubinsky, Zions Grove, told the board.Attorney Leonard Schumack, Shenandoah, solicitor and charter member of the Blue Mountain Rod and Gun Club, which owns 1,600 acres in the township, claimed that the planes taking off from the proposed runaway would disrupt the breeding ground for game. Others wanted the area to continue to be a quiet and peaceful area so they could continue with the way of life they have come to enjoy.