The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
More than three decades after he helped advance the Flin Flon Municipal Airport from concept to reality, the late Joe van Nes now has the terminal building named in his honour. Mayor Dennis Ballard and Bob Tanner, van Nes' longtime friend, yesterday unveiled a plaque at the terminal declaring it the Joe van Nes Airport Terminal Building. "In the history of the world, there are people who are thinkers and leaders," Tanner told the crowd of about 40 family members, friends and elected officials. "To me, Joe was that kind of a guy." Tanner said he doesn't believe the airport would have opened in 1963 without the initiative and foresight of van Nes, who passed away in 1999. Both men were part of the first Flin Flon Air Board, which successfully applied to Ottawa for $2.3 million to build a modern airport outside the city. See 'Big' P.# Con't from P.# "That was big, big money back in those days," said Tanner, who now makes his home in Vancouver. While the first planes didn't take off until the early 1960s, Tanner said van Nes and a group of fellow flying enthusiasts began planning a modern airport in the late '40s. It was clearly a concept near and dear to van Nes. Tanner recalls his friend once paying $50 out of his own pocket for a beacon to help guide lost pilots to the airport. Just a few months later, Tanner said, the tower saved the lives of four wayward Americans whose plane was very nearly out of gas. The current terminal came four years after the airport opened, replacing a temporary wooden building. "This beautiful building is small but it serves the community very well," said Tanner. Van Nes was remembered yesterday not just for his crucial role with the airport, but also for his illustrious career as a Royal Canadian Air Force flight lieutenant during the Second World War. The terminal plaque outlines his wartime achievements, including his receipt of the Distinguished Flying Cross, Burma Star, Defense Medal and King George VI Medal. The plaque also features van Nes' likeness and states that he was chairman of the Flin Flon Municipal Air Board from 1962-1982. The idea to name the terminal in van Nes' honour came from Tanner, who earlier this year wrote Flin Flon City Council suggesting that the airport be renamed the Joe van Nes Regional Airport. Council investigated the notion but found that renaming an airport is an extremely arduous task. The compromise was to name the terminal building, which the councillors agreed was a fitting tribute to a distinguished citizen.
