The state police aviation unit that was quietly taken away from the Williamsport Regional Airport recently handled search rescues, vehicle pursuits, criminal surveillance and traffic scene photography and important transports.
These are important functions.
State police authorities decided, with a distinct lack of transparency, that these functions could be handled out of Hazleton instead.
By the time local lawmakers found out the move was being made, it was too late.
Attempts by them to get some answers for the removal have gone unanswered.
This area deserves better. Much better.
Vincent J. Matteo, president and CEO of the Williamsport/Lycoming Chamber of Commerce, recently sent a letter to state police Commissioner Frank Noonan seeking compelling reasons why the aviation center here should be closed.
He hasn't gotten a response, either.
"We want to get it back," he said. "To get it back here, we need answers as to why it left in the first place."
That sounds reasonable enough to us.
Rep. Rick Mirabito's characterization of this whole process is that the region's people are being treated "as second-class citizens."
He couldn't be more correct.
