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Flight of its life
by Scott Barker
Reprinted here with the premission of the The Knoxville News Sentinel Company
Back in 1930, when barnstormers crisscrossed the country and the exploits
of pilots like Amelia Earhart and Charles Lindbergh captured the imaginations
of Americans, brothers Henry and Elmer Nickle built the Airplane Filling Station
on Clinton Highway in Powell.
The brothers Nickle wanted something to catch the eye of southbound travelers
on what was then called the Dixie Highway.
They got their wish: a landmark shaped like an airplane, complete with wings
and a propeller, where they dispensed gas and grins to generations of motorists.
Though long in disrepair, the Airplane Filling Station is getting ready to
take off again.
Last Year, the dilapidated roadside attraction was added to the National Register
of Historic Places. Then the state stepped in to fix a vexing environmental
problem.
"Its getting better every day," Tom Milligan, president of the Airplane
Filling Station Association, said of the effort to revive the aging structure.
"The main thing is getting it bought and getting started with the reconstruction."
The State agencies took care of one impediment .
The Tennessee Department of Transportation paid nearly $15,000 in settlement
money it owed to the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation
to clean a pair of underground gas storage tanks. Workers cleaned out the
1,000-gallon tanks, filled them with concrete and tested the surrounding soil
for contamination. TDEC has given the property a clean bill of health. The
association's Rock Bernard said it was a relief to get help solving a problem
that could have wrecked the project. He said the worst case scenario estimate
for removing the tanks was $200,000. "It was like the monster under the
bed," Bernard said "We wanted to take care of it." Steve Wilson,
head of the underground storage tank program for TDEC's Knoxville field office,
said the state joined the project because a restored Filling Station would
give a boost to the local community.
"It has historical significance," Wilson said.
Underground storage tanks typically removed completely. However, Wilson said,
"It was impossible to remove them because they were located under the
nose of the plane."
There are 1,100 regulated underground storage tanks in the 16 county Knoxville
region, Wilson said, and an unknown number of older tanks that aren't regulated.
Many are abandoned and, like the ones at the Airplane Filling Station, discovered
only when property is sold.
