 The airport operated privately in the 1940s and operated publicly from the 1950s to 1989.Meadowlark Airport was purchased in 1947 by the Koichi and Toyo Nerio family, and their children Art, Yukio and Betty.Eldest son Art Nerio, managed the airport from 1970 until its closure in 1989, and could be identified as a lone bicycle-riding figure keeping an eye on things around the eighty-acre airfield.