To set the process in motion, the city has formed an exploratorycommittee to study possible uses and options for the site. Thecommittee includes Mayor Robert Levy and city staffers, along withofficials of the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, and ofthe Governor's Office of Economic Growth. According to a publishedreport, city officials are said to be leaning toward selling thesite, and estimate that it could fetch as much as $1 billion forthe city's coffers.

"We are determined to explore every viable option to reduce theproperty tax burden on the community within the framework of soundfiscal principals," Levy says in a prepared statement.

Bader Field's operations date back nearly a century, and thefacility is credited with coinage of the term "airport" after alocal reporter referred to it as such shortly after World War I.Over the past few decades, the facility had been reduced to a dailytrickle of small, general aviation aircraft, with the largercommercial aircraft routed to the newer, larger Atlantic CityInternational Airport in nearby Pomona.