The Plattsburgh Airbase Redevelopment Corp. -- PARC -- has commissioned a history of itself, and it would be worth anyone's while locally to read it.

One of the intentions of writing the book, appropriately called "Flying High Again," is to serve as a primer for other communities that will experience the same dismay, sense of loss and turbulence the North Country endured beginning in 1993, when the federal Base Realignment and Closure Commission shockingly -- and imprudently -- recommended the shuttering of Plattsburgh Air Force Base.

PARC hired author Marian Calabro to chronicle events dating from the astonishing decision of BRACC through the nearly present day.

Calabro lives in Hasbrouck Heights, N.J., and has a number of impressive credits on her resume, including authorship of "The Perilous Journey of the Donner Party" and "Great Courtroom Lawyers." Her research on "Flying High Again" is impeccable. She pored over stacks of newspaper clippings and photographs from a number of sources and interviewed at least 60 people who had some connection with the events over the past dozen years.

Marshaling all the information she accumulated, learning all the influences at work and understanding personalities and mechanisms that shaped the PARC history was a mountainous job that would require the hand of a thorough professional.

Calabro documented the history of PARC, actually from before its inception, when Plattsburgh was devastated to learn politics had reigned in the choice to close the base instead of political powerhouse McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey. New York's politicians were unwilling to choose between Plattsburgh and Griffiss Air Force Base in Rome, N.Y., so both were lost.

That devastation evolved into action to force efforts at redevelopment, then hopes buoyed by early successes and, finally, satisfaction that things are better economically now than they were when the Air Force was landlord.

All of the significant players are part of the book, and in proper perspective. But the main characters, appropriately, are the four presidents/CEOs that led the organization through its various stages of maturity.

David Holmes is characterized as a good choice for an embryonic redevelopment group, getting the wheels in place, though the book points out that he had an overwhelming job of creating success when the community instead wanted the Air Force back.

Successor Mark Barie had impediments from the outset, including a Phish concert he didn't endorse, calling it a distraction from the redevelopment effort. He also had some political "nemeses," the biggest of which was the mayor of Plattsburgh, Clyde Rabideau.

Next came the mercurial Daniel Wieneke, who, though abrasive to many, can tick off an impressive list of residential and corporate tenants and sales that spelled PARC's eventual success.

Finally, Bruce Steadman, the current man at the helm, has skillfully ushered PARC toward its sunset.

"Flying High Again" is an unerringly accurate account of the redevelopment effort. If there is a fault to find, it is merely the timing of the project. While the organization has another year or two to complete its mission and its life, the fate of the biggest development of all -- Laurentian Aerospace -- is as yet unknown. It is mentioned, but could the book have awaited a later update?

And conspicuously absent is "Red Carpet Days," in which PARC suffered a controversy when preferential treatment for some local firms was charged in the courting of prospective tenants.

PARC declined to disclose what it spent to commission the writing of the book, as it was done with "non-public" funds, although it's hard to imagine any funds from that organization not being involved with the public in one way or another.