AIRPORT LAND RIFT BREWS IN PERRYVILLE

PERRYVILLE -- A Cape Girardeau County jury awarded a Perry County farmer $275,000 last week for 54 acres of land condemned by the city of Perryville to extend the city's airport runway.

But after a protracted 3-year battle with the city, farmer Henry Romann Jr. sees only a loss of valuable farmland that can never be replaced.

Romann, who owns 1,800 acres next to the Mississippi River and near the Perryville airport, has farmed the land for more than 50 years.

"We are not in the business to sell land," he said. "Farmland is next to impossible to replace."

The battle ensued in June 1992, when Perryville officials condemned the property near the airport over protests by Romann and three other farmers.

The city intended to extend the airport's runway length to 7,000 feet.

Engineering studies for the work started years earlier, and in 1990, Romann, unaware of the city's plans, found steel fence posts driven into a field of young corn plants.

"We just worked around them for a long time," said Romann's wife, Yvonne. "We thought if we were nice they might treat us nice."

Perryville officials won't discuss the situation, since some of the condemnation cases are yet pending.

Since the condemnation was protested, a process began with three people chosen as commissioners to decide how much money the land was worth.

While the rift continued, the runway extension was completed, jutting 300 feet into the 54-acre field. The acreage at the end of the runway is still farmed, but the city leases it to another farmer.

Romann contends he should have received a payment based on the land's commercial value, not agricultural. One appraiser estimated the land's value as commercial property at more than $600,000. In 1992, the commissioners awarded Romann $298,000 -- the land's agricultural value.

The city, which had offered $160,000, protested. The case went to Cape Girardeau County for a jury decision last week.

Eight out of 10 jury members signed a document Wednesday awarding Romann $275,000.

Based on the decision, Romann had to pay the difference between the earlier $298,000 award, with interest, to get the $275,000.

Romann said the city's taking of the land "cut my farm operations in half. It severed it down the middle.

"I'm not against industrial expansion or progress, but the city is acting like a business, acquiring land by condemnation," Romann added. "It's not fair to come and beat us up on the price. You don't know what we've been through the last three years."

Romann owned the largest amount of land in the dispute, but three other landowners also are protesting the city's offer for the adjoining land.