AIRPORT TERMINAL GETS NOD

Saying they didn't want to lose a "bird in hand," the Cape Girardeau Airport Advisory Board Thursday failed to approve a motion to halt a plan to renovate the airport terminal building so the matter could be further studied.

The board in December approved a motion to go forward with the $1.1 million renovation project after more than a year of deliberations over whether to renovate the terminal or build a new one. But board member Truman Cole asked that a special meeting be called Thursday to reconsider the plan.

Board member Allan Maki was the only other member to vote in favor of Cole's motion to halt the project. Members Jim Bowman, Steve Nesler and J.T. Seesing and Chairman Jerry McClanahan voted against the measure. Member William Walker abstained.

Cole said he wanted to avoid making a long-term airport development mistake by approving the renovation project without further consideration.

He said other decisions at the airport such as a decision to build a T-hangar that now has few tenants and the purchase of a private hangar that proved costly to the city also have been made hastily.

"In consideration of avoiding a mistake, we need to study the effect of renovating the old terminal building to service, possibly a non-existent airline and non-existent private airplanes," Cole said. "There's not enough passenger traffic generated in this city to make it attractive to any airline."

Trans World Express, the airport's only commercial carrier, announced last week that without a federal subsidy the airline would discontinue flights into Cape Girardeau.

Cole said he's been told that such federal subsidies won't be available by fall 1992. "If that should occur, then you can kiss this little TWE goodbye," Cole said. "It's my opinion that that subsidy will not exist.

"This is not a pitch for a new terminal; this is a pitch to stop and think what in Sam Hill we're doing. It's my opinion that renovating the old terminal is an ill-considered idea."

Maki said he thought the airport needed to attract industry namely, an air freight business before the city could justify improving the terminal building. He said if such a business were to locate here, a new terminal could be built to meet the industry's needs.

"Clearly, if there's no other choice, a renovation is better than nothing at all," Maki said. "But I have some reservations about putting money into a renovation without a new approach to airport development.

"I think it's important that we do take a stop and look. If we're going to try and make a change and improve the airport, I'll go far enough to say, yes, we need a new terminal."

City Manager J. Ronald Fischer said the renovation plan is ready to go forward. He said if that plan were scrapped now there's no telling whether funding could be secured later for a new terminal.

"You've got the renovation project in hand, or you can look at a new building with two big ifs: federal funding for a new building or bond money for the local cost share," Fischer said.

"We've got a bird in hand and I don't even know if you've got one in the bushes."

Fischer said the bond issue to build the airport's extended runway several years ago failed twice before passing. He said that without some political massaging, the FAA also would have backed out of the project.

The city manager said it's difficult to justify spending money on the airport terminal given the low number of passengers, but the airport is the "gateway to the city," and must be a development priority.

"If you strike this out, you may never have again what you have here today," he said. "You've got to strike when the iron's hot."

Board member Steve Nesler said he doubted the public would support some type of bond issue for a new terminal building if the board killed the renovation project now.

"This is my fear," he said. "We have a bird in hand now. If we let go of that, the majority of people in Cape Girardeau do not want to dig in their pockets to help the airport."

McClanahan said he was a "frustrated, frustrated man" to be dealing with the renovation issue again.

"What we worked for in the last three years, we've got it right now," he said. "If I was doing this to my house, and I've been to the bank and I've got the money, I'm ready to renovate my house, I'll be damned if I'm going to stop it right now."

But Cole said: "We don't have an airline, we don't have passengers. What do we need with a terminal?"

Fischer said he thought TWE's subsidy application is a good opportunity for the city to attract another airline to the airport with connections to cities other than St. Louis.

"I really believe if you had sufficient air service out of this airport you'd double the passengers here easy," he said. "You won't get airline service without a terminal."