BOARD WANTS AIRPORT RESTAURANT MANAGER

Cape Girardeau's Airport Advisory Board will recommend the City Council hire a manager to run and help develop a new restaurant for the airport.

The board isn't quite ready to make a formal recommendation, said chairman J. Fred Waltz.

Board members and Bruce Loy, manager of the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport, will research financial issues, including comparable salaries for restaurant managers and operational costs, before making a formal proposal to the City Council.

The board held a special meeting Thursday night to discuss options regarding the restaurant and how it should be operated.

At a joint meeting between the City Council and advisory board May 11, Mayor Al Spradling III suggested the city could take over operation of the airport restaurant again. City officials agree that re-opening the restaurant would help add to airport traffic and help promote the airport.

The city has been unsuccessful in recent attempts to attract a restaurant franchise or independent restaurant operator to locate in the airport, Waltz said. When the city operated the restaurant in the past, the airport manager was responsible for overseeing restaurant operations. That didn't work, he said.

Board members set several informal guidelines for operating the restaurant:

-- Hire a restaurant manager as a city employee who will work for a base salary plus incentives.

-- Keep the restaurant open seven days a week but only for breakfast and lunch. Dinner business was not successful in the past.

-- Add vending machines for sandwiches and snacks when the restaurant is closed.

-- Possibly remodel the restaurant to move kitchen facilities into the restaurant. The kitchen is now separate from the dining area.

The board still has to find out what kind of operating budget and start-up costs the City Council would be willing to set, board members pointed out.

From July 1994 to October 1995 when the city operated the airport restaurant, net sales were $22,980, but operating costs were $40,838.

"We don't plan on operating it the same way they operated it," Loy said. "I don't know how much homework was done when they opened this the last time."

Consulting with other local restaurant owners and managers before business starts up will help the board estimate intelligently what kind of city investment will be necessary, Loy said.

City manager Michael Miller said Friday that the city hasn't set any kind of budget for operating the restaurant.

If Gov. Mel Carnahan signs legislation that would provide state funding for the airport's operations tower, some of the city funding now allocated for the tower could be used for running the restaurant, Miller said.

Board members hope to have their formal recommendation finalized after their June meeting.