CITY ACCEPTS STATE FUNDS FOR AIRPORT WORK

New planes could be taxiing down the runway at the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport now that the city accepted a state loan to fund infrastructure improvement for an aircraft company to build planes here.

The Cape Girardeau City Council passed a resolution Monday night accepting $750,000 from the Missouri Department of Economic Development that will fund infrastructure improvements to the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport.

"The state funding finally came through," said Bruce Loy, airport manager. "This gives them the money they needed to start up" in a temporary facility.

The improvements are part of a deal arranged earlier this year that will bring Renaissance Aircraft to Cape Girardeau. The city applied for the loan in January.

Renaissance plans to produce the Renaissance 8F, a two-seat plane that will be marketed to recreational pilots. Each plane would sell from $75,000 to $100,000.

To build the planes, the company plans to build a $1.2 million facility at the airport, with construction to begin later this year. The plant eventually will employ more than 200 workers, company officials have said.

The city intends to sell $2.1 million in bonds to finance construction and airport improvements Renaissance will pay off the bonds over a 20-year period.

In other business

The council rejected a rezoning request for property at 545 Asher St. The owners were requesting a change from the current R-3, two-family residential zoning to C-3, a central business district.

The Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously rejected the request, with one abstention at its May 9 meeting. The city council sent the item back to the commission at its June 18 meeting, and again the request was denied.

Commission chairman Charles Haubold said the city has worked hard to maintain a residential neighborhood in the area, working to improve houses through community development block grants, and that any rezoning would detract from that.