CITY TO SET TO RETAIN AIR TOWER CONTRACT

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- The Federal Aviation Administration last week gave in to repeated objections by Cape Girardeau city officials and accepted the city's contention that it should retain the airport control tower operating contract.

The City Council tonight will consider a resolution to authorize the control-tower contract, which the FAA last year refused to renew.

The city last year took over control-tower operations under an annual contract with the FAA that was renewable for five years.

But when the first year expired in September, the FAA ordered the city to bid the tower service.

The FAA then asked that the contract be awarded to Midwest Air Traffic Controllers of Industrial Airport, Kan., the low bidder.

But the city refused to award the contract and contended that tower operations should remain with the city.

In a letter sent to the FAA Thursday, Airport Manager Mark Seesing submitted new city tower operating costs that were lower than Midwest Air's bid.

In a letter to the City Council, Public Works Director Doug Leslie said the FAA gave "verbal approval" to the terms of the city proposal. The terms to be considered by the council call for a 54-month contract at a cost of $683,000.

Fischer said Sunday the new operations bid will require the city to reduce staffing at the tower. He said the changes were necessary so that the city's bid conformed to Midwest's and FAA guidelines.

Fischer said the city's initial bid was based on a fully-staffed tower for at least 12 hours daily.

"The FAA didn't require that kind of staffing, and the company that was the lowest bidder, bid on the requirements (only) of the FAA," he said. "What we had here was more people in the tower during the day than what was required by the FAA."

Fischer said the new bid is a "scaled back" version of the city's initial bid.

"The daily operations have been reduced," he said. "The hours will still be the same, 6 (a.m.) to 6 (p.m.), but I don't know that we'll be able to keep it open until 8 p.m. in the summer.

"It will have to be scaled back, yes, but we still locally can give a quality service."

In other business Monday, the council will consider a resolution to adopt the 1991-96 Capital Improvements Program.

The $37 million plan is the city's blueprint for major street and sewer projects over the next five years. The plan covers 56 projects, up from 35 in last year's $24 million proposal.

Capital improvements are divided into four categories: transportation, environment, recreation and community development.

The transportation category contains 31 projects at a total cost of about $16 million. The environment category, which includes sewer and flood-control projects, contains 19 projects totalling nearly $21 million.

Funding sources include: Public Facilities Authority bonds ($13 million); flood-control sales tax ($8 million); special assessments or tax bills ($5.2 million); federal grants ($4.4 million); and motor-fuel tax receipts ($4.2 million).