LOAN TO HELP FUND CITY AIRPORT TERMINAL RENOVATION

A low-interest state loan will help nullify increased city costs to renovate the Cape Girardeau Municipal Airport terminal building.

The Missouri Department of Natural Resources' Division of Energy announced the $130,000 loan Tuesday. Most of the funds will go toward energy conservation measures in the $1.1 million terminal building renovation project, with $30,000 earmarked for energy improvements at the city's waste-water treatment plant.

The Federal Aviation Administration announced in May that it won't fund as much of the terminal building project as city officials expected. The final plans for the renovation project were approved last year, but the FAA since has agreed to fund only about 38 percent of the project instead of 50 percent as estimated by city officials.

The lower FAA funding share means the city is responsible for about $700,000 instead of $500,000 to $525,000.

But Airport Manager Mark Seesing said the DNR loan will help offset the FAA's funding shortfall.

He said the city will use the loan to replace windows, modify light fixtures, and install high-efficiency pump motors, new boiler-chiller controls and roof and wall insulation.

He said that although the loan won't completely negate the added city costs for the renovation project, it will "certainly help."

"We didn't plan it that way, but the extra money puts the city about where it was when we first approved the renovation plans last year, in terms of funding share," Seesing said. "The extra money will help out in that regard."

Seesing said the loan will help boost the project, which has been stalled by bureaucratic and design snags.

"We're getting ready to bid on it, and, hopefully, within the next couple months we'll be under construction," he said.

Ron Wyse, program director for the DNR's Division of Energy, presented a check for $130,092 to city officials Tuesday and ex

IP0,0plained the state energy loan program.

IP1,0"The whole idea of the loan program is cities can borrow this money at 2 percent interest and the energy savings they receive annually are used to pay off the loan," Wyse said.

"Once the loan is repaid, they can then use that money in other areas of the city. Once the money is repaid, it's put back in a revolving loan and paid out for other energy improvements in the state."

Wyse said the DNR estimates the city will save more than $17,000 annually with the airport and waste-water treatment facility energy improvements.

Seesing said the benefits of the loan program are two-fold: not only does the city receive funding for the terminal renovation, but the energy improvements provide long-term cost savings.

"The money we'll save on utilities will be pretty significant," he said. "This building now is very inefficient and the types of improvements we'll make will have a big effect."

So far this year, the DNR has approved about $1.5 million in low-interest energy loans to local governments in Missouri. The loan program was authorized in 1988 by the Missouri legislature. It is financed through federal funds from fines paid by oil companies for alleged over-pricing in the 1970s.

Doug Leslie, Cape Girardeau public works director, said the loan is beneficial to the city because it won't require payments from the city's general operating fund.

"The repayment is through the energy savings, so no additional or new revenue is required by the city," Leslie said. "It's a very beneficial program."