OFFICIALS HOPE AIRPORT ACTIVITY TAKES OFF

Business and industry could take off at the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport even as the city looks to land state funding for its air traffic control tower.

City and economic development officials are working to attract a Kentucky industry to the airport in what could be the first step in creating a manufacturing park on a 120-acre site on the northwest corner of the airport.

The city has applied for a state grant to install water and sewer lines as part of the industrial recruitment effort.

Mitch Robinson, who directs the Cape Girardeau Area Industrial Recruitment Association, said the potential business is looking at setting up a plant that has nothing to do with aviation. But he said the airport offers an attractive site because company officials could fly into Cape Girardeau and be right at the plant without wasting time.

Robinson said Cape Girardeau also wants to attract aviation-related industries. Such jobs typically pay more than many other manufacturing jobs, he said.

Greg Chenoweth, airport manager, said, "Any progressive community realizes the value of the airport as an economic generator."

Chenoweth said the airport offers the first view of Cape Girardeau to business people who fly into town. "We are the front door of the community," he said.

Attracting businesses to the airport could boost air traffic, which could help the city regain federal funding for the tower in the future, Robinson said.

For now, the city has its sights set on state aid. The city had operated the tower with money from the Federal Aviation Administration. But the FAA canceled funding for the tower at the end of 1995, leaving the city to pick up the tab.

The city has agreed to fund the tower for now, but it hopes to find some outside funding.

"Our focus is on obtaining state funding, which we think is the logical resource to go to," said J. Fred Waltz, airport board chairman.

State Rep. Joe Heckemeyer of Sikeston wants the state to provide $200,000 to fund the tower. A House subcommittee has added the money to the proposed budget for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1.

But final action by lawmakers on the budget won't occur until this spring.

Gov. Mel Carnahan didn't include any money for the tower in his state budget recommendations.

Heckemeyer said the tower and the airport are important to the entire Southeast Missouri region. Cape Girardeau is the only airport with a control tower in the entire Southeast Missouri region.

Waltz said it is important for the airport to have a control tower. "You want it for safety and continuity of operations. There are a lot of people for insurance reasons who won't fly into airports without control towers."

The Missouri Highway and Transportation Commission wants the state to fund the Cape Girardeau tower or any other airport towers in the state that would lose federal funding. The Cape Girardeau airport tower was the only one in Missouri to lose its federal funding last year.

Waltz said the city shouldn't have to pay the whole cost of operating a control tower. "It is our view that this is a safety issue that transcends local government. It is regional airport."

The majority of people who use the airport don't live in Cape Girardeau, he pointed out. "We have tracked our customer base and it comes from all over Southeast Missouri."

Waltz said the city had no choice but to take over the tower operation for at least the short term. "The city did the right thing; they stepped in there and made sure the tower wasn't dismantled."

The tower cost $170,000 a year to operate with FAA funding. The city has managed to cut costs through a reduction in the salaries of the tower's five air traffic controllers.

Under FAA management, those salaries had to fall within federal guidelines. Now that they are city employees, the federal scale no longer applies.

The city will spend $77,000 to operate the tower for the first six months of 1996. The current fiscal year ends June 30.

Waltz said the city may regain federal funding for the tower in the future. "Don't ever rule the FAA as being out because the rules of the game may change," he said.