LETTERS: CAPE'S AIRPORT IS A COSTLY LIABILITY

To the editor:

This letter was sent May 14 to the Cape Girardeau City Council:

Subject: Resignation from Airport Advisory Board effective this date.

Here I sit looking at another meaningless pile of paper generated by the airport manager.

My first involvement with Cape Girardeau Regional Airport was as a member of the Chamber of Commerce Air Transportation Committee. After one of those early meetings, Al Stoverink asked me what I though of renovating the terminal building. My response: "I cannot justify spending any taxpayer money on the airport until there is a complete change of attitude about the airport and efforts to make it self-sustaining."

As I became more involved and participated in the development of a master plan, I was deceived into believing changes were actually taking place. Later, as a member of the Airport Advisory Board, I voted to recommend employment of an airport manager and spending of matching funds to renovate the terminal building. I honestly believed that the city administration, council and influential citizens wanted to turn the airport into the community asset it should be. In retrospect, I cannot identify what happened that made me believe the future would be different. It must have been the result of my own poor judgment.

Given the continued employment and salary history of the current airport manager, I must conclude he is performing at or above the expectations of the city administration and council. Since he has managed to reverse all of the positive trends established before his arrival, I must also conclude that this is what the city administration and council want him to do. That puts me back where I was in the first conversation with Al Stoverink.

The airport is not an asset. It is a liability. In fact, under current circumstances, it is a growing liability, one the citizens of Cape Girardeau should be unwilling to continue funding.

Having reached these conclusions, I cannot continue to waste my time and energy any more that I can recommend continued wasting of taxpayer resources.

WILLIAM H. WALKER

Cape Girardeau