During a two-hour meeting in Kansas City on Tuesday, Mayor Ron Blum and City Administrator Rick Childers stated their case to Federal Aviation Administration officials about closing the St. Clair Regional Airport and said that doing so would benefit both the city and general aviation.
Those same FAA officials also outlined their position and intent, with Blum and Childers saying that the federal officials said the FAA is not in the business of closing airports and that there is a specific process to follow when requesting to do so.
At the end of the day, however, the St. Clair duo were optimistic that process can be followed and closure could take place.
"When we went into the meeting, we weren't expecting much as far as a resolution," Blum told The Missourian on Wednesday. "But when we stepped out of the meeting, we were extremely positive.
"The door is open, maybe even a little wider."
The meeting at the FAA Regional Office in Kansas City was the latest step in the city's quest to close the facility located on the north side of town along the Interstate 44 corridor off of Highway 47 to make way for proposed retail development. The process, which has lasted more than three years, has included meetings with local pilots and the public, formulating a plan and putting together a 200-page document that outlines the city's viewpoint in stating its case.
That document was sent to several FAA officials several weeks ago, some of whom were at Tuesday's meeting.
"The FAA's stance has stayed the same," Childers said on Wednesday. "They want us to show them how closing our airport will benefit general aviation."
St. Clair's administration has contested that closing the facility would be a plus for aviation in part because any federal funds potentially available locally could be used elsewhere for airport improvements. City officials also have said there are enough adequate airports in the vicinity, including Washington, Sullivan, Cuba and Washington County.
Closing the St. Clair airport makes sense for the city and its residents, Blum said, in part because of the economy and what retail development could bring to the area.
"Our unemployment is high," he said. "Our job is to try to create jobs without putting any increased burden on the taxpayers."
Besides Blum and Childers, Ron Price of QED Aviation and Aviation Consultants, who prepared the city's airport assessment plan that is included in the airport closure document, was at the meeting. Price's assessment includes the rationale for the city to be released from its federal obligations. The release is necessary because the local facility has received grants for airport improvements, the last coming in 2006.
The closure document states that the city "is uncontested" to its obligation about the requirement to pay back more than $750,000 in funds obtained through those federal grants as part of the closure process. The money to pay back those grants would come from the sale of the land for the proposed retail development on the site.
Besides Price's report, the city's closure document includes an executive summary, airport obligations, several required documents, land appraisals, the existing airport layout plan, an abridged copy of the city's comprehensive plan, newspaper articles regarding the issue, letters of support and correspondence.
Eight FAA representatives took part in the meeting, including Joe Miniace, the FAA regional administrator for Central Region, where he is the senior FAA official for the four-state region consisting of Missouri, Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska. Two FAA officials from Washington, D.C., participated through telephone conference call. Also present was Joe Pestka of the Missouri Department of Transportation Aviation Division.
"It was a friendly meeting," Blum said, "with everyone guarding their own positions."
Next Step
Childers said the FAA officials charged the city with coming up with "a next step of the plan," which includes assistance in relocating the 10 or so pilots who still house planes in St. Clair to other airports and determining how funds from the sale of the local airport land will be used to help neighboring airports such as Sullivan or Washington.
"We need to contact them (other airports) and determine what their needs are," Childers said. "We need to come up with a regional plan on how funds (from the land sale) can be distributed to help them.
"They want us to show how this (closure) will benefit general aviation by helping regional airports in specific ways."
The city administrator said formulating that plan will be up to St. Clair officials, including which airports are to receive the financial assistance. He said MoDOT could provide some help in that area.
Blum gave his take on that next step of the process.
"I think with the economy the way it is, funding for airports is very tight as is funding for other federal programs," he said. "I think they (FAA) recognize the fact that it's difficult to fund the 3,300 airports in the United States. If closing ours can help others in the region, I think that is something they're looking for.
"There will be some compromise," he said. "There will be some negotiating on both sides."
Blum and Childers said they now will start discussing options on how to proceed. They said Price will be included in putting together this next step.
"We obviously have a lot of information to digest," Blum said. "We will digest it and take the necessary steps in order to achieve our goal. The FAA gave us some avenues to follow that will lead us on a path to closure."
The city officials said there was no deadline set to complete the next step, but when it's finished, the proposal will be sent to the FAA officials. They said they expected the process to take several weeks.
"We have an opportunity ahead of us," Blum said. "The result of this meeting created the possibility to benefit both aviation and St. Clair."
A group of pilots opposed to the St. Clair airport's closing reportedly plan on meeting with the same FAA officials next week.
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