REVENUE DIVERSION

Funny how that works.

 If the City owned an aircraft, and kept it in a hangar that was owned by the city on the airport that was owned by the city, it would still have to pay rent to the airport that is owned by the city. 

Why does it work this way?  Because the federal government finances airports, and that make them public property.  Not even the city can use the property on an airport without paying rent for the land lease. 

From the Federal Register .

B. Prohibited Uses of Airport Revenue

Prohibited uses of airport revenue include but are not limited to:

9. Use of land by the sponsor for aeronautical purposes rent-free or for nominal rental rates, except to the extent permitted by Section VII.E of this policy.

OBJECTIVE REPORTING

It has been a week and a half since the city voted to pay back rent on the maintenance hangar rent, and there has not been a word in the                 on line.  If anyone finds an article in the print version, let us know.  This is what the airport supporters have been saying all along, so much for objective reporting.

If this was My Airport???

If this was My Airport what would it look like?

There would be a community meeting area available to all. EAA Young Eagles, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Air Force, Army, Marine and Navy ROTC Cadets, Civil Air Patrol, Missouri Pilots Assn, 99's, Gateway Eagles, any of which may have Aviation careers in mind. Promoting Aviation not only in the flying aspect but in customer service and maintaince also.

Business opportunities to employ the unmatched talent of the citizens of Frankiln County.

A website showing all of the local activities and attractions, hotels, motels, B&B's.

You live here, tell all the Great Things You Like about St Clair and Franklin Co.

(ps, if you don't have anything nice to say about where you live, MOVE), We like St Clair and Franklin Co.

COMMENTS WILL USE A NAME

This is the new deal, if anonymous disappears, so does the name slot, so in order to keep from having to use a Google account you will have to use a name.  Any anonymous comments will be deleted.  I can hold them for moderation.  Feel free to use your Google account if you have one.  I am going to modify the title to include a message for this. 

A WHILE BACK

I remember a long time back, before Blum was mayor, there was a discussion about water bills, and closing the airport at a city hall meeting.   An individual got up and said that his water bill was $100, and among other things, he wanted to know how the city could expect people to pay that kind of money for water.  I took my turn at the podium to explain to everyone there, that there were obligations attached to the airport and a closure would probably not be possible.   BOO’s, MOANS and other undeterminable sounds came from the audience.  Mindy slammed the gavel and told everyone to be quiet.   I started to continue, and as I was about to explain about the federal obligations of  the airport, this one individual that was sitting in the front row of chairs, jumped up , and started to physically jump up and down, his feet got about as high as the seat of his chair.   While he was jumping up and down, he started to scream at the top of his voice, “This is Bullshit”!!  He was obviously a Blum supporter.  He got in about four jumps, before he appeared to run out of air.  At which time the police chief told the individual it was time to go. 

A couple of days later, I found out that the individual that stated his water bill was $100, only paid it every three months.   I don’t remember the individual’s name, but it was the most hilarious thing I have ever seen.  Obviously when it came to the truth, this person just didn’t want to hear it.

THE BENIFIT TO THE CITY

We have a guest on the blog that seems overly frustrated.  This is probably because he is not capable of understanding the aviation industry and how the FAA works, although they can be confusing at times.  This frustration also seems to be from this guest’s need to ask questions that are irrelevant to the airport, and cannot get the answer he wants.  For instance the comment was made, “So in theory you are placing the importance of this airport over the well-being of an entire community”? (There is no theory involved in this) The new guest is obviously trying to obtain a statement so he can go back to the community and scream “LOOK WHAT THOSE PILOTS SAID”!!!

How does the airport benefit St. Clair?  Just take one person.  I used to spend $100 a week in St. Clair.  Big deal right.  (I don’t anymore; you do not make us feel welcome)  We had a ground school lesson where Fred told us how the money we spend at the airport goes through the town three times.  Not hard to understand.   So, what is the big deal about a hundred bucks?   What if there were fifty of us, like their used to be.   That turns into three quarters of a million dollars in taxable sales for your town, and that’s $39,000 in taxes for the city.   Let’s look at it another way, I have been flying for 30 years, that hundred bucks turns into about $24,000 in taxes that I could have brought to your town.  Not all my flying has been at St. Clair like Mr. Hoffman’s.  Now let’s say that for a fifty year period, the airport would have had fifty tenants, and they spent $50 a week on flying, (that is almost impossible to spend that little) that comes to $6,500,000 million spent in your town.   To quote rocketman      “The correct answer, (let me give it to you since you can't seem to figure it out) is that it in NO WAY benefits the community. Very few people use it, and the people that do use it don't even live in town”.  (He is talking about the airport and the pilots.)  It seems that someone had to do the arithmetic for him.

What if the airport has no significant benefit to St. Clair because none of the pilots live in St. Clair?  Who said it needs to benefit the city?  It benefits the public all around St. Clair.  The FAA does not finance airports soley to provide for the benifit of the citezens of the sponsor.  How does the rest stop on 44 benefit St. Clair? And I am not talking about the water and sewer improvements that the feds paid for.   What do you think would happen if the city failed to fix a water line break that went to the rest stop?

All of the reasons that the city and their supporters are telling everyone to repeat, do not justify the city’s actions.   If the city cannot see the benefit to a community that an airport can provide, does that give the city the right to break the law?  There is no justification for what the city has been caught doing, or for what they will get caught doing.   The actions by the city concerning the maintenance hangar, were lies, what else did the city lie about?

 We have been accused of not caring about the community:  When in fact, the pilots tried very hard to bring Cabelas to St. Clair, for two reasons, we like Cabelas, and it would be great for the city and its airport.  I care no more nor any less for St. Clair than I do about Union, Washington, or any of the other towns that I have landed at or flown over. 

One more point on Cabelas, I  The Cabelas real estate office told us there were three conditions that have to be met for a store placement; a certain size of populations in 35 miles, on and interstate highway away from the city, and close to an airport.   At the Owatonna store, there is a direct phone line to the store from the airport for their shuttle service.  They come to the airport and pick up pilots and return them to the airport. 

PUBLIC VS. PRIVATE PROPERTY

The previous post generated some questions.  What is the issue between public vs. private property.  Why does the development need to be public property, or why does public property make this a necessity?  Is the city’s plan to give the property to a developer?  In this case the city will have to come up with the cash to pay off the FAA.  Add that to the grant and the payoff to Price, the city is looking at close to $1,000,000.  If the airport appraisal is realistic, the city would be better off purchasing I-44 property and forgetting about the airport.  The airport property is appraised at $550,000 about $6800/acre.  There is a listing for 100 acres in St. Clair for $1,500,000 at about $15,000/ acre.  What’s the difference?  Either the airport is undervalued, or the 100 acres is overvalued.  The city needs to clairify the public vs. private property issue if there is one.