To The Editor:
In the May 16, 2012, issue of the St. Clair Missourian it states, “Airport Closure, City to Ask Residents to Get Involved.”
Well, the timing was right because I’ve been trying to keep quiet, but no longer can. It seems the mayor, aldermen, city administrator and the St. Clair Missourian editor have a one-track mind.
How can it be that there are unlimited funds when it involves closing the airport, but there is no money for anything else? Could it be just coincidence that one week there is no money for fixing the city swimming pool, but the next week there is money for yet another appraisal of the airport property?
The Missourian states on Page 8C (author unknown) that a swimming pool is not needed. I suppose needs are a subjective thing. I doubt the mayor would use the city pool, he probably has one in his backyard.
But do we really need another Wal-Mart at the cost of everything else? I’m sure the late Sam Walton would say yes, you should only have to drive one mile to Wal-Mart instead of seven.
How is it that the city can threaten legal action, citing liability concerns, against someone doing volunteer work on the airport property, then the next week the mayor’s wife is on the front page of The Missourian doing volunteer work on other city property? Where is the liability concern now?
How about the West Springfield Road improvement project that was promised last summer? I must have missed the edition of The Missourian that explained why it didn’t happen. Where did that money get rechanneled to? Could it be another airport study? I can’t wait to read the study that the city is preparing on why the airport has not been profitable. It should be published in The Missourian. Maybe that study could have letters from the community attached.
Also published in The Missourian should be a list of expenses connected with closing the airport, including trips to Washington, D.C., Kansas City, Jefferson City and wherever else.
Also, contracts for services and studies, and an estimate of the mayor and city manager’s time on this issue — I’d guess over 50 percent.
Let’s say half of their salaries for five to six years, probably a couple hundred thousand dollars.
And what about the North Outer Road relocation project? How many times did MoDOT come back to the city and say, your share of the cost has gone up?
I hope the city council had a clear understanding of why the cost went up before approving it. I’m sure that if it was their own money they were spending they would have checked it out.
I don’t worry as much about what is printed in The Missourian as about what is NOT printed. Citizens, you have to read between the lines these days.
Editor’s Note: Name withheld per request.
