Operating Cost for MidAmerica Airport
$3.4 Million Per Year
BELLEVILLE, IL (September 7, 1999) -- A million dollars is what it costs St. Clair
County a year to pay MidAmerica Airport's security guards, maintenance workers, managers and other personnel.
That $1 million in salaries - including $32,000 paid in overtime through May - is just part of the $3.4 million a year spent to run a full-time, but largely unused, airport.
There's the $2,100 average monthly phone bill; the $383.50 spent this year on wildlife control; and the $399 for drug testing in the first half of 1999.
These are costs county leaders have expected to pay for at least another three years, the lag time they are prepared to wait for MidAmerica Airport to turn a profit.
But will the county have to wait that long? County Board Chairman John Baricevic said Friday a British firm's announcement last month that it wants to create a cargo and passenger network is just one several options for the airport.
"They are a legitimate company," he said. "We will continue to talk with them." Executives from Wiggins Group PLC explained the plan to county Public Building Commission members and were invited to return for a more formal presentation.
As for the annual costs, Baricevic said they will be evaluated every year, and the figure could go up or down, but would hover around the current $3.4 million annual expense.
It does not include what the county paid to finish construction last year on its international terminal and to buy land to control any future development there, part of the estimated $330 million to build MidAmerica Airport.
A Belleville News-Democrat story in November last year at the anniversary of the airport's opening showed someone spent $13 to use luggage carts. Whomever it was, he or she hasn't returned — the county hasn't earned any revenue from the luggage carts, but still pays $425 a month to lease the carts from a Minnesota company, Smarte Carte Inc.
It's all in the name of readiness. "We run a full-service airport," Baricevic said. "Just like any other county operation. The sheriff's department loses money every year ... we're not going to treat any division of county government differently"
The airport does take in money, its greatest earnings in 1999 coming from $372,000 in fuel sales up to June this year, a $138,000 profit after the cost of purchasing the fuel is considered. It also earned $167,000 by leasing open, unused land to farmers.
Another expense not included in the $3.4 million figure is airport marketing. This year, the county has paid $161,000 to four companies to market the airport through June 30.
"I would bet that an operation as large as an airport would justify $300,000 to $500,000 a year in all areas of development — trade shows, advertising, presentations to prospective clients," Baricevic said. He said every airport from 0'Hare International Airport in Chicago on down has a marketing program.
Information provided by the Belleville News-Democrat
Michael Shaw Article
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