Citizens were invited to make public comments concerning the upcoming closing of the airport in St. Clair Wednesday, Nov. 2, at a public hearing held at St. Clair City Hall.
The public hearing was related to a recently released environmental impact study wher the airport ground was checked for wetlands, artifacts, endangered species, hazardous waste and other issues that could impact the area. The study has been reviewed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) and was on display at the St. Clair library and city hall from Oct. 1 until the day of the hearing.
There were about nine people who spoke during the two-hour hearing, including airport tenants, residents near the airport property, concerned citizens and local businessmen. People also submitted written comments. All of the testimonies will become part of the impact study documents.
The speakers were given five minutes, but were only allowed to speak their opinions. No questions could be asked or answered. City attorney Kurt Voss was the designated hearing officer and a court reporter recorded all of the testimonies.
“The purpose of this hearing is to ensure that all potential social, economic and environmental impacts, both positive and negative, of the proposed closure and development of the St. Clair Regional Airport and their consistency with the goals and objectives of the area planning agencies are identified,” Voss said.
Drawings of the airport, its proposed development and other documents were on display in the counsel chambers next to the hearing in the courtroom, and people from the city and its engineering firm were on hand to answer questions from the public.
once the airport is officially closed, the city intends to remove existing infrastructure, construct commercial development, construct a detention pond and rehabilitate Airport Road.
In addition, the city plans to mitigate the 0.2 acre of flood plain and mitigate wetland fill, which is approximately 1.12 acres.
The city also plans to add a left turn lane onto Highway 47 from Airport Road.
Joe Stecher, who lives adjacent to the airport, said he was concerned about drainage once redevelopment begins on the existing property.
Stecher said he has lived on Airport Road since 1997 and has owned the property since 1993. He has a private drive that he shares with a neighbor and over the years, his driveway has washed out from runoff coming from the airport.
“They built a retention pond (on airport property) in 2007,” he said. “The retention pond that someone built does not work, and during a heavy rain it will top the dam that they have and my driveway acts as a buffer. Actually, the water goes over the top of my driveway. I’ve seen it as much as 6 inches deep crossing my driveway.”
Stecher said that he heard there would be another retention pond built on the east side of the airport runway.
“Is that retention pond going to serve as a holding area for a sewage treatment plant?” he asked. “There is a lift station that the city has built on the airport property, and I’m wondering if the airport is going to be used as a treatment plant and a settling base because the lift station is already in. My main concern is what’s going to happen to the water that’s coming down. Is it going to go into the retention pond and is the retention pond going to be built in a manner that is suitable to hold all the water that’s coming down?”
Several airport tenants also spoke at the hearing with concerns about relocation and how the closing of the airport will affect the surrounding economy.
James DeVries, a tenant from Pacific, cited FAA rules that state a tenant in a hangar that is going to be demolished is a displaced person. The definition of uniform relocation assistant and relocation acquisition policy act also states that anyone that stores their personal property on the premises is a displaced person.
“We have seen nothing that addresses displaced persons,” he stated on record at the hearing.
DeVries also said he was concerned about prior fuel leaks and the possibility of there still being an underground fuel tank on the premises.
Wayne Dierker, who lives on Main Street in St. Clair, said after reviewing all the information and the plans, he was in support of closing the airport and developing the land.
Grenville Sutcliffe, representing himself and Husky Corp. in Pacific, also is a tenant at the airport. He said he thought the airport was an asset and he has used it often in conjunction with his business over the years.
“If it had a good manager in there and were run properly, it would be an asset to the city of St. Clair,” he said. “I keep saying asset based on Husky expenditures over the last year in the St. Clair and unio area. It’s just shy under $3 million. That’s an awful lot of jobs in this area, from manufactured goods that we buy to catering services that we use.”
Although the public hearing is completed, those wishing to make written comments about the study must mail them to Dierker at city hall, or email them to aca@stclairmo.us. Comments also can be sent to Bryan Gregory, MoDOT, P.O. Box 270, Jefferson City, MO 65102, or email Gregory at Bryan.Gregory@modot.mo.gov, with the letter postmarked or emailed no later than Nov. 14.
More Steps to Be Taken
Although the release of the study brings the city closer to the airport’s closure, there are still more requirements that must be fulfilled before the city can ground all flights and shutter the hangars.
First, comments made about the environmental assessment must be entered into the record and become part of the document. once a final document is created, there will be several time frames and notifications that must be filed with the FAA.
The city also was required to create “Exhibit A,” a document that legally describes the airport’s layout and boundaries, and details when the airport property was acquired and how it was acquired. Exibit A is pending final approval at FAA headquarters in Washington, D.C., Dierker said.
In addition, an appraisal must be completed.
once all the above-mentioned requirements are completed, a time frame as to the airport’s closing must be submitted to the FAA and certain notifications must be given to the airport tenants, pilots and other aviation-related entities.
“Those can run consecutive or concurrent,” Dierker said. “I have a certain time frame in mind as to when the airport will close, but I’m not ready to release that yet to the public.”
