A VIEW FROM METRO EAST
The route between two major by Patrick E. Gauen Never heard of it? It's called MidAmerica Airport it's on the Illinois side of metropolitan St. Louis and it's a little controversial. It's 225 miles, more or less, diagonally across the heart of Illinois from Peotone to Mascoutah, two farm towns you probably cannot place on a map or imagine any reason to visit. Yet one day you may fly that route between two major airports in the fields of nowhere. In fact, the Mascoutah airport, with more runway capacity than Chicago's Midway, is already there. Never heard of it? Well, it's officially called MidAmerica Airport, it's on the Illinois side of metropolitan St. Louis and it's a little controversial. OK, a lot controversial. Maybe you caught the story on Tom Brokaw's "Fleecing of America" series, broadcast by NBC Nightly News a while back. Opponents of those who would put a third Chicago regional airport at Peotone, about 35 miles below the Loop, sometimes point southwest to MidAmerica as an example of the risks of a "Build It and They Will Come" approach. St. Clair County built it; so far they haven't come. But it's much too early and much too simple to call this a "fleecing" in the opinion of John Baricevic, MidAmerica's shepherd as the development-oriented chairman of the county board. For that matter, it's not exactly Peotone II, either. The story dates back to the mid-1970s, when landlocked Lambert- St. Louis International Airport needed more capacity and a major study suggested its replacement should be built near Columbia, 111., a few miles south of East St. Louis. Desperate Missouri politicians waged a decisive fight to save their landlocked Lambert Field, which was left to figure out how to meet the growing demands of TWA's hub within its urban boundaries. Back in Illinois, Baricevic and others cobbled together enough county money to finance a local share to build MidAmerica with no tax increase. With the help of U.S. Rep. Jerry Costello, a Belleville Democrat, Baricevic's predecessor as board chairman, they shook out enough state and federal bucks to complete a $310 million deal, cheap in terms of airport construction. Missouri kept calm, under assurances MidAmerica would be a "cargo center" and a "reliever for Lambert." Like Peotone, MidAmerica is a hot potato that some pols want and others don't. Like Peotone, it is either forward-looking or folly. Like Peotone, it isn't getting much respect from the airlines. ("St. Louis may be the Gateway to the West, but MidAmerica is the gateway to nowhere," says Robert Crandall, chairman of the parent of American Airlines.) MidAmerica's runways are done, its four-gate terminal nearly so, but there is effectively no business, except that TWA talks about diverting bad-weather overflow there. That's the kind of stuff Brokaw told you. Here's what NBC left out, and where comparisons to Peotone disappear. MidAmerica is a "joint use" airport, physically linked to Scott Air Force Bass, the command center of all U.S. military air transport and second largest single-site employer in metropolitan St. Louis, at 11,000 workers. With just one runway, Scott had a near miss with the federal military base closing commission a couple of years ago. Now, MidAmerica provides a second parallel runway distant enough for simultaneous use in all flyable weather. How significant is that? Well, Lambert Field is poised to spend $2.6 billion Missouri and federal tax dollars to gain essentially that same feature. Scott makes MidAmerica stronger and more likely to flourish; MidAmerica makes Scott stronger and more likely to survive. Ever notice that Air National Guard refueling wing that takes up coveted space at Chicago's O'Hare? It's moving to MidAmerica soon as the first — and Baricevic insists not the last — major tenant. Look to a future that waits beyond what we can see, Baricevic suggests. And he really walks his talk. In 1996, he even applied for federal designation of MidAmerica as a "space port" to accommodate eventual interplanetary travel. Peotone backers, take note. Patrick E. Gauen covers Illinois politics for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Illinois Issues April 1998 / 37 |
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