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The Jefferson City Council tonight signed off on the operating budget for 2013.
But that was not the evening's star attraction.
The mayor of Columbia dropped in to make a pitch to the council to support development at the Columbia Regional Airport.
Columbia mayor Bob McDavid wants to get a lot more Mid-Missouri air travelers to use their regional airport.
“We have an initiative that we call 40 and 2020,” said McDavid. ”We hope to capture 40% of all the fliers who live in central Missouri. we hope to capture them at the [Columbia] Regional airport."
To accomplish that, McDavid said they need to bring in another airline.
He said he needs to raise $3 million dollars for improvements to make that happen.
He asked the Jefferson City Council on Monday to kick in a $100,000, which McDavid said is essential to get visitors off the road and into the air...
“We want them in their hotel beds by 10 o'clock at night, not at 3 o'clock in the morning. we want them to want to come back, because it's an easy place to get to...”
Not everyone was sold on the idea.
Herman Lueckenotti was in the audience and voiced concerns with the cost to Jefferson City taxpayers. He also pointed to the potential for the Capital City's airport.
"Keep it here, locally,” said Lueckenotti.” We've got a beautiful airport here, and we need to be more supportive and people need to be more aware of how valuable this airport is to this community."
Ultimately, the council agreed to provide the airport effort with support.
Mayor McDavid says negotiations are on-going with an as-yet unnamed airline.
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