Covenant Aerospace

Dear Editor:

   I recently read in the Post Dispatch where some St. Clair County officials are having problems with the start-up of Covenant Aerospace at the empty MidAmerica Airport.
   May I suggest the Bethalto-St. Louis Regional Airport. With an East Alton address and located in Bethalto, Madison County, and only a ‘stone’s throw’ off of IL-255. In addition to highway proximity, there is little air traffic, as compared to the adjoining Scott Air Force Base at the aforementioned facility, and room for development and expansion exists to the east and south-east. There are a good many officials in the Alton Metroplex that will welcome business such as this, and a return on the investment would be soon seen as the number of restrictions and lower taxes encourage such development.
   Positive investment in the area can be seen from the Conoco-Phillips refinery in Roxana to the Swiss company Ziemer and their huge renovated complex on 3rd street in Alton. Highway access, welcoming business and government officials, and a positive investment track record by other business and industry in the metroplex makes Bethalto-St. Louis Regional Airport the place to set-up shop, not an aviation ‘ghost town’.

Bill Perkins
Moro, Ill.