JEFFERSON CITY — Imagine you run a small airport in Missouri — you can call yourself Sky Czar, if you like.

Now imagine a man flies into your airport, parks his plane, and tells you he’ll be back tomorrow, but instead, his plane just sits there with tires going flat and fuel leaking out of it.

Oh, and when you get hold of him two years later and tell him he needs to move, he says he can park there as long as he wants, and your city attorney says he’s technically correct.

Now you know why Glenn Balliew, director of Kirksville Regional Airport, started pushing for a new law a few years back.

Rep. Greg Sharpe, R-Ewing, is trying to deliver that law this year. He presented a bill to a House committee Monday that would let airports begin a process of seizing a plane after one has sat for at least 45 days without an agreement to use the space.

The airport would first try to find out who owns or holds an interest in the abandoned plane and send them notice giving them 30 days to pay up or move their property. If they refuse or don’t respond, the airport could seize the plane and use it, sell it or dispose of it.

The airport could move a plane sooner if it posed a danger to people.

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Balliew said the idea takes the logic of towing abandoned cars and applies it to the tarmac.

“If I park my car at city hall and the tires go flat and the engine won’t frickin’ start and it’s just a piece of junk sitting there, there is a state law that addresses that issue,” he said. “Same concept.”

No one at the committee hearing Monday seemed to have much problem with that.

Dennis Wiss, who runs an airport in St. Charles County, told lawmakers it would help him and others out, too.

“I now have three airplanes sitting on my ramp that have basically been abandoned,” he said. “The owner is not willing to do anything.”

Balliew said it's just what happens when someone buys an old plane for $25,000 or $30,000 on a lark without realizing how much it costs to maintain the plane and keep it airworthy.

When bad actors finally hit the wall, they dump the thing at an airport because they know the law, he said.

There are some things an airport can already do to counter that attitude.

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One guy moved his plane after it had sat for 13 years when Balliew started billing him for rent. Kirksville also started requiring anyone parking overnight to fill out paperwork telling the airport how to get in touch with them. It was free of abandoned planes as of Tuesday.

Balliew still wants a legal way to seize planes if someone digs their heels in and fees don't work, though.

"You can make them have to pay a price for doing this, but still, if they don’t want to move or they walk away and say ‘screw you,'… you can sue them for your money back, but you still can’t do anything with the plane," he said.

The committee did not take a vote on the bill, which is how things usually work the first time a bill is heard in a given year.

Folks in Springfield would appreciate it passing the next time it comes up, though.

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Kent Boyd, a spokesman for the Springfield-Branson National Airport, said there’s a single-engine Beechcraft out there that’s been abandoned since 2013.

An unusual series of events have technically left it with no legal owner and it's no longer fit to fly, Boyd said, so now it just takes up space.

“If this bill gets passed, it would allow airports to get rid of these airplanes in ownership limbo,” Boyd said.

The legislation is House Bill 1333.

Austin Huguelet is the News-Leader's politics reporter. Got something he should know? Call him at 417-403-8096 or email him at ahuguelet@news-leader.com. You can also support local journalism at News-Leader.com/subscribe.