The Peoria international airport might be losing some air-traffic-control employees soon.

The Federal Aviation Administration has recommended certain operations in Peoria and Springfield be consolidated in St. Louis. Efficiency and financial savings are part of the rationale.

As the Peoria airport director sees it, such a move has a major disadvantage.

“The problem is putting all their eggs in one basket,” Gene Olson said. “So when the New Madrid Fault goes kablooey, and that facility (in St. Louis) gets knocked out, the southern half of Illinois is going to lose radar coverage.”

Nobody is proposing a physical move of the Peoria radar. It’s located not far from the airport, near Alpha Park Public Library in Bartonville.

What might move is the Peoria-based terminal radar approach control, or TRACON. Those controllers handle aircraft transition between cruising altitude and arrival and departure, among other things.

The Peoria TRACON facility operates 24 hours a day. In 2015, it oversaw almost 73,000 operations, according to the FAA.

In a report published in late June, the FAA stated a Peoria-Springfield-St. Louis consolidation might save $16 million over the next 17 years. The report also suggested consolidation would allow for 24-hour coverage over the entire area, which Springfield does not provide.

The St. Louis center is newer than Peoria’s, which dates from the 1950s. A new Peoria control tower is being designed and could be smaller and cheaper without TRACON facilities, according to the report.

The most interesting consolidation justification, at least from this perspective, is the positive effect it might have on employee retention and job experience.

Lower-level TRACON facilities with less air traffic are difficult to staff, according to the report. Olson suggested controllers in Peoria tend to be younger and less experienced.

“Reductions in attrition may help retain local knowledge, which the workforce and stakeholders deem important,” the report stated. “Realigning the TRACON operations to a larger, newer facility … may diversify staff experience and encourage them to remain at the same facility for a longer duration.”

Olson doesn’t sound convinced.

The Peoria airport director cited fires in recent years at air-traffic-control facilities in Aurora and Elgin. The Aurora blaze in 2014 resulted in almost 2,000 grounded flights. The Peoria facility helped handle traffic Aurora couldn’t.

“What do you do when you put all those facilities into one and it burns? You’re done,” Olson said. “You don’t have radar, you don’t have airlines.

“To me, it’s penny wise and pound foolish.”

The proposal has been published in the Federal Register, which is a prelude to congressional action.

A spokesman for 18th District Congressman Darin LaHood told us his office is aware of the situation and has had preliminary discussions about it. A spokesman for 17th District Congresswoman Cheri Bustos did not return a message.

Most of the airport property lies in Bustos’ district. Part of the main runway lies in LaHood’s. Don’t get us started on legislative-district gerrymandering, which is a subject for another column. (N.V.)

Another look at Peoria water

If the answer of who's picking up the check can get resolved, members of the Peoria City Council could give their assent fairly quickly to moving forward with the fact-gathering process that would determine whether it's cost efficient to try to buy back the city's waterworks.

In fact, Mayor Jim Ardis said his support for entering the due diligence process is dependent upon figuring out "how we can pay for it. ... One depends on the other."

The council has the option every five years to start the buyback process with Illinois American Water, and the first step would be that due diligence. Supporters have been pushing such a move ahead of the fall 2018 deadline, and the CEO Council conducted a study that recommended doing so in order to make an informed go/no-go decision.

But with the city's budget straits — cuts looming, potentially even in public safety, to close an almost $8 million budget gap — "we don't have a million dollars," Ardis says.

Some estimates have been lower, but "we know it cost us a boatload the last time we did it, and we didn't even get to do the deep dive," Ardis maintains, noting that the council isn't likely to front the money for it if it means cutting more from the budget.

That, he says, puts more pressure on those in the business community who fall under the "pro-due diligence" label to come up with the funds for the city.

"I can't speak for the entire council, but I think there would be more than a simple majority in having (due diligence) done," Ardis says. He notes that now is more likely than five years hence, when "it really could be out of the ability of the city to buy (the water company)."

CEO Council folks involved with the study told us back in February that they'd really kind of held back on their fundraising efforts until an indication — such as the one Ardis gave at a mayoral forum then — that there was council interest in moving ahead with due diligence.

Tom Fliege, who headed the CEO Council group that conducted the study, didn't respond to an email asking for details on how that fundraising has been going.

Also still in the mix is this: Financial backers of the last due diligence effort sued to get their money back — with interest — after the council pulled the plug on the work in 2005. That case is still being resolved, and could bring a hefty cost to the city.

Getting a resolution there "might be part of the discussion," Ardis says, offering that past backers volunteering to write off that lawsuit "would definitely be part of the discussion if we get to that point." (C.K.)

A bit repetitive

Readers may have seen coverage elsewhere among the political chatter about the fact that Gov. Bruce Rauner's new campaign commercial released last week used the same slogan — "Illinois is worth fighting for" — that downstate's only Democrat in Congress, U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos, has used previously.

Pols repurpose slogans all the time — Donald Trump and Ronald Reagan both urged that America be made great again — but you don't always see them crossing parties.

What makes this one more amusing, of course, is that five of the Democrats seeking to replace Rauner stood in front of a lectern with that very slogan during Bustos' recent forum for gubernatorial candidates in Bartonville. (C.K.)

Chris Kaergard (C.K.) covers politics and government. He can be reached at ckaergard@pjstar.com or 686-3255. Follow him on Twitter @ChrisKaergard. Nick Vlahos (N.V.) writes "Nick in the Morning." He can be reached at nvlahos@pjstar.com or 686-3285. Follow him on Twitter @VlahosNick.