Cape Girardeau Regional Airport manager Greg Chenoweth announced his resignation Monday, leaving the city searching for three key employees.

Former police chief Howard "Butch" Boyd Jr. took a security job at Southeast Missouri Hospital in August, and former fire chief Robert Ridgeway left for the Gastonia, N.C., Fire Department in July.

Chenoweth's last day will be in early December. He accepted a job managing the airport in Chandler, Ariz., a Phoenix suburb. Chenoweth said that city made him an offer he couldn't refuse.

"I saw this job in a trade magazine and thought I'd throw my hat in the ring," he said. "The top end of the pay scale is twice what I'm making now. Chandler is one of the fastest growing communities in the country, and I'm looking forward to being a part of that."

Chenoweth came to Cape Girardeau in 1994, faced with an airport in transition. There was a new fixed-base operator, some federal funds were being pulled and a drive was on to market the airport and boost operations.

Airport Advisory Board chairman J. Fred Waltz said Chenoweth was able to accomplish some important goals during his time in Cape Girardeau. He helped secure more than $2.3 million in grant funding to finance airport improvements, including ramp expansion, taxiway construction and lighting renovation.

Chenoweth drew some criticism from Airport Advisory Board members for what they believed was a failure to market the airport, but Waltz said he was content with Chenoweth's work.

"There was no dissatisfaction on our part," he said. "He was offered a better job and took it."

Waltz said he particularly appreciated Chenoweth's success in getting TWE, the commuter airline serving Cape Girardeau, to drop its rates. As of Sept. 20, TWE dropped its round-trip, 21-day advance notice fare to St. Louis by 88 percent.

Chenoweth said TWE's next step should be to increase flight frequency, and he has been helping the company find ways to do so.

He will walk into a much different situation in Chandler, a city of 145,000. Bryan Patterson, Chandler's assistant public works director for transportation, said the population is growing by about 1,000 a month.

Chandler's airport has about 150,000 take-offs and landings each year, but Patterson said he felt Chenoweth was up to the job.

"He had a really broad and diverse managerial background and experience in a variety of areas," he said. "We were looking for a personable manager, one who could develop good working relationships with the fixed-base operator, the tenants and the elected officials."

Cape Girardeau City Manager Michael Miller said the search for a new airport manager will begin immediately.