Lambert Airport director retires, what should new director expect?

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acclimated to the community. You know, I think one of the key pieces of the success that we've been able to have in growing back the airport, growing back our partnerships, obviously the international service, even the ability to recover from the tornado with all the support, is because we had the partnerships in the region with the airlines. And I think that that is going to be a key piece that needs to continue to happen. on the airport in an isolated environment, you really do need to engage the broader community, the business community, obviously the elected officials community, and just work with them on partnering and making sure that everybody is on the same path for where we need to go. So I think that, to me, that would be a critical piece for whoever's coming in to just take that to heart and really get engaged. with the community and with the business organizations, the business leaders, the elected officials. Using that experience you've had, as you just mentioned, working with every elected official and corporate executive in the region closely, you know, stepping aside from airport director and just thinking kind of holistically about, you know, the region, city, county, state of Missouri, east-west gateway. What, there's a lot of civic discussion about, you know, what the region needs to do to attract businesses, to, you know, keep people here. What do you see just as the St. Louis, and again, who's been across the spectrum, what do you think the region needs to do? Well, I do think we need to look forward and not backward. And that's always been somewhat of a struggle that I've had here is people want to remember the past rather than look to where we are and where we can be. And I think that the past is gone. Not that we shouldn't learn from it, but we do have to look forward. And we have a tendency to always want to look backward and say, but we had, but we had. And so I... I think that we really do need to focus on where we're going, not where we've been. And that would be something that I think could be very beneficial as we think about how do we grow this region, how do we grow this airport. Well, thank you not just for today, but for over the years. Thank you, Mike. I appreciate it. That's Michael Calhoun with Rhonda Hamnabrugge on her last day today as Lambert Airport director. History That Doesn't Suck is a legit, heart-hitting American history podcast told through entertaining stories. History That Doesn't Suck, an Odyssey podcast, available wherever you get your podcasts.