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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes_AIRAB_05.22.2003 Minutes of the Meeting of the Airport Advisory Board City of Georgetown, Texas Thursday, May 22, 2003 The Airport Advisory Board of the City of Georgetown, Texas, met on Thursday , May 22, 2003. Members Present: Arnold Wieder, Don Pfiester, Howard Fomby, Mark Dietz, Tim Sullivan Members Absent: John Bader, Jeff Gilbert Staff Present: Travis McLain Minutes Regular Meeting 1. Call to order. Chairman Dietz called the meeting to order at 7:12 P.M. 2. Consideration and Approval of Minutes of April 28, 2003, meeting. One correction, Item 6., Fomby made the motion to form an Open House Subcommittee and appoint Jeff Gilbert as chairman. Motion by Howard Fomby and seconded by Tim Sullivan to approve the minutes of the April 28, 2003, meeting. Motion approved 5-0. 3. Airport Manager’s Report: A. April 2003 Monthly Income and Expense Report Don Pfiester: Travis, what is the status on tiedowns? Travis McLain: The number of rented tiedown spaces has remained fairly constant in recent months. We have vacancies, but very few calls about tiedown spaces. Mark Dietz: Are we price competitive? Travis McLain: Yes. Current rate is $42.00 per month. Don Pfiester: In talking with other folks, is the Appraisal District trying to tax the leases? Travis McLain: Yes, the Appraisal District is taxing the value of the lease. Arnold Wieder: I have personal experience on that, and no that is not worth fighting over. This should be an agenda item. It’s past the protest dates. Travis McLain: All the taxes collect go back to the Airport Fund. It’s an entry on the accounting report, once a year. B. Report on “after-hours” refueling Travis McLain: Because of the early Board meeting, we had (24 days) a total of 26 sales a fter hours. Between 8:30 p.m. and 10:pm, there were 21 sales; between 10-11:a.m. there was 1 sale; between 11:pm -12:am there were 2 sales and between 12-7:00 a.m. there were 2 sales (5:42 a.m. and 5:47 a.m.). Don Pfiester: Have you had any comments from folks or pilots about this? Travis McLain: No sir. Not a one. Tim Sullivan: Can you make a chart out of this to include the numbers and times; for the whole six months, to see if there is a pattern. Travis McLain: I’ll see what I can do. Howard Fomby: I will be glad to help you create a document. C. Report on Noise Study and Master Plan update Travis McLain: Tom’s report went to Council. Council approved the Master Plan Update, not to exceed $30,000.00 without further Council approval. The funding options are the Airport Fund will pay 100%; they chose not to seek the grant because it will delay the process considerably. The RFQ’s will be done by June 28th; Responses due to City by August 15th; Consultant Selection process by September 23rd. The Council did not choose a Consultant Selection Committee at that meeting, they deferred that for a later meeting. Tom had recommended to Council that two Airport Board members and two City staff members be on that committee; Council took no action. Don Pfiester: Do we need to do anything on that? Travis McLain: Not until the RFQ’s go out and we get the responses. Travis McLain: The Noise Study, TxDOT had sent us a bill for the first $35,000.00. D. Report on Aviation Museum Howard Fomby: Not much is happening with that, I had a meeting set up, but it cancelled. We’ll try to work on that some more. It’s on-going we’ll try to get more information and it rolling. Travis McLain: Then we’ll carry that over to next month. E. Report on the “Texas Mission of Mercy” Howard Fomby: I’ve had meetings with the Fire Marshal and Carol Woods. I think there are going with old Wal-Mart or Gibsons because they need the parking and easier to find. At this point, there is no on-going interest in using the Airport. F. General Information Items Travis McLain: Just an update on the budget process. The airport will not have any projects in 2004. Everything we’re going to do will start this year, such as: 1. Rehab the 8-foot game fence 2. Rehab Runway 11-29 3. Rehab Taxiway B & D 4. Rehab Ramps to Hangars B & C 5. Reconstruct Airport Streets (FAA Entitlement Grant & City) 6. Install Security Cameras The Fly Friendly recommendations will be presented before the Council on Tuesday, May 27, 2003. The last council meeting, council approved Mr. Dison’s lease request for shade hangars (20-year lease with 10-year option). We started the spring aircraft operation count on Runway 18,36 and 11-29 on June 7, 2003. Tim Sullivan: Where do the signs stand? Travis McLain: They are part of the same project as the security cameras. Tim Sullivan: How about the increased lighting? Travis McLain: I’m working with the Electric Department on that. Mark Dietz: What is your schedule on that? Travis McLain: We have to have completed by September 30th, because of the ramp program. Mark Dietz: So we should see it in place by the later part of December? Travis McLain: Yes. Howard Fomby: One item that came up before council was the Simmons proposal. Can you update us on what Mr. Simmons is asking for? Travis McLain: The same deal that Mr. Gantt, Banner and A.S.M. have that are lease amendments that were done in 1990, when we built the jet fuel facility. Council in exchange for Mr. Gantt & Mr. Stanton for moving their above ground tanks and contributing $10,000 each for a total of $30,000 from the three; to pay for the jet fuel facility. Council amended their lease and gave them the right to buy jet fuel from the City at our cost plus the fuel flowage fee, which right now is .10 per gallon. The other FBO’s pay fuel flowage fee plus the .15 margin for maintenance and profit for the City to run the jet fuel facility. Mr. Simmons wanted the same deals those guys got. He offered to pay with the inflation adjustment to the $10,000, which c ame to $14,800 so he could buy .10 per gallon. Council turned him down and said No. The ball is in Mr. Simmons court now as to whether he intends to do that or not. Howard Fomby: Have you communicated to him that the expressive intent of the Advisory Bo ard is to increase fuel flowage fees so that if he tries to do that, it won’t be profitable? Travis McLain: I recommended that before he spend any money, that he research how easy it is for council to increase the fuel flowage fee. I have not heard from him since the council meeting. Don Pfiester: I think the wrong avenue was used here. He went directly to council instead of coming through us. I really think it‘s staff’s fault. Staff should have referred him back to us, to talk to the airport board. We need to get staff to do that type of thing on actions that are being referred to council. Mark Dietz: Anything more on the manager’s report. OK. As we start the discussion items, for those of you that have not been here before, what we do is we allow yo u to speak to any agenda item for which you have signed up for with a 3-minute limitation. If you intend to speak for any item other than, item 8, you need to sign the sign in sheet for those items. I will introduce the discussion item and the board will deliberate and discuss but no additional input from the audience, if you did not sign in for that item. 4. Discuss the Airport Master Plan Update. Travis McLain: No additional information. 5. Report from the “Airport Open House” Subcommittee. Don Dison: (Citizen) I have an aviation maintenance business on the airport, and I sit on the board of directors of the Georgetown Aviation Alliance. I come to you tonight, representing the Georgetown Aviation Alliance; we had a general members meeting last week a nd this item was discussed. The GAA and it’s 130 members are enthusiastic about the “open house” idea and have a lot of support and volunteers lined up to do whatever the airport advisory board wants us to do and are willing to participate in any way. One idea that came up, somewhere on the airport to mark off the distance showing the distance of the original Wright Brothers first flight was. Mark Dietz: Do we have a chair to talk on this tonight? Tim Sullivan: I have a question, did they suggest a possible date? Don Dison: They were thinking about in the Fall, because of the heat and vacations in the summer. Probably the first possible date would be in September. Arnold Wieder: Was this going to be held over the weekend? Don Dison: This is the airport advisory board ’s item, we’re just are ready to participate and support in any way we can. Maybe a Saturday, where each business at the airport, could open their doors, inviting the public to come in and see what we do as well as eac h aircraft tenant can have his doors open to see how he uses his aircraft for recreation, business, or pleasure. I have not talked specifically to the EAA but they want to show the aircraft. Arnold Weider: Travis, have we ever had field trips, from schools come out? Travis McLain: Yes sir; all the time. Don Dison: In the past, I have had an average of one field trip a month, as well as participating in the career day program. Mark Dietz: Howard is this your sub-committee? Howard Fomby: No, this Jeff Gilbert is the chairman. Don Pfiester: Taylor Airport is rededicating their new facilities. They have all kinds of neat things: spot landing contest, flour bomb dropping contest, burgers, and open house. I have another flyer, Castroville is going a little farther and doing an aviation safety program involving the FAA. Maybe we ought to think about it being more than a one-day program. Are you opposed to that? Don Dison: No. I think the GAA envisioned that this was more a focus on opening up the airport and inviting non-pilots, non-aviation people to showcase the airport and facilities. We envisioned it from a public education standpoint; certainly the pilots would like to have some additional activities. Don Pfiester: I’m just thinking about something that would help attract people, like seeing airplanes flying and giving airplane rides, etc. Mark Dietz: Our minutes say that Howard is Chairman, we need to make that correction. Reality is that this summer will pass quickly and we need to identify a date. Tim Sullivan: Has there been committee names? Mark Dietz: The committee had been identified, and approved by council, those organizations need to be notified. I will call Jeff that this gets off the ground. 6. Consideration and possible action to recommend that Council request FAA to change the traffic pattern on runway 29 from left hand to right hand traffic as a noise mitigation measure. Don Pfiester: Last month we talked about doing this. We posted it in order to talk to instructors on the field. I asked Travis to come up with some kind of drawing, (mark schools on big map). I talked with 6-10 instructors. Nobody has a problem with this. Looking at this as a perspective of safety and noise issue, we should do this. The main problem is getting the w ord out to everyone, but the personnel on the radio can help with this. ????: You mentioned the master plan, is the traffic pattern part of the master plan discussion, in any way shape or form? Travis McLain: No. It just talks about the existing traffic pattern. It does not mention possible or recommended changes. Don Pfiester: I move that we recommend to Council that Council request FAA to change the traffic pattern on runway 29 from left hand to right hand traffic as a noise mitigation and safety measure. Howard Fomby: Second the motion. Motion approved 5-0. 7. Consideration and possible action to develop an Airport Advisory Board Mission Statement. Mark Dietz: The mission statement comes from the purpose section of the by-laws. If you looked at our by-laws, you realize there are not much of substance in the by-laws, it’s primarily procedural. Only in the first section that the bylaws indicate any duties asso ciated with our position and what this board will do. Our subcommittee looked at this section first, Section 1.2, but then thereafter had discussion as to how we function as a body and what we need to do to make are function effective with council and the community. So based on those discussions, we came back into our purpose. One of the things we wanted to do was make sure our purpose was neutral, not advancing the interest of the community over the aviation industry or vise versa. We have copies available of the new statement. If any of you have any thoughts or changes after you read it, we think this is the first step in going forward and making a better use of this board ’s capabilities and time. Our goal would be to recommend to council that the mi ssion statement/purpose be amended to include this. Howard Fomby: Some of the functional changes we made were to insert comments about leases, to remove references to air transportation center and to aviation industry, and to change aviation industry to “general aviation community”. Industry is just a subset of the community and our interest is really serving the needs of the entire community. The original statement did not have anything in it concerning our function as a forum for citizen involvement, it should. Other than that, cleaning up all unnecessary clauses and phrases. Don Pfiester: Looks good to me, it’s straight forward and what we do. Tim Sullivan: I move that we accept the change of Purpose, Section 1.2 in the Airport Advisory by-laws, Article one. Howard Fomby: I second the motion. Motion approved 5-0. Mark Dietz: One of the things we had a problem with was making sure our voices are heard and what this body does has a meaning for the council. In order to do that, Howard put together some roles and responsibility documents. Howard Fomby: As far as these are concerned, we do not have to take action on these tonight. There are some general things we have been discussing as a group, and at the Farley Snell group, about clearly defining the roles and responsibilities, the authority and the procedure of this group. I tried to put things on paper we could use as starting points and the darkened areas are comments, which are positive. We would like to possibly continue the subcommittee and look a t these things with input from the community, board and council. In looking at this, the roles and responsibilities are trying to come up with specific things that the board is supposed to do. I could not find any documents that stated what is suppose to come before us, like the Simmons issue, there is no clear recommendation to staff or to us as to how that process works. On authority, a document was passed around to council that suggested we were an angry board and trying to exceed our authority. I sent an email to council telling them that we are only an advisory oversight board in the process and not asking for any authority beyond that. At the same time, I think it’s important that a process be defined, when things come through this board, so that citizens have an opportunity to participate in policy decisions, so that things get looked at more carefully by people who have expertise, before they get dumped into council’s lap. In the next pages, I put in a recommendation for lease procedures and trying to look at what happens with planning and zoning; where we have an extended process, and step by step to understand what we are approving with the interest of the community and master plan. Finally, lease perimeters, from what I understand the existing lease perimeters are arbitrary in the time frame, the type of investment some makes verses the amount of land. This is something we will not discuss in this subcommittee but maybe in the future with another subcommittee. Mark Dietz: My thought were to present this and bring it back to the Board in June. The Airport Rules and Regulations are outdated and should be updated, revised and corrected. We would have to amend the ordinances. The city attorney, Tom Yantis and Mr. Snell need to be involved about these issues. Let’s try to pick a date to work for everyone and posting if need be. Howard Fomby: Also to make sure the Century Plan statements are consistent with the recommendations. 8. Citizens Wishing to Address the Board. Mark Dietz: Chuck Bolson. Chuck Bolson: (Citizen) My name is Chuck Bolson, I live a 436 Champions Drive, in Berry Creek. I am representative of the Berry Creek Neighborhood Association. Basically, what the BCNA board has done through the years, has been super concerned about sound and safety at the airport, therefore has developed an airport policy statement, which I have given everybody. We, as a neighborhood association have the same concerns that you do about safety at the airport as well as the sound. Noise control is the first item; our hope is that the 65 DNL contour will not extend beyond the airport property. Basically, if we can get the noise confined to the airport, everybody will be happy. I am not a pilot, just a concerned citizen. Again, our concern for safety is that you all as an advisory board can persuade council to install some sort of a manned airport control. The financing issues of the airport, we would like to see the airport fully self supporting and not involved in any federal grants which ties your hands as a board and in certain ways that are not in everyone’s best interest. We hope that your ability to make recommendations to the council gets to be greater and greater and not less and less. Whatever we can do as a board at Berry Creek Neighborhood Association to assist you in obtaining those goals, we’d be happy to do. Mark Dietz: That’s great. Chuck Bolson: I thank you for your time. If there’s a way that formally airport policy statement can be a part of something that you can present to council, we’d like to see that happen, certainly with amendments. We’re here to help you any way we can. Don Pfiester: We encourage that anyone that has a problem, come here and not go directly to council. Mark Dietz: I will go farther and recommend you all elect a liaison to come to the airport advisory meetings and report back to the Berry Creek Neighborhood Association. We certainly invite you. Chuck Bolson: That’s why I am here, word was that you were concerned that we do not come. Howard Fomby: I would suggest or offer is that at any of your meetings, if you would like to invite any of us, to sit down with your board and talk about the constraints to talk about the same issues. Mark Dietz: We appreciate you coming tonight and your hard work. 9. Consideration and Possible Action on Agenda Items for the June 30, 2003, meeting. June Agenda Items: A. Airport Open House B. Board Mission Statement C. Council to Direct Staff on Agenda Items Don Dison: Would the board be interest in the status of projects at the Airport? Mark Dietz: Let’s add this to the Manager’s report, the Status of Airport Projects. 10. Adjourn. Howard Fomby: I move we adjourn. Don Pfiester: Second. Motion approved 5-0. Submitted by: Travis McLain Airport Director Reviewed by: Tim Sullivan Board Secretary