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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes_AIRAB_03.22.2004 Minutes of the Meeting of the Airport Advisory Board City of Georgetown, Texas Monday, March 22, 2004 The Airport Advisory Board of the City of Georgetown, Texas, met on Monday , March 22, 2004. Members Present: Arnold Wieder, Chris Cagle, Don Pfiester, Howard Fomby, John Bader, Mark Dietz, Tim Sullivan Members Absent: None. Staff Present: Travis McLain Minutes Regular Meeting 1. Call to order. Chairman Mark Dietz called the meeting to order at 7:00 P.M. 2. Consideration and Approval of Minutes of February 23, 2004, meeting. Don Pfiester: I have one correction. Page 2, Travis talking, it says “that the FAA excepted, they had excepted”; excepted should be changed to “accepted”. Howard Fomby: Motion we approve the minutes of February 23, 2004, as amended. Don Pfiester: I second the motion. Motion approved 6-0. 3. Elect Board Vice –Chairman and Secretary. Mark Dietz: Let’s first accept nominations for secretary. Don Pfiester: I nominate Chris Cagle for secretary. Tim Sullivan: I second the nomination of Chris Cagle as secretary. Mark Dietz: Nomination accepted by acclamation. All: Yes. Howard Fomby: I would like to nominate Don Pfiester as Vice-Chairman. Tim Sullivan: I second the motion. Mark Dietz: Nomination accepted by acclamation. 4. Airport Manager’s Report: A. February 2004 Monthly Income and Expense Reports Travis McLain: It looks like the airport operations will be operating in the red for awhile, primarily due to increase in the internal service fund payments and the bond payments on the T -Hangars. In 2005, our internal service fund will drop and the bond payments will be less, also. Fuels sales are good. B. Noise Study Update: Council will consider the final Noise Study Compatibility Plan, on Tuesday, April 13, 2004 for possible approval. If approved the Study will be submitted to TxDOT and the FAA for review and possible acceptance. Master Plan Update: The PAC (Planning Advisory Committee) meets on April 12, 2004, at 1:30 P.M., with the consultant. Then the Council will get an update from the consultant at a workshop at 4:00 P.M. on April 12, 2004. Then there will be a Public Information meeting at 6:00 P.M., April 12, 2004 with the consultant, the PAC meeting and the public meeting will be at Fire Station No. 4. B. Report on Council Actions Travis McLain: Council deferred action on the Air Safety subcommittee until the Master Plan is complete. Howard Fomby: I had the opportunity to speak to the Council on behalf of the board. They wanted to make sure 1) the Noise Study was completed. 2) The Master Plan Update completed as well. Don Pfiester: I think we need Safety as a top priority and make a permanent “Safety” agenda item. Tim Sullivan: I think you are right. C. General Information Items None. 5. Citizens Wishing to Address the Board None. 6. Discuss Airport Budget Process. Mark Dietz: Let’s ask Micki Rundell to attend the next meeting and discuss the budget process. If she cannot, we will move it as an agenda item to the next month. 7. Discuss Civil Air Patrol Building & Lease. Travis McLain: Colonel Harrison is here. I have an update; one of the items was to get an engineer to look at the building to make sure it was structurally sound. I met with an engineer from Fisher Haygood, Inc.; he is going to get a proposal to do the work. I have not received it yet. Col. Harrison: (CAP) We’re continuing to get (2) bids from electricians and plumbers. It’s possible that Texas Wing Headquarters would relocate to Georgetown. They have not decided and would build a facility for 3 planes and an office. They want to move closer to Austin. I t is either Temple or Georgetown where they are looking to relocate. If so we may be able to use their facility for the plane and rooms to conduct meetings. They have been talking over a year now. John Bader: How many employees did you say? Col. Harrison: Seven to nine employees; most being clerical. Mark Dietz: What type of aircraft? Col. Harrison: Mostly 172’s and 182’s and a mix of Cherokees. Tim Sullivan: How many more flight operations should we encounter? Col. Harrison: Not a significant increase. Howard Fomby: Will you explain what the Civil Air Patrol does? Col. Harrison: The Civil Air Patrol was born during WWII (the week of Pearl Harbor); it was an effort to use general aviation aircraft as the eyes of the military along the coast primarily loo king for Japanese and German submarines. It actually went out and conducted surveillance and some even dropped bombs on those submarines. After the war, it was incorporated and when the Air Force was formed the Air Force absorbed the CAP, so we are an auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force made up of senior members and cadets. The senior members are responsible for aerospace education and conducting and supervising the cadet program (flying boy scouts). There is an orientation program so that the cadets can fly at Air Force expense, powered gliders and Cessna missions. From search & rescue and disaster preparedness we are constantly on alert with ground and airborne teams to look for downed aircraft, look for fire watch and take digital pictures of floods or f ire lines and then bring down to conduct with local activities. When we have time, we do aerospace education within the community. Mark Dietz: How many cadets do you have in the program, right now? Col. Harrison: 24 cadets and 24 senior members. Actually that’s down from 36/34 from a year ago due to the conditions of the building. John Bader: How often do you meet? Col. Harrison: The cadets meet every Tuesday night. The seniors meet officially every other Tuesday night or several times to fly or practice search & rescue or basic proficiency flying. Chris Cagle: I was in CAP for 22 years out in California and Nevada. Out west, the greatest number of hours flown and the greatest number of discoveries of downed aircraft(s), lost hunters, etc. was done by Civil Air Patrol. At the time we were on active searches, the government helped fund the cost of fuel. Mark Dietz: Council is concerned about increased operations at this airport. I personally think it is a wonderful idea to have Wings stationed here. There are public relation efforts that need to occur through this board and at council. We need to have good presentation to Council by Texas Wing before a decision is made. Space is an issue. 8. Discuss Air Traffic Control Tower Subcommittee. Don Pfiester: I would like to have a continuing safety discussion. Safety is the most important thing and I think we do not promote it enough. John Bader: We need to form a subcommittee with Board, neighbors and concerned citizens. It is a good idea. Tim Sullivan: Safety is primary. The problem is the control tower. We need to prove that a tower will not bring in more noise and planes. We need evidence to support a tower. Chris Cagle: That will be difficult to prove. Don Pfiester: I would like to see if we could set up a program here at the airport (FBO ’s, EAA, people who use this airport a lot) of reporting or a log of “close calls”. Chris Cagle: What about a letter from the Airport Advisory Board recommending that pilots pay attention to a more orderly flow of traffic. Work on the positive rather than the negative. Don Pfiester: Communication is a problem. Fly Friendly was an effort to help. Mark Dietz: Fly Friendly program has not had the affect that we wanted it to have. We need to have this as a regular agenda item to discuss air safety with a subtopic at each meeting. Col. Harrison: Need to get the EAA & CAP discussing this issue at the safety meetings. The CAP could provide documentation of close events. Mark Dietz: We could make forms available for pilots to fill them out. Tim Sullivan: Staff should not be involved. Howard Fomby: Council probably is in favor of a tower. We must complete the Master Plan first, then take up the tower issue. The board and committee needs to study safety. Mark Dietz: I’ve heard that a safety incident report needs to be created. Howard Fomby: The subcommittee needs to define – reporting format, how to collect the information, what is the information collected, what do you do with the information collected. We need to do the homework for the Council. Tim Sullivan: It’s important that we get public approval. We must have all the facts and answers ahead of time. Mark Dietz: My thoughts are that we leave “Air Safety” as a permanent agenda item and to create an incident form. 9. Report on the Aviation Museum. Howard Fomby: I have no report this month. 10. Consideration and Possible Action to request Council authorization to change the Board meeting date to the 3rd Monday of the month. Tim Sullivan: I suggested changing the meeting date to the 3rd Monday of the month to give time to get items to council. We meet tonight, city council meets tomorrow. So anything we have tonight would not come to council for at least two weeks. If we meet the 3rd Monday of the month then would be able to get items discussed before council in a more immediate fashion. Tim Sullivan: Motion to request Council authorization to change the Board meeting dates to the 3rd Monday of the month, but not before the May meeting. Howard Fomby: I second the motion. Motion approved 6-0. Mark Dietz & Tim Sullivan to present this agenda to Council. Unanimous. 11. Discuss meeting with selected Central Texas Airports. Mark Dietz: I send e-mails to the Airport Advisory Boards. It was suggested a meeting in May or June; an evening meeting, not a Saturday. Suggestions were for Wednesday or Thursday. Everyone wanted to know what to talk about; the topic or presentation to involve TxDOT and/or the FAA. We ’ll come back in our April meeting with proposed date. 12. Consideration and Possible Action for setting Agenda Items for the April 26, 2004, meeting. A. Discuss Civil Air Patrol Building. B. Discuss Budget Process. C. Discuss Safety Subcommittee. D. Discuss Meeting Central Texas Airports - Advisory Boards E. Discuss Aviation Museum. 13. Adjourn. Don Pfiester: I move that we adjourn. John Bader: I second the motion. Motion approved 6-0. Submitted by: Travis McLain Airport Director Reviewed by: Tim Sullivan Board Secretary