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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes_AIRAB_04.26.2004 Minutes of the Meeting of the Airport Advisory Board City of Georgetown, Texas Monday, April 26, 2004 The Airport Advisory Board of the City of Georgetown, Texas, met on Monday , April 26, 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 March 22, 2004, meeting. John Bader: Motion we approve the minutes of March 22, 2004. Chris Cagle: I second the motion. Motion approved 7-0. 3. Airport Manager’s Report: A. March 2004 Monthly Income and Expense Reports Travis McLain: Self Service Avgas price increased 10 ¢ effective 4/01/04 to $2.45 per gallon. In April current average gross margin is .5851 ($2.35) and the average gross margin in March is $0.5455. B. Noise Study Update: Council accepted and approved the Noise Study Compatibility Plan, (7-0) on April 13, 2004. The next step is to forward the Study to TxDOT and the FAA for review, c omments and possible acceptance. Master Plan Update: The PAC (Planning Advisory Committee) met on April 12, 2004 and today. The next meeting will be May 10, 2004. C. Report on Council Actions Travis McLain: Council approved the Airport Advisory Board’s request to move the monthly meetings to the 3rd Monday of each month, beginning in May (May 17, 2004). Mark Dietz: What happened in the Master Plan subcommittee meeting? Don Pfiester: The first meeting with the consultant, some of the points he stated: 1) this airport is one of the busiest airports in Texas 2) 256 based aircraft; 128,000 operations 3) major economic asset to the City 4) due to size, restrictions and runways; the airport is limited in ability to expand 5) not a candidate for major corporate or fractional ownership fleets 6) not a candidate for commercial jet operation 7) not a long-term solution to the Central Texas Aviation problem 8) remain as a reliever airport 9) the city needs to accept the increase in business In regard to the survey: 1) 52% surveyed used the airport for personal use 2) 1% used the airport strictly for business Activity forecasts based on 4 scenarios: (Georgetown Airport with and without a control tower; and with or without the new Central Texas Airport) Note: The three sites picked for the Central Texas Airport are not acceptable, so they will have to start all over. 1) If there were a Central Texas Airport, the estimated number of based aircraft would increase to 283 by 2024; without the Central Texas Airport the esti mated number increase 405 by 2024; 2) Operations would increase from current 128,000 to 141,000 with the CTA; 202,000 without 3) There was little discussion about what is the real capacity of one runway; it is about 220,000 4) The mix of airplanes would not really change with or without a control tower 5) A control tower would not increase the number of jets but by one or two per day or 300 operations per year Discussion about the runway protection zones: 1) Currently there are 18 houses in the North and 7 in the south 2) The east side of the airport has enough space left to be able for expansion up to the 400 planes (potential airplanes can be placed), in other words, there are other things that can be done with the west side, it’s all subject to what the Council might want to do. Talked about aircraft category: 11 and 29 rated BII; then 18 and 36 rated CII. Some discussion about noise study and DNL maps; again in the same categories. Basically no change with a control tower, very little changed proposed. Mark Dietz: The next Master Plan Subcommittee will be May 10, 2004. 4. Citizens Wishing to Address the Board None. 5. Consideration of and possible action to recommend council authorize the Mayor to execute the assignment of the Rex Womble Land Lease to Larry Wood. Travis McLain: Mr. Womble has asked that his land lease at 201-D Hangar Drive be assigned to Mr. Wood. The increase rental rate is consistent with Council ’s storage only rate. Don Pfiester: Mr. Wood, you will just be storing a plane? Larry Wood: (Citizen) Yes. Don Pfiester: How big of a hangar is this? Travis McLain: 50’ x 60’; lots 80’ x 82.5’ Don Pfiester: I move to recommend this assignment, we recommend council to authorize the Mayor to execute the assignment from Rex Womble land l ease to Larry Wood as proposed with the new rates. Arnold Wieder: I second the motion. Motion approved 7-0. 6. Discuss Airport Budget Process. Mark Dietz: I would like to table this for our next meeting. 7. Civil Air Patrol Building & Lease. Travis McLain: The Texas Wing Headquarters have decided to stay in Waco. I have received estimates from Fisher-Hagood on the structural assessment of the building. The first one was $3,000.00, which was high, so I asked them to go back and reconsider; the second one was still high at $1750.00. So I visited with Dave Hall, the city’s Building Official, he’s agreed to do that inspection with one of his structural inspectors, they will try to come out this week. They will try to make a determination as to whether the building is structural sound enough to justify continuing to remodel or does it need to be demolished. Mark Dietz: The same amount of money would be better spent remodeling the building. Travis McLain: The Civil Air Patrol is still working on grants from both congressmen’s office. Mark Dietz: We will put this item on the agenda for next month. Travis McLain: Yes Sir. Arnold Wieder: Would the city do the remodeling? Travis McLain: No, the City will not be doing the remodeling. The Civil Air Patrol is resp onsible for that. We are just trying to help them determine as to whether to justify continuing to remodel. The confusion is that three years ago they had a deal with Del Webb, before Pulte bought out Del Webb, and Del Webb gave them a bunch of trusses. Of course trusses are engineered and designed for certain buildings. The City is concerned that some of these trusses were re -engineered to fit this particular old building and they want to make sure that they have not done something to the integrity of those trusses when they installed them. They want to stay on the side of caution and do not want the roof to come down. 8. Discuss Safety Committee. Mark Dietz: This purpose is to have a continuing safety discussion about things to be done to make awareness of safety issues. Arnold has done some work on this; I will turn this over to you Arnold. Arnold Wieder: We have copies of the draft of the airport safety observation report. We are trying to keep this simple as possible yet capture enough informat ion that would be meaningful for our purposes. The aid on the backside is some of the FAA glossary that they use when they put their statistical handbook data together. Any comments? Chris Cagle: I particularly like the “other operations” section. This gives the person wanting to make a statement a place to put it on paper. What the city or we do with it after that is up to them, but it at least gives them a form to follow. I think it is an excellent form. Don Pfiester: I think it is important to keep it simple. Are there instructions where to turn in the form? Arnold Wieder: It’s not on here. I thought it needs to be available in the Terminal Building and as a download from form the Website. I thought of sending it by mail. Don Pfiester: I do think it needs to have an address or delivery location. Tim Sullivan: Where do you expect the pilots to fill out the form? Right as they come into the Terminal? Arnold Wieder: Say you’re a transient pilot and you notice a problem, you normally go to the counter, and say, “I noticed…”, then you can fill it out right there. We could attach a letter from Travis and send it to all the users of the airport. Tim Sullivan: Why not have a ballot box right there for them to fill out and drop in; then Travis can bring collect them for the meetings. Don Pfiester: I think it also needs to be distributed to the FBO ’s, schools and all pilots in local area. Travis McLain: That maybe an expensive process, but an alternative is to put it on the website. Don Pfiester: Maybe a little write up in the newspaper. Arnold Wieder: Maybe a write up on the community channel. Tim Sullivan: You could just say that the forms are available at the desk in the Terminal and there ’s a box when you fill it out to put it in the box. Howard Fomby: I have three general comments about that: 1) most of the priorities are people coming up with documents but not having a plan for use of the document and the frustration from the user community as to what your going to do with the information. 2) the typical pilot who experiences a problem will not fill out this form unless they almost died; they will complain, go back to their hangar. 3) if you use it from a statistical point, you will probably get the same people flooding the system with their own opinion. I like the document and the general idea, but we need to be careful and certain how we use it. Tim Sullivan: Isn’t the idea to find out how much of a safety problem we have in order to backup the direction we’re going? Howard Fomby: That works as long as the pilot population is committed to participate. Tim Sullivan / Don Pfiester: You’ll never know unless you do something. Howard Fomby: I think some people will use it to report other things. Are we expected to look at it, report on it and supply statistical information to follow up on this or is it just an informational thing that allows us to review it? Tim Sullivan: Basically the idea is to prove that there is a safety situation and then reason to make steps to make the airport safer. Howard Fomby: We need to establish an ongoing Airport Advisory Board subcommittee to review and report back to the board. Tim Sullivan: This is something we’re going to do, not city staff. Arnold Wieder: If someone calls in, Airport staff can fill out a form in those circumstances. Tim Sullivan: I expect Airport staff to only make the form available. John Bader: I like the form, it’s important that we start gathering this information. I would say leave this form at the Terminal Building and 2-3 people on the subcommittee. We do need to start a log to track information. Mark Dietz: We need to make the forms available. Travis, how would get funds to print these? Travis McLain: We need to get Council approval. Arnold Wieder: Motion to adopt the airport safet y observation report; with modification to instructions as to where to deposit or mail the form; and to get these printed as soon as possible. Don Pfiester: I second the motion. I will print the first batch, it is that important to me. Chris Cagle: I would like to add to the motion that there is a time limit of six months response time. Don Pfiester: I second the motion. Tim Sullivan: So are we not presenting this to City Council? Arnold Wieder: We are trying to develop what safety issues are out there, then based on our findings, we should pass the information onto City Council. Howard Fomby: It would be helpful if you put a space for a name and phone number. Mark Dietz: Are you going to bring final draft to the May meeting or make those changes and go with it? Arnold Wieder: I can make the changes for the May 17, 2004 meeting. Tim Sullivan: Motion we table this till the May 17, 2004 meeting. Don Pfiester: I second the motion. Motion approved 7-0. 9. Report on the Aviation Museum. Howard Fomby: We are looking into the City as a resource for the museum at the airport. We are also looking at the acceptance of the Master Plan, before we can proceed. There has been some interest in Taylor and College Station. 10. Discuss meeting with selected Central Texas Airports. Mark Dietz: Last I spoke on this, there was an annual meeting of the Texas airport facility managers. Travis did you have any discussion while you were there? Travis McLain: I talked to one board member from Lago Vista and they were still interested. Mark Dietz: We will leave this on the agenda for next month and I will try to set a date for a meeting. 11. Consideration and Possible Action for setting Agenda Items for the May 17, 200 4, 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. F. Finding a site for the Central Texas Airport near to Georgetown. 12. Adjourn. Tim Sullivan: I move that we adjourn. Howard Fomby: I second the motion. Motion approved 7-0. Submitted by: Travis McLain Airport Director Reviewed by: Chris Cagle Board Secretary