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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes_AIRAB_03.16.2009 Minutes of the Meeting of the Airport Advisory Board City of Georgetown, Texas Monday, March 16, 2009 The Airport Advisory Board of the City of Georgetown, Texas, met on Monday , March 16, 2009. Members Present: Daryl Dressler, John Hopper, Katherine Woods, Ken Arnold, Paul Smith, Trey Taparauskas, Van Chandler Members Absent: None Staff Present: Travis McLain Minutes Regular Meeting 1. Call to order. Chairman Smith called the meeting to order at 7:00 P.M. 2. Consideration and possible action to approve the Minutes of February 16, 2009, meeting. John Hopper : I make the motion to approve the minutes of February 16, 2009. Ken Arnold : I second the motion. Motion approved 7-0. 3. Airport Manager’s Report: February 2009 Monthly Income and Expense Reports Travis McLain : The price of Avgas reduced to $3.00 o n 3/06/09. Report on Noise Study and Master Plan Update Travis McLain: No report. Report on Council Actions Travis McLain : Council approved the Draeger assignment. Report on Airport Construction Projects Travis McLain : We’ll have a preconstruction meeting this Friday on the fence relocation and tree removal (eastside of the approach to runway 18). Hopefully they’ll get started early April. Control Tower Radar Display Travis McLain: No report. Improvements to Terminal Drive Travis McLain : TxDOT is preparing the bid documents and technical drawings for the improvements, curbing and street rehab for all the airport streets. 4. Consideration and possible action to recommend that Council approve the request of R.A. General Services, LLC, to extend the deadline for a building permit at 101 and 201 S. Hangar Drive to April 26, 2010. Travis McLain : This is the second request for an extension by R.A. General Services. They requested a 12 month extension eight months ago. The letter from R.A. General Services explains their situation and they have continued to make monthly rental payments in a timely manner. Ken Arnold : Is the climate better to get more funding? Russ Allen : (R.A. General Services Representative) Yes, it’s a matter of a tougher market, sales and customer base are low and we need 50% occupancy to get bank financing. Ken Arnold : Motion that we recommend to Council to the request for extension by R.A. General Services, to extend the deadline for a building permit at 101 and 201 S. Hangar Drive to April 26, 2010. Daryl Dressler: I second the motion. Motion approved 7-0. Motion carried by unanimous vote. 5. Consideration and possible action to recommend that Council authorize staff to request that the FAA change the operating hours of the Control Tower. Shannon Thomas : (Control Tower Manager) Presented a table that showed tower operations per hour (1.3 operations/hour). It is pretty slow between the hours of 9:00 P.M. to 11:00 P.M. and less traffic between 10:00 P.M. to 11:00 P.M. Trey Taparauskas : Would it be your recommendation that we go with 10:00 P.M.? Shannon Thomas : (Control Tower Manager) Yes, 10:00 P.M. wo uld be my recommendation to close the tower (7:00 A.M. to 10:00 P.M.). Katherine Woods: Is this based on last year’s data? Shannon Thomas : (Control Tower Manager) This is based on a floating average from November to October. Trey Taparauskas: Why not go to 9:00 P.M.? Shannon Thomas : (Control Tower Manager) I am not sure what is going to happen in the rebid of the Tower this year. We are staffed for 180,000 operations and we are doing 90,000 operations on the outside. I would like to keep the 10:00 P.M. right now. Trey Taparauskas : There is also a point of view that Georgetown stays open until 10:00 P.M. Shannon Thomas : (Control Tower Manager) Someday, ultimately the most benefit will be from 6:00 A.M. and 9:00 P.M. There is almost always a couple of jets that fire up early morning go get somebody someplace and to have somebody in the tower give them their clearance rather than go through Austin or the UNICOM and take off when there is no one in the tower, wondering who else is out there on the runway. I have a feeling I will be looking at that next year. Trey Taparauskas: Why would you not do that now? Shannon Thomas : (Control Tower Manager) Because I am reluctant to do all the changes at once. Paul Smith : I myself return pretty late at night and there is not much activity going on. Shannon Thomas : (Control Tower Manager) If you all want to entertain 6:00 A.M. to 9:00 P.M., then I will certainly support that. John Hopper : Is there something else that can be done to generate traffic? Shannon Thomas : (Control Tower Manager) No, not unless there’s a football game that’s letting out late (that happens in College Station); but when that happens the tower get a NOTAM and the tower can stay open late. General aviation business is always pretty slow after 9:00 P.M. John Hopper : What would be the impact of cutting the hours on the rest of the operation, like the radar feed? Shannon Thomas : (Control Tower Manager) We do not have the radar feed yet; we sure are looking for it, we need it regardless. To let you all know the criteria for radar feed, it’s 30,000 itinerant operations per year and we are way over that right now. We ran over 80,000 itinerant operations last year. Usually at a general aviation airport with a lot of flight training, you have more touch and goes than arrivals and departures, we call itinerant operations. Last year Georgetown ran slightly more itinerants than touch and goes. We already meet the criteria for the radar feed and we are currently on the list, it just depend s on FAA funding with the project and government support (congressman, senators or representatives). Trey Taparauskas : Are there any other funding impacts that losing a few itinerant counts that we should consider? Shannon Thomas : (Control Tower Manager) Yes. It’s called a BC ratio (cost of benefit ratio) and it’s a formula which includes the amount of people you have, the amount of FAA support you get (i.e. FAA personnel that come from Austin to work on the AWOS system) and they subtract for that. It ’s how much money the government puts in verses how many operations they get out of it. I do not know the BC for Georgetown, but it’s way over what it needs to be for full federal funding. Do you know Travis? Travis McLain: Last time they made a BC count it was 1.33. Shannon Thomas : (Control Tower Manager) Over 1 is what you need (they take the hours your open vs. the operations you run). Ken Arnold : What are the mechanics? How do we change the hours? Shannon Thomas : (Control Tower Manager) Travis makes the request to the company that runs the tower (Robinson Aviation) and presents that we studied the operational scene at Georgetown and we think we need to change the operation at the tower from 7:00 A.M. – 11:00 P.M. to 6:00 A.M. – 9:00 P.M. Van Chandler : Motion that we recommend that Council authorize staff to request that the FAA change the operating hours of the Control Tower. Trey Taparauskas: I second the motion. Motion approved 7-0. 6. Consideration and possible action to recommend that Council approve and authorize an annual Air Show at the Georgetown Municipal Airport. Travis McLain : (Presented comments on the Council meeting of May 14, 2003) John Hopper : I am the one that raised this issue. I talked with Beth Jenkins and she said she woul d be willing to run an air show on an alternate basis to run an air show at Temple. I do not know if this a good deal or not. It takes a lot of work and I have been interested in promoting aviation. I do not know if the FAA allows an F15 at an air show. Travis McLain : You can get waivers from the FAA. That’s the reason the Council approved the motion to allow only “static air shows”. John Hopper : If we want to recommend to City Council that we stay “static” as we are, we do not do anything to enhance aviation to the public. How many accident(s) happened? Travis McLain : There was only one accident. It was an air show participant that took off on RW36 and lost power and crashed into a house on the west side of the runway. It was a vacant house for sale and the pilot survived and no fire. Daryl Dressler: That could of been any day any typical flight situation. Travis McLain: Noise was also an issue. John Hopper : I think we need to review having an air show. Travis McLain : The process if you want anything other than a “static” air show, since Council has already ruled on this, is to get a Council member to sponsor an agenda item to discuss changing it. Trey Taparauskas : My thoughts are that we table this recommendation and spend some time researching economic data, etc. Trey Taparauskas : Motion to table this recommendation that Council approve and authorize an annual air show at the Georgetown Municipal Airport. John Hopper : I second the motion. Motion approved 7-0. 7. Consideration and possible action for setting Agenda Items for the April 20, 2009, meeting. Agenda item(s) for the April 20, 2009 meeting: A. Discuss the Air show. B. Discuss revenue models for the Airport. 8. Adjourn. John Hopper : I make the motion that we adjourn. Van Chandler I second the motion. Motion approved 7-0. Adjourned: 7:33 P.M.