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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2000-06-06 Minutes• • • • MINUTES OF THE AIRPORT BOARD MEETING July 6, 2000 • • MEMBERS ATTENDING: Rick McKinney, Truman Smith, Don Lyall, Frank Burggraf, Charles Wallace STAFF ATTENDING: Alett Little, Dale Frederick, Steve Davis (Budget Manager -City), Brenda Moss, Janet Johns, Tanya Posey, Louise Powers OTHERS ATTENDING: Chris Branam-Ark. Democrat -Gazette; Terry Collier -tenant; Chuck Chadwick -Fayetteville Air Service; Ethan C. Nobles- Moming News; Ken Schossow-Wings Avionics; Matt Wagner- NW Ark. Times; John P. Ross -Ross Executive Aviation McKINNEY: ITEM #1: Call to Order LITTLE: LITTLE: ITEM #2: Minutes of the June 8'h meeting. A motion to approve the minutes was made by Mr. Lyall and seconded by Mr. Smith. The motion carried. ITEM #3: Minutes of the Special Called Meeting on June 21s'. A motion to approve the minutes was made by Mr. Wallace and seconded by Mr. Wallace and seconded by Mr. Lyall. The motion carried. ITEM #4: Old Business a. Update: Repairs to the equipment on the fuel farm leased by Fayetteville Air Service. There was a question of whether the valve was under warranty and Johnny Quinn (McClelland Engineers) volunteered to contact the contractor. He is not available today to give a report. b. Update: Wings Air, Inc. leases. There has been some movement in the process. Said she had talked to all three attorneys involved. There has not been a resolution and hoped the leases would be ready for the August meeting. • 1 • • • • McKINNEY: ITEM #5: New Business LITTLE: MOSS: a. Acceptance of Amendment No. 1 to Task Order No. 1 for the engineering contract with McClelland Engineers. Explained that staff had meet with Barnard Dunkelberg Co. and McClelland Engineers to place Ernest Lancaster Drive and an additional apron on the east side of the airfield. The item will need City Council approval. This project will consider the optimum placement to use the land on the east side, taking into consideration the flood plain, wet lands, and utilities placement. Praised Brenda's work with the FAA on the proposed taxiway on the eastside. Stated that John Knight, Director of the Arkansas' Aeronautics Department had taken a 'want list' of projects from Arkansas' general aviation airports to the FAA. Our projects on the list, if funded by the FAA, would use discretionary funds. McKINNEY: Urged the Airport to move forward as to not lose the funding. A motion to approve the Amendment No. 1 to Task Order No. 1 for the engineering contract with McClelland was made by Mr. Smith and seconded by Mr. Wallace. The motion carried. b. Acceptance of a bid from Crash Rescue Equipment Service for the disposal of excess equipment - a 1985 Oshkosh Crash Rescue Vehicle. A motion to approve the sale of the excess fire truck equipment was made by Mr. Wallace and seconded by Mr. Burggraf. The motion carried. The funds from the sale will go back into the Airport Fund. FREDERICK: Update - Marketing: Commented that he had visited with three companies in Hot Springs, and received a lead on a west coast company. He also visited with a company in Ozark. Said he would be visiting next in Rector, Walnut Ridge and Cave City, Arkansas and he was working on other leads. Another item that he is working on is attracting vacation tours that would depart from Drake Field. LITTLE: The Airport will be placing an ad in the Trade -A -Plane issue they hand out at Oshkosh. The Sooner Flight Academy starts here next week and runs all week. The • • McKINITEY: LITTLE: Young Eagles program was rained out but they are working with the Sooner Flight Academy for provide flights for those children involved with their school. Mike Eckles said he has a tour of 300 children coming through the Museum tomorrow to tour the C130. He has requested volunteers to assist him. Said she had volunteered Janet and she was asking for other volunteers. Responding to Mr. Collier, City Hall handles all telephone listings and there had been several personnel changes at City Hall last year and somehow Drake Field had been left out of some of the listings. She would also look into having listings in the regional phone book. Invited everyone to Dale's retirement party on Tuesday, July 11th, at 3:00 p.m. at City Hall. Answering Mr. McKinney, said she had talked to several aircraft re - manufacturers, and only one aircraft manufacturer, which is very under capitalized from Ohio and is interested in this area. Commented on an article he had read in the AOPA magazine about a company that had relocated to the Golden Eagle Airport in Albuquerque. They said in the article the reason they located there was the availability of the technicians. Said it was very important for the Airport Board to spread the word about the A &P School at the Airport. It can be a positive turning point in conversations with companies to let them know we have labor. It works both ways, its good for the school to provide internships and apprenticeships for Jobs. McKINNEY: Said he only had one other item which will be talked about at the retreat following the meeting, and that was the feasibility of becoming a Board of authority. Responding to Mr. Smith's question about the de -commissioning of the MLS. Said he and Charles had discussed that with the FAA in Fort Worth. Related that Bill McKenzie (Chief Pilot for Tysons) said that of the 26 MLS sites in the United States there are only about five or six of them active. Commented that Dr. McFarland, when he was here working on the ILS, said the military loved these because it is a small package unit as compared to the rayban of the localizer and they could dump it out of the back of a truck or airplane and be set it up in a very small period of time and have a precision approach. Don Harris and Dean Alexander (FAA) said this one is a white elephant. It is made of different components than most of the other ones. • FREDERICK: The FAA said the components from other de -commissioned MLS's were not compatible with this unit. The FAA did recommend contacting the Little Rock Air Force Base. Said he had put in a call to their Flight Ops officer to see if they would be willing to locate one of their temporary units here, to continue their approaches here. Answering Mr. Collier, if they do de -commission the MLS, we would ask the FAA to remove the equipment, because we would have to spend money to remove it. McKINNEY: The DME glideslope is not functional but you can still use it for a localizer- type approach, but that is not what they want. LITTLE: Said Dale had talked to the Air Force in Little Rock, and they said they assured us they would continue to fly the field even if the MLS wasn't here. Said that is a good idea to locate one of their units here, that would help. FREDERICK: The FAA tried to de -commission the MLS two years ago and because of the support to keep it they found the repair parts in Germany to bring it back on line. We had people using it then. We went to the same people and they just aren't using it now. WALLACE: Commented on the visit with the FAA last week. Said he was glad they went as he had learned several things. They had a very congenial meeting and the message he got from them was the FAA would like to be helpful to Drake Field. He didn't think there was any conspiracy about relocating any facility at Drake. BURGGRAF: Said he didn't know what level of people they visited, but they had never had any problem with the working level personnel. He thought the problems were from above as in regard to policies that were directed against us. Said they had received information that probably wouldn't have been shared if they hadn't been working with us Referred to the passing of a law that now airlines can go anywhere they want to go, within reason; that may make a difference now. McKINNEY: Indicated that it was the working level they had visited. Answering Mr. Chadwick, the feedback on the localizer was positive. The FAA is going back and look at a couple of things. The FAA had tried to convince him that we hadn't had the 3/4 mile visibility, but said knew we did as he had flown it. The FAA then pulled some files which showed that on April 8, 1997 the FAA had moved it up to a mile. They are working with us to move it back down. Basically the waiver on the highway is the one remaining factor. The FAA grades the highways by the type of highway, not the traffic flow. We told the FAA of the change in traffic, that I-540 gets most of the semi -trailer traffic, and they were aware of that. There are five things we agreed they would get back to us about, and answer some questions. 1) Why they took it from 3/4 mile to 1 mile? We ascertained that was due to the obstructions and lack of safety clearance at the time. 2) They wanted to look at a more current survey, which Alett says she has, to see if the removal had been done, tops out of trees and possibly the removal of one particular tree; 3) They are going to furnish who and when the visibility changed. We have when, but not who. 4) How the waiver was established on the roadway when the visibility was down to 3/4 mile and the feasibility of using the same process to obtain that waiver. 5) The solution is to get all the charts together and make sure all obstructions have been cleared. They talked about an AMOS database, which is the three dimensional approach database. The FAA was unaware the obstructions had been removed and we can deal with that by filing an official request to get our visibility back. Said he thought we could get it. FREDERICK: Said the FAA should have been working from the AMOS, as they have had it since April of last year. McKINNEY: The FAA does have a few traffic lights controlled by air traffic control towers, but they indicated that was really out of reach for Drake Field. Said the FAA had wanted to look at the feasibility of a 1-A survey, for accuracy, certified by the surveyor. He was not sure if the Airport had one done or not. WALLACE: Said the FAA was very complimentary about Drake Field and what all the City had done in the past and indicated they would work with the Airport. LITTLE: Said the obstructions have been removed except for a tree, #7, and #8, the pole shown on the handout. FREDERICK: The pole is an obstruction light showing the transitional slope. COLLIER: Reported he had heard the tower was closing. FREDERICK: Said the FAA reviews the contract towers annually. LITTLE: Mr. Perkins who is with the FAA over the contract tower program, met with the Airport Board about one year ago, and he is very positive and supportive. MOSS: Said she had talked with Mr. Perkins when she heard the rumor, and he said • if the rumor was true, then he didn't know anything about it. It will be November before the FAA will look at our tower situation. If they decided to close the tower a feasibility study would be done, and then after that it goes to the legislature for their response, then if it is decided to close the tower, the City would be offered the opportunity to participate in cost- sharing. FREDERICK: Said if it does happen, you'll know about it in advance, it won'tjust suddenly close one day. McKINNEY: Meeting adjourned at 1:20 p.m. 1nS 0" FAYETTEVILLE • AIRPORT DEPARTMENT THE CITY OF FAYETTEVILLE. ARKANSAS TO: AIRPORT BOARD MEMBERS THRU: ALETT LITTLE, DIRECTOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT FROM: LOUISE POWERS, AIRPORT SECRETAR DATE: AUGUST 3, 2000 SUBJECT: ATTACHMENT TO THE JULY 6, 2000 AIRPORT BOARD MINUTES The following item will be attached as part of the July 6`h minutes as requested by the Airport Board at the August 3, 2000 Airport Board Meeting: During the Airport Board Retreat (which followed the Airport Board's regularly scheduled meeting on July 6, 2000) it was decided the Airport Board members would invite the City Council members to a joint luncheon meeting. This luncheon meeting is scheduled for Thursday, 12:00 p.m., September 7 at the Fayetteville Municipal Airport terminal. This is the date of the September Airport Board Meeting. The purpose of the joint meeting would be to increase the City Council's awareness of: * Drake Field in the role of a general aviation airport; * The function and services provided by a general aviation airport; * Services provided at Drake Field; * The economic value a general aviation airport provides for a community; * The role of the Airport Board. A video depicting the economic value of Drake Field to the Fayetteville community will be part of the luncheon program 4500 SOUTH SCHOOL AVENUE, SUITE F • AIRPORT TERMINAL BUILDING • FAYETTEVILLE, AR 72701 PHONE 501-718-7640 Ext. 5 • FAX 501-718-7646