HomeMy WebLinkAbout2003-06-12 MinutesMINUTES OF THE AIRPORT BOARD MEETING
June 12, 2003
MEMBERS PRESENT: Charles Wallace, Rick McKinney, Frank Sperandeo, Mike
Andrews, Dave Bowman, Otto Loewer, Bob Nickle
STAFF PRESENT: Ray Boudreaux, James Nicholson, Louise Powers
OTHERS PRESENT: Dave Hollman-Flying Investments, John P. Ross -Ross Executive
Aviation, Inc., Wayne Jones -McClelland Consulting Engineers, Judy .Hammond -
Arkansas Air Museum, Jim Hillibrand-tenant
ITEM #1: Welcome, Chairman Charles Wallace. Welcomed everyone attending the
meeting.
ITEM #2: Minutes of the Mav 8, 2003 meeting.
A motion to approve the minutes was made by Frank Sperandeo and
seconded by Dave Bowman. The motion carried.
ITEM #3: Minutes of the May 12, 2003 meeting.
A motion to approve the minutes was made by Rick McKinney and
seconded by Dave Bowman. The motion carried.
ITEM #4: Receiving of Reports.
A. Charles Wallace, Chairman. Said he would like to give his time to Judy
Hammond to speak about AIRFEST 2003.
B. Judy Hammond, Arkansas Air Museum Director, AIRFEST 2003
briefing: Explained that AIRFEST will be on June 14th and 15`h and will be very
different and exciting than the AIRFEST's m the past. There will be lots of new
things and new acts, flying acts and static displays. This is the 100t Year of
Powered Flight. She displayed the AIRFEST tee shirt, calling attention to the
runway, which is actually the runway at Drake Field. Gates open at 10:00 and
tickets are $7 for adults, $3 for children 6 throughl2, and children under 6 get in
free. There will also be a new feature, carnival rides, with a 60 ft.. ferris wheel.
Another addition will be the Tired Iron of Northwest Arkansas, which displays
antique tractors and motors. There will be Hummers and Mac trucks on display,
and food vendors.
C. Ray Boudreaux, Director. AIRFEST is a great promotional opportunity.
Friday is Media Day. This year is a no -kidding air show. Bring lawn chairs.
Staff has been working on hard on getting the state grants closed to meet the
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State's deadline on the corporate ramp and FBO hangar projects. We are working
on getting a sidewalk out front. We have a lot of children walking down the
highway to school Flying Investments and the Ozark Military Museum, as part of
their hangar projects, put in money in the City's sidewalk fund. We are checking
to see if the airport placed monies in that fund. C. Wallace and R. McKinney
both thought the airport had put about $50,000 to $100,000 in the City's sidewalk
fund. R. Boudreaux said the sidewalks have to be.6 ft wide and the cost is about
$23.00 running ft. The U. of A. has signed their new hangar lease and work is
progressing on the design of the hangar. The FAA hopes to have the PAPI
installed by June. .Speaking of the self -fueling operation, we have talked with
several contractors. The project can be accomplished by bidding out a packaged
deal, which is costly, or by building it in parts. There should be 50% participation
from the State Aeronautics. The estimated total cost is $50,000. We can't apply
for any State grants until we have closed out our current grants, and some are at
lease one year old. The self -fueling project should be ready for the August
Airport Board Meeting. There are two sites we have in mind: south of the Pilots
Briefing Room, and north of the fire station. We can get power to either location.
D. James Nicholson., Financial Coordinator. The FBO sales are 5% below
average. Fuel prices went down in April and are going back up now, so we will
be looking at some fuel prices increases, Weather was bad during May. We had
good based customer sales, but itinerate sales were down. May sales last year
were down. D. Holliman stated his fuel usage had been down in May, and that
July should be a good month, because we won't be able to fly in August, the Feds
have shut us down in August. J. Nicholson related the financial projections for
the year have not been as good as we had hoped. B. Nickle asked if the Board
should revise its expectations. C. Wallace said this was a concern to address. The
expenses and deficit are growing along together. We need to look at doing things
in a different way. We don't want to raise prices and loose our advantage. F.
Sperandeo suggested the airport needs to market more and come up with a
strategy to hold onto the one million. He suggested to come up with a marketing
plan and also have staff or Board members go out as missionaries to national
conventions, such as GAMI in Los Angeles. The airport needs to market to
corporations to encourage them to land here. C. Wallace said the airport doesn't
have a lot to sell, but this is the day of networking, it involves partnering up with
research, to do something that hasn't been done before, but is compatible with
aviation. R. Boudreaux answering Board questions, said we can last another four
years and hold money in the bank, if we don't build any new buildings, any new
capital projects. He suggested another Strategic Planning Meeting. He told of
two separate inquires made about operating a 135 operation and a 121 operation
at the airport. We have the facilities to support them. Answering Mr. Sperandeo,
R. Boudreaux said we did not respond to Boeing looking for a location to expand,
because we didn't qualify for their needs. O. Loewer said we need to look at what
has created more activity. Does things happening at the University cause
operations to go up, or other economic endeavors cause the ops to go up? He
commented that Ray, Bill Ramsey and he had met and had some ideas on some
partnerships, some ideas that will happen in the next six months and some things
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that may take a few years. He thanked staff for providing the charts, because now
the Board has a better understanding of where we are. F. Sperandeo suggested to
the viewing audience if they had an idea that would create revenue to write a
letter to Ray, or make a phone call. B. Nickle asked if it was appropriate to revise
the budget to show we are trying to meet the budget? D. Bowman stated he had
been asked to do some presentations on aviation which shows a continued interest
in aviation. R. Boudreaux suggested the next Strategic Planning Meeting be an
afternoon meeting, as noon meetings didn't allow enough time.
E. Louise Powers, T -Hangar Report. Stated all the T -Hangars are rented and
all of the T -Hangar Storage Units that are rentable are rented. There is a waiting
list with about five or six names on each list, for the twin and single engine units.
We have had about fifteen planes use the FBO Hangar, most were for overnight, a
few were for two nights, and one was for three nights. The U. of A. is also using
the hangar and we have two planes owned by the same person using the hangar.
He is waiting for T -Hangar space. R. Boudreaux reported the airport has bought a
second Unicom and it has been placed in Louise's office. Now if someone calls
Fayetteville Unicom and the FBO personnel are out fueling, the Unicom can be
answered, and the call won't be missed.
F. Construction Report, Wayne Jones. Reported the corporate ramp and FAO
Hangar project has a few items to complete before closing it out. There were four
state grants on the apron and one state grant on the FBO Hangar. Said he had
started to work on the U. of A. hangar. The Taxiway/Runway project should be
completed in early July. Plans are about 90% complete on Taxiway A extension
for the Forest Service. We have a meeting scheduled for next week with them.
R. Boudreaux complimented Wayne for all his hard work, saying we have pushed
him hard for the last few weeks.
G. Maintenance Report, Ray Boudreaux. This month staff has been putting
out fires all over the airport, lots of projects. We are getting bids on roof repairs
for some of the T -Hangars, the terminal building, the Aviation Tech's second
building, and the AMP maintenance hangar. We have installed a new taller fence
around the fuel farm. Someone called the Mayor's office saying it looked like
someone could jump over the 4 ft. fence. We have been getting the grounds ready
for AIRFEST, mowing, edging, and planting flowers in flowerbeds.
ITEM #5: Old Business. None.
ITEM #6: New Business.
A. Airport's Capital Improvement Project (CIP) list for the City. C. Wallace said the
Board would discuss the CIP projects at the Strategic Planning Meeting.
ITEM #7: Other Business.
A. Items from the Airport Board. C. Wallace asked that the following items be
discussed at the Strategic Planning Meeting: CIP planning and concert compatibility.
B. Items from the Public. C. Wallace, answering Mr. Hillibrand, said yes, the airport is
putting in a self -serve fueling station, it is in the planning stages now. For the project to
work, the price of fuel will need to be competitive. F. Sperandeo suggested having a
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meeting of just the airport tenants and airport management. R. Boudreaux stated the
airport will be having another cook -out for the tenants this summer. M. Andrews
suggested a having a tenant meeting before the cookout. R. Boudreaux mentioned
AJRFEST's layout of aircraft and vendors will be set up differently than in previous
years. D. Bowman commented the P51 pilot would be speaking to aviator students and
civil air patrol. The Young Eagles event will be held on July 19'h at Drake Field Airport
and on August 16t11 at the Rogers Airport.
Meeting adjourned at 3:10 p.m.
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