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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2004-08-12 Minutes. MINUTES OF THE AIRPORT BOARD MEETING August 12, 2004 MEMBERS PRESENT: Charles Wallace, Dave Bowman, Bob Nickle, David Hollman, Frank Sperandeo MEMBERS ABSENT: Janice Stanesic STAFF PRESENT: Ray Boudreaux, James Nicholson, Louise Powers OTHERS PRESENT: Judy Hammond -Ark. Air Museum, Terry Collier -Tenant, Rick McKinney -Tenant, Frank Burggraf-Former Airport Board Member and Airport Historian, Chris Cheedle and Scott Brock -Fayetteville Government Channel, Wayne Jones - McClelland Consulting Engineers ITEM #1: Welcome. Chairman Wallace welcomed those attending the meeting. ITEM #2: Agenda Review. C. Wallace explained they wanted the Board Meetings to be an environment where people can express themselves and ask questions. Copies of the agenda will be available in the Airport Administration Office one week ahead of the meeting. At the first of every meeting C. Wallace said he would review the items on the agenda and receive comments on the agenda items, then when the agenda items come before the Board for action they will then vote. A. Review by the Chair. C. Wallace reviewed the items listed on the agenda. B. Comments from the public. Asked for comments, and hearing none moved to the next item on the agenda. ITEM #3: Minutes of the July 8, 2004 Meeting. A motion to approve the minutes was made by Otto Loewer and seconded by Dave Bowman. The motion carried. ITEM #4: Receiving of Reports. A. Charles Wallace, Chairman. The Board held a Strategic Planning Meeting on August 4`h and discussed the need for public relations, talking to our representatives, the people that make the budgets, to give some substance to the economic value of the airport, to the economy of Northwest Arkansas. We talked about how our costs are allocated, fuel price formula, ideas for a newsletter which would be a publication from the Airport Board about the Board members and others around the airport. The newsletter would not be from the airport staff, although we will offer an area for comments from the Airport Director. We could develop an e-mail list and send it electronically and with the bills. • B. Ray Boudreaux, Director. They are pouring the concrete for the Forest Service taxiway. It is 11 inches thick. We have received the grant and can proceed with Taxiway 1 A extension and the connecting Taxiway D. We will apply to the State Aeronautics for their assistance. The contract was awarded to construct T -Hangar H and have issued the Notice to Proceed. They are getting ready for the foundation. The Fourth of July event went well, and we may be asked to host the fireworks again, and if we do we will ask for volunteers, maybe the Board would like to volunteer. Doc helped with the east side security patrol. The airport's annual FAA inspection was conducted in July to recertify our FAA Part 139 Specifications. Next year we will have to decide if we want to continue with the Part 139. The south fence is under repair, but it has been so wet work has been delayed. The permeable concrete bid was awarded and work will start soon. The US Postal Service lease has been signed and they will begin work on the building in September. Said he had attended an Economic Development Conference in Hot Springs. F. Sperandeo asked about the electric in the T -Hangars. R. Boudreaux said it would cost $9,600 to update the lighting for T -Hangar A and $12,000 each for hangars B, C, and D, using one metal halide fixture in each hangar. This work is not in the budget. The steel delivery for the new T -Hangar has been delayed, and hope to have if finished by end of January. We applied for a $50,000 grant from the State Aeronautics for assistance with the T -Hangar. C. James Nicholson, Financial Coordinator. He reviewed the charts from the agenda report. O. Loewer determined from the report that on an average we have six operations per hour over a twelve hour period. The FAA's Benefit Cost Analysis formula for the tower will have us paying 59% of the tower cost, it was at 73%. R. Boudreaux said the FAA conducts the analysis every two years and we did submit additional information to • support possible further reduction in cost. We have not heard back from the FAA. Hot Springs gave up their tower. We need to consider do we really need a tower? The operations here are not counted between the hours of 10 pm and 6 am. Perhaps we can reduce the hours of operations to their busiest hours and reduce the cost of the tower. J. Nicholson stated the fuel sales are ahead of last year. The jet price is up some and the AVGas is going down. Referencing the Financial page, he called attention to the year end projections. We have removed the projected amount for the tower for 2004. The projected year end does include some increases. The fence project will cost $18,000 and we only received $15,110 from FEMA. O. Loewer said depreciation is a real cost, and maintenance. Our reserve fund has allowed the tax payer of the City to not have to spend funds on maintaining the airport. Several Board members commented on newspaper articles talking about the City's audit and the Airport's situation. F. Sperandeo wanted to have a representative from the City Council attend the Airport Board meetings. C. Wallace said we could explore that idea, but the Council has about three nights a week where they attend meetings already. D. Louise Powers, T -Hangar Report. All T -hangar and storage units are rented. The FBO hangar had about five overnights and three regular monthly customers. E. Construction Report. W. Jones reported the contractor is working on the preliminary punch list. The Taxiway A project is moving along. The contractor is APAC Division from Georgia and has done work at the Atlanta airport and others. There will be some dust until the lights are in and some seeding is done. Total project was about 28% complete in July and will be about 60-70% complete by the end of August. After the meeting today we can go over to the T -hangars and look at a metal halide light demonstration as compared to a regular 175 watt fixture. J. Nicholson said the down side 2 is the cost of the bulb, $30.00, but it will last 10 to 15 times longer. We won't have to change the bulbs as often and the consumption of power will be about the same. F. Maintenance Report. F. Sperandeo passed out his maintenance list. R. Boudreaux reviewed the items on the list and gave the status of each one, and explained he had covered other maintenance items in his report. The self -serve fueling facility was discussed. R. Boudreaux said they had not found a 3/+ " hose that is certified. We had lighting strikes at two gates. R. Boudreaux, answering F. Sperandeo, said Jim Bell is doing the maintenance on the doors to the hangars. F. Sperandeo complained that the light poles had not been painted and they had been on his list for three years. R. Boudreaux explained they were still on the Airport's maintenance list. ITEM #5: Old Business. None. ITEM #6: New Business. A. Request from "Friends of the Agnes Stockburger Library, Winslow, Arkansas. R. Boudreaux said they were requesting to have a car show in the parking lot on October 9a'. It is not a home ballgame weekend. This event and previous events and their charges were discussed. O. Loewer said the Airport needs to have a set policy with categories and a check list and all that could be determined at the Strategic Planning Meeting. C. Wallace said the request was tabled by Board consensus until the next meeting. • B. Fuel pricing formula. Discussion followed of the current policy with suggestions to review it quarterly, even weekly. B. Nickle suggested looking at giving Ray more discretion instead of having a formula. C. Wallace stated he felt we should have a formula. O. Loewer said we have become a victim of our own planning, and he liked the idea of a formula, but it is creating problems. He suggested pegging the price on a weekly basis, but not at the time of the purchase and more frequent updates on the pricing. R. Boudreaux explained the Airport receives the prices changes from AVFuel twice a week. He said our JetA fuel price is higher because that is where we put more of our costs. It would be easy to change the price on a weekly basis. Normally we take one load a week. There was discussion of letting the Airport Director be able to adjust the price downwards. O. Loewer said if we could be competitive on the downside, why not also on the highside. C. Wallace said by Airport Board Consensus the Board adopts the fuel pricing formula, but further leave it to staff to adjust downward, when it will improve our competitive edge. C. Information on the Year 2005 Budget. J. Nicholson referred to the new column, "Budget 2005", on the Financial Report, and stated the tentative budget had been compiled and it is being examined by the Budget Department. R. Boudreaux explained some of the budget process, the City holds training classes on preparing the budget, Budget Department sends paperwork to the departments asking if we want to make any changes, we fill out forms, and the he would go before the Budget Department for Budget K, • Discussion and eventually all of the City's Budget will go before the City Council for approval. We need to have everything ready by the middle of next month. J. Nicholson asked for the Board's e-mail addresses to forward additional information. C. Wallace wanted to know if the Board should make suggestions, or calls, to the Council to let them know the economic impact the airport has on Fayetteville and the community. ITEM #7: Other Business. A. Items from the Public. C. Wallace asked the following list be forwarded to him: Security for the eastside, people over the fence on July 4'h, restrooms, and people using the self -serve fueling. F. Burggraf talked about the proposed newsletter, saying people could take ads in it, companies could have give -a -ways, articles associated with the airport, an airport calendar. B. Items from the Airport Board. C. Wallace said Janice had asked about a specific marketing program, something to get information out to corporations nationwide. C. Wallace asked that item be included in his list. Dates for the Strategic Planning Meeting were discussed, September 3'a and August 30'h or 31' . The date would be decided later. R. Boudreaux explained we always send a notice to the press when we have the regular meetings and the Strategic Planning Meeting. Meeting adjourned at 3:45 p.m. Dave 0 M p-tc(-0 Date