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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2006-12-13 Minutes.t MINUTES OF THE FAYETTEVILLE MUNICIPAL AIRPORT MEETING December 13, 2006 • MEMBERS ATTENDING: Bob Nickle, David Hollman, Otto Loewer, Janice Stanesic, Richard Greene MEMBERS ABSENT: Vaughn DeCoster, Dave Bowman STAFF ATTENDING: Ray Boudreaux, James Nicholson, Louise Powers OTHERS ATTENDING: Tim McCarley-new (2007) Airport Board Member, Charlie Heathco- tenant, Dan Wilkins -tenant, Charles Caldwell -tenant; Rick McKinney -tenant, Craig Young -tenant, Frank Sperandeo-tenant, Robert Axsom-tenant, Barry West -tenant, George Scott -tenant, Scott Musgrave -tenant, Kathy Moore-SkyVenture Aviation -tenant, Wayne Jones -McClelland Engineers, Dale Frederick -former Airport Manager, Cherie Boudreaux -citizen, Tyrone Rogers - Government Channel ITEM #1: Welcome and Agenda Review — Chairman Bob Nickle. A. Announcement: Request everyone to tum off all cell phones. B. Comments from the public on items on the agenda, except for "A" under Old Business. None. ITEM #2: Minutes of the November 15, 2006 meeting. A motion to approve the minutes was made by Richard Greene and seconded by David Hollman. The motion carried. • ITEM #3: Receiving of Reports. A. Bob Nickle, Chairman. No report. B. Ray Boudreaux, Director. Ray introduced Tim McCarley, who was selected by the City's Selection Committee to replace Dave Bowman, whose term is ending. Otto Loewer was also recommended to continue on the Board, his term was also expiring. The City Council's vote will make the recommendations official. Dave Bowman was interested in re -applying but delayed filing because his wife is ill. Tim McCarley said he was from eastern Arkansas and that it is good to be here, he did his flight training here at Drake Field in the 1980's, and he works for Morgan Stanley. Director Boudreaux reported the operations have been about normal, Million Air sold 52,000 gallons of fuel last month. The next FAA Safety Seminar will be on February 28`h in the terminal. The PAPI for Runway 34 is finished and waiting to be flight checked by the FAA. Don Hams, FAA Project Manager, has sent a Letter of Acceptance on the Master Plan. Bids are due in tomorrow on the corporate hangar project and we have certified $1.2 million for the project. Work is continuing with an aviation client and we have been discussing financing with the FEDC. Information is going around that a new. aviation business may locate at XNA, looks like aviation may be moving back to NW Arkansas. We have someone from Little Rock interested in the restaurant `with tablecloths'. They have two restaurants, have the resources, and she is a former member of the State Legislature for six years. Presented to Bob Nickle and the Airport Board the "Chamber of Commerce 2006 Business . Impact Award". This can be presented to the Mayor. C. James Nicholson, Financial Coordinator. Said the operations had been down the last two months compared to previous years, but overall ahead. The trend is still upwards. Million Air's goal was to increase the fuel sales by 100,000 gallons, which they had done. Million Air is outselling the 1 AvGas self -serve. The budget has been presented to the City Council. It included the T -hangar rent increase approved by the Board two meetings ago. It also included the rent on the facility previously rented by AATC, which they have now vacated. The City took out the gate projects. We will have to • ask the Council to use part of our reserve fund if the Board wants to pursue the gate project. He reported it was a very bare bones budget. Board discussion followed on the nearing of the end of the Airport's Reserve Fund, at some point the Airport will need to go to the City Council to ask for assistance for Airport funding, few airports support themselves. Chairman Nickle stated Ray has done an outstanding job to generate state grants for projects which will, in turn, bring more revenue to the Airport. James said we had spent 2.4 million, received 10.2 million in grant funds, for every $1.00 spent we received $5.00 grant funding. Director Boudreaux stated the AIP grants now fund 95%, instead of 90%, and then the State contributes 5% grants. D. Louise Powers, T -Hangar Report. Four twin hangars will be vacant at the end of December, with two on the waiting list who are waiting to buy an aircraft. There are two on the single unit hangar list and one is waiting to buy an aircraft and the other is planning on moving to Northwest Arkansas. All storage units are filled. Director Boudreaux said we will benefit from having SkyVenture's here, after training their pilots maybe they will buy an airplane. E. Wayne Jones, Construction Report. The west apron project came in under budget. There is a minor correction required with the Highway striping, the contractor will take care of the problem. The Master Plan was completed yesterday, there were eighteen sheets. A copy will be sent to the Airport to see if anything has been left out, then sent on to the FAA. It includes obstructions which will require cutting trees and topping trees. Nineteen sets of plans were sent out for the new hangars, and believe the prices will be within Ray's estimates. There is more interest than six months ago. F. Maintenance Report. Director Boudreaux related some of the items on the report. Beaver dams had to be removed they were in the safety area. A lot of brush has been cut, repaired a roof leak for U. of A. hangar, replaced all the air filters in the terminal, cleaned all the tile floors in the terminal. • Responding to the question of our guys repairing the FBO tug, the FBO is renting to own, but our guys can respond quickly to prevent a problem. ITEM #4: Old Business. A. Reconsider T -Hangar rent increase. Chairman Nickle said the Board would hear from the public. Frank Sperandeo said most of the pilots are in favor of an increase, but not to the amount of the increase, and would like the Board to reconsider the rent to a more factual amount. Scott Musgrave said in six years renting, this was the first meeting he had attended, the cost of the rent increase will take away from his operations, we need to look at raising the operations. A lot of airports are begging people to come there. Charles Caldwell said with the 2005 increase everybody was okay, but he didn't think the Board should go back beyond 2005 to figure the new rent. He commented three of the tenants hadn't benefited from the purchase of the new lights, maybe they needed special consideration. Craig Young said he would add one thing, he is looking for value received for rent, quoting his hangar door problem and gate problems. Also stated his rent in Texas was twice this amount and before that in California, it was twice again. Rick McKinney said he was speaking for tenant Mike Thomson, who said the rent is quickly approaching the Memphis rental rates. Rick said in twenty years this was the first time he had objected, and was objecting to the amount of the increase, not the amount of dollars. Dan Wilkins wanted to know what services they would lose if the reserve fund goes away? O. Loewer said that while we have money in the bank we can control things, but once the money goes away then all bets are off. Director Boudreaux explained that a lot of time and meetings were spent on making the decision, two Strategic Planning Meetings and three Board Meetings. Part of preparing the Airport's budget is that we have to justify shortfalls to the Council. Chairman Nickle related the rent • had been artifically low for a long time and to view this as a "catch up", if you use the CPI increase, you would never catch up. We invite everybody to come to the meetings, very few ever attend. He stated one of the things we need to do is educate the Council, we had an Economic Impact Study prepared for the Airport showing the impact to the community. O. Loewer explained by keeping the 2 rent lower, you may gain in the short term, but you lose in the long term. R. Green said he is a pilot, and it is expensive to own an airplane and it feels like some of our recreation is being taken away from us, but the message is that it costs more money to operate the Airport than is coming in. We, the • Board, have to be responsible to our bosses, what will we have to show them if we have to go to them for money. They will ask what have you done for yourself, and we can say we have tried to stay current with the Airport's needs. It is unfortunate the hangar rents were so low, then try to bring them up to current market. We could creep the rent up, part this year and part next year. J. Stanesic stated there are vacant hangars, those who utilize the airport buy fuel here. Director Boudreaux said two tenants left because they couldn't get insurance on the junk in their hangar. R. Green commented those are the ones we want to get rid of. Director Boudreaux said most municipal airports are not self sufficient, they are part of the General Fund. This Airport was taken out of the City's General Fund in 1981 and designated as a Revenue Fund in the City's accounting. Bob Nickle made a motion to consider an increase for a one year period, putting small hangars at $145 and twins at $175 for 2007, then at the budget process for 2008, in six months, consider the rent again. The motion was seconded by Otto Loewer. Discussion followed with Chairman Nickle calling for a vote of the tenants in attendance for rent to be at a fixed rate for two years. There were seven voting yes. He then called for a vote for the rate to be for one year. There were no votes. Frank Sperandeo said we'll take the two years at a fixed amount and not risk it being raised again in one year. Chairman Nickle calling for a vote on his motion, recieved no votes for and all votes were against • the motion. Richard Green thanked Frank Sperandeo for his work in getting the tenants out for the meeting, calls, emails, and notes under the hangar doors. Charles Caldwell asked if a note could be put in the invoices for tenants to turn off the hangar lights, to cut down on the electricity costs. Rick McKinney suggested leaving a note who had been in the hangar and why. Charles Heathco said lights were on, and have been for some time, in C-3, D-7, and C-2. I "2,j ,;f Chairman Nickle appointed Vice Chairman Janic." to continue the meeting as he had to leave. Otto Loewer said it was good to do brain sto ing, d asked if there were other things the Board could look at. Dan Wilkins asked about. FAA charging landing fees for general aviation and Director Boudreaux responded the issue is now dead with the new Head of Transportation. Craig Young thanked Ray and the Board for allowing the Symphony Guild to have their Winter Event in the terminal. It brought a lot of people to the airport. He said he was very pleased with the airport in general. Working with tenants makes an airport community. We have maintenance and avionics on the field, we don't want to drive away tenants. He said he works with the Civil Air Patrol in Rogers, but they use all the airports and have an impact on this airport's operations. R. Green said the Board is not raising rent for tenants to go away, we need your help. He asked the tenants to come to the Board meetings. • Meeting was adjoVmcd at 3:20 p.m. t Date