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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2013-01-10 MinutesFAYETTEVILLE EXECUTIVE AIRPORT BOARD MINUTES January 10, 2013 MEMBERS PRESENT: Bob Nickle, Mike Gibbs, Joshua Mahony, Bill Corley, Rick Bailey, Ken Haxel MEMBERS ABSENT: Marty Burggraf OTHERS PRESENT: Wayne Jones -McClelland Engineers; Warren Jones -Arkansas Air and Military Museum; Tyrone Rogers -City's Government Channel; Terry Gulley -Director of City's Transportation Dept.; Dave Powell -Summit Aviation; Brandon Henry -Summit Aviation; Craig Young -tenant; Joel Walsh -NW Arkansas Times; Mike Bowman-FYV tower; Peter Mastroianni- Million Air Fayetteville; John Hamilton -tenant; Taylor Scott -Fly Arkansas; Ryan Scott -Fly Arkansas; Charlie Caldwell -tenant; David Floyd; Russ Smith -tenant ITEM #1: Welcome. Chairman Nickle. Extended a welcome to new administrative assistant, Lauren Treat. ITEM: #2: Election of officers. Rick Bailey nominated Bob Nickle as Chairman, Mike Gibbs as Vice Chairman, and Josh Mahony as Secretary. A motion to approve the nominated officers was made by Rick Bailey. Ken Haxel seconded. Motion passes. A. Chairman. Board elected Bob Nickle. This will be his last year as Chairman. B. Vice Chairman. Board elected Mike Gibbs. C. Secretary. Board elected Josh Mahony. ITEM #3: Approval of the Airport Board Minutes of the December 13, 2012 meeting. A motion to approve the minutes was made by Rick Bailey, and seconded by Josh Mahony. The motion carried. ITEM #3: Receiving of Reports. A. Director Boudreaux, Aviation Director. Reported Drake Field is number three in operations the state behind the Little Rock airport and XNA. Fuel sales are up 6% for Million Air. He commended them for growing fuel sales. No grant has been given yet for Nflight Technology by the AAOA due to low funds. AAOA will allow Nflight Technology to re -bid once there are sufficient funds, though this date is still unknown. The project may be presented to the commission in the next two or three months. VOR checkpoint has been certified. Airport expects to see more activity from the Forest Service in 2013. No more P2's; they are purchasing BA146 bombers which should be able to operate out of this airport efficiently. Forest Service will begin to base some aircraft here in the first or second quarter. B. Financial Coordinator James Nicholson, Budget Report. Reported the increase in military operations which made up about 20% on average of the operations at the airport. Military operations accounted for about 19% of the FBO's fuel sales this month. There has not been much change in fuel prices this month. They are fairly stable. for I the moment. Million Air's price is still significantly higher than most of the other local airports. Drake is a little below the line in revenuelexpenses in 2012 but a few things have not been posted yet. A few revenues are still missing from the FBO. The finally tally will be presented at the February board meeting. If payments were received on time, the airport would have broken even for the year. Since the money was not received, the report shows Drake a little below the line for 2012. Director Boudreaux commended Nicholson for having an iron fist on the money bag and saving the airport five or six thousand dollars. Nicholson said thanks but everyone has helped cut costs, including Dennis Singleton from airport maintenance. Nicholson said Boudreaux graciously reduced his salary which has helped as well. Nickle commended Nicholson for his tremendous accomplishment at coming in right at break even. Hangar occupancy is alto very good; Nickle is looking forward to a good year. Mike Gibbs seconded that and also commended Nicholson. C. Administrative Assistant, Lauren Treat, T-Hangar Report. All T-Hangars are full. We have had to ask one storage tenant to move out to make space for an aircraft. There are 9 hangars currently rented for storage. Hopefully we will get them all filled with aircraft. D. Wayne Jones, McClelland Engineers, Construction Report. Reported on the progress in the pavement rejuvenation project. Part of the process is to core the asphalt to see how well the rejuvenation mixture mixes into the asphalt. Initial review is that it looks consistent throughout the entire inch and a half. However, there has not been a specific analysis of the asphalt yet. Boudreaux said that the crack seal will occur soon. There are not many cracks right now; however they need to be sealed before they get bad. The cracks can only be sealed after the rejuvenator is down. The runway will not have to be closed during this process because it is so cold right now that it should seal quickly. E. Museum Executive Director Warren Jones, Museum Report. Reported on a missing cocktail table. Last month it was mentioned that there was a deal made with Bikes, Blues and Barbeque and the Commerative Air Force to hold "Bikes, Blues, Barbeque and Bombers" and everyone is very excited about it. Warren predicts this could be the greatest year the museum has ever had. Additionally, the Air Race Classic will occur during the third week of June. The racers are making a 28 hundred mile trip through several states and the finish line is in Fayetteville, AR. Warren also explained how the museum's fire suppression system had recently been down for a week due to frozen pipes. The system has failed repeatedly. Warren commended the fire department for their assistance during these issues. Any kind of condensation that gets into the pipes can accumulate and freeze. This will blow the pipe right off the wall. Warren said this is the kind of thing that causes him to lose sleep at night. There are too many valuable planes at the museum to take this risk. The museum might request money from the City in the future to help repair this system (note: the City owns the building). Warren recognizes money has been very tight for the City lately. He also noted that extra volunteers will be required for both the race and BBBQ&B this year. ITEM #4: Old Business. A. Update: Million Air contract. Director Boudreaux said that this is an item of old business to let the board know that no permanent action or decision has been made since the letter of termination sent in November. There are still missing payments for fees as far back as October and Million Air hasn't paid rent for November, December, or January. Boudreaux mentioned he is aware Million Air will not be 2 able to make a payment until the end of the quarter, so this is not a surprise. However, it is unfortunate that this makes the airport's budget look below the line. Mike Gibbs asked that even though a permanent action has not been made yet, is the airport still moving towards the goal? Boudreaux said yes, job descriptions are being written as if it is going to happen but the airport cannot spend any money until the City Council action takes place. Nickle pointed out that even if the board recommends that the City be the FBO again, the City Council will ultimately make the decision. Boudreaux said as soon as news of this situation came out, there have multiple requests from various businesses to be FBO. Nickle extended his appreciation to these entities for their interest. He welcomed the parties present to address the board before the board decided on their recommendation; called on Taylor Scott first. Taylor Scott of Fly Arkansas, LLC said he operates two privately held FBO's and has a large background working with military. Josh Mahony asked how long he has been in the business and where he started, as well as if he has a charter certificate. Bill Corley asked if Scott intends to open a flight school at Drake Field. Scott said he has been in business six years and he started in Midway. Scott does not intend to open a flight school initially since he has a school in Harrison. He also said he is working on getting his charter certificate and currently has six different citations throughout Arkansas. Nickle thanked Scott and invited Dave Powell of Summit Aviation to the stand. Powell said because he spoke at the last meeting, he would not elaborate much. He welcomed questions but there were no questions asked. Pete Mastroianni of Million Air said he knows everyone wants a resolution to the issue. He said that he and Roger Woolsey want to know why Don Marr and the mayor have not answered Woolsey's emails. Terry Gulley explained that Marr is waiting on the outcome of this meeting before responding to Woolsey. Gulley pointed out they did not get back the line of communication from Woolsey that they felt they should have, which is why Marr is chose to wait to respond until after the board made its decision. Director Boudreaux pointed out agenda items B and C are closely related. He said the memo (included in the agenda packet) explained that the airport is eager to run the FBO. He also pointed out that the included plan on how fuel would be priced is based from the time when the City used to run the FBO. The numbers in the report are in-line with other local airports as well as Hot Springs. Boudreaux mentioned there are two actions that need to take place — one, if the board wants to suggest the City run the FBO and two, approve the proposed budget for that operation in the form of a budget adjustment so the airport can start spending money. C. Proposed FBO Budget Chairman Nickle decided the board would begin with a discussion about the proposed budget. He noted the proposed budget projects the airport make $26,000 more at the end of the cycle than under the current set up. He pointed out that no one knows exactly what will happen. If the City takes back the FBO, an evaluation will be made in the future to see if this was actually a good idea. Terry Gulley said both the revenues and the expenses are based off of very conservative figures and low fuel prices. Fuel prices at Drake have been higher than other local airports and this is an issue to be addressed. Gulley is fully aware that the airport might lose their military fuel sales, so the numbers are based on reduced sales not on the current volume. He hopes the 3 actual gain at the end of the cycle will be higher than $26,000, since this proposal is based on very conservative figures. Nickle pointed out the two largest start-up expenses (loading belt and boarding stairs) will be there regardless. Director Boudreaux said he will have the equipment inspected before making the final purchase since the other equipment did not work. The equipment should be at the airport in the next 30 to 60 days. Nickle also mentioned the $55,000 expense is for leasing a fuel truck. He said the airport might consider purchasing a used and refurbished fuel truck instead of renting. Ken Haxel said if this is a conservative estimate, shouldn't the board consider letting the other guys see if they can do better than this? Nickle said at this stage there is time pressure. Whoever takes over the FBO will need time to go through the process — after Mar. 15 the letter stands. Mike Gibbs said the game plan is to press on with the city running the FBO. Boudreaux said he thinks if someone is going to profit at Drake, it should be the airport. Money is needed in order to replace some of the old buildings, etc. Various items on the budget are discussed including the travel expense as well as potential marketing costs. Gulley said this budget is their best guess right now and it will be evaluated and adjusted as the year goes on. B. Discussion: City Run FBO option. Nickle said he is fairly confident the City can take the FBO back and run it effectively. Nickle said if the military option cannot be transferred from Million Air to the City it doesn't matter — the airport would pursue it through GSA. Mike Gibbs said he is personally very happy with the proposal. Chairman Nickle asked for Rick Bailey's thoughts. Bailey said he believed the airport can do this. If others are interested in running the FBO, there is a profit to be made. If the City tries it and finds they are not doing a very good job, there is still the option of having someone else run the FBO. Gibbs mentioned that the airport didn't hire Million Air because the City was doing a bad job at running the FBO. Boudreaux said it was for the guaranteed revenue earned through rent. Boudreaux also pointed out the airport is not competitive where it is at right now because of Million Air's high fuel prices. Gulley said the key is to be able to maintain airport facilities. He said that if the proposed scenario works, there should be enough money to do that. Nickle mentioned that sales might even pick up because of lower costs. Bill Corley alluded to Ken Haxel's previous point that since this is public information, what if the board went to others and told them $55,000 plus a lower gas cost is the new benchmark? Gibbs answered that would take at least a couple of months and he doesn't think the airport has that kind of time. Josh Mahony said he doesn't think so either. Boudreaux answered Corley's question and said that once experience can be measured, the airport still might seek another FBO. More discussion by all followed regarding the City taking over the FBO. A motion for the Airport Board to recommend to the City Council that the City to take over the FBO was made by Josh Mahony, and seconded by Rick Bailey. The motion carried. A motion for the Airport Board to recommend the proposed budget to city council was made by Mike Gibbs, and seconded by Ken Haxel. The motion carried. 0 ITEM #5: New Business. A. T -Hangar Rent Rates. Nickle mentioned that the board should have had this discussion back in December, and laughingly asked the tenants present why they didn't remind him! Director Boudreaux said the rents have not been raised in three years, and if the rate was raised now it would go up about 10 or 15 dollars. Boudreaux recommended the board not raise the rate now, but he does not think the board should wait more than four years to raise the rate. A motion for the board to not raise the T Hangar rent rates was made by Bill Corley, and seconded by Rick Bailey. The motion carried. B. Engineering Contract. Director Boudreaux said there were several proposals but McClelland Engineers were selected again. McClelland's second renewal option will come up on May 5, 2013. Boudreaux recommended the board go ahead and approves their extension. A motion for the engineering contract with McClelland Engineers to be renewed was made by Mike Gibbs, and seconded by Ken Haxel. The motion carried. ITEM #6: Other Business. A. Items from the Public. None B. Items from the Airport Board. None i3