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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2014-02-13 MinutesFAYETTEVILLE EXECUTIVE AIRPORT BOARD MINUTES February 13, 2014 MEMBERS PRESENT: Darryl Riddell, Josh Mahony, Bill Corley, Mike Gibbs, Marty Burggraf, Rick Bailey MEMBERS ABSENT: Ken Haxel OTHERS PRESENT: Wayne Jones-MCE; James Nicholson -Financial Coordinator; Lauren Treat -Administrative Assistant; Neal Bilbe-City Government Channel; Bruce Dunn -Iron Pig Festival; Mark Frankum-SkyVenture Aviation; Ray Boudreaux -Airport Director; Terry Gulley -City Transportation; Mike Bowman -Tower; Craig Young -T Hangar tenant; Rick McKinney -T Hangar tenant ITEM #1: Welcome. Chairman Gibbs. ITEM #2: Approval of the Airport Board Minutes of the January 9, 2014 meetine. A motion to approve the minutes with the proposed change was made by Darryl Riddell, and seconded by Rick Bailey. The motion carried. ITEM #3: Receivin¢ of Reports. A. Director Boudreaux, Aviation Director. Boudreaux briefly discussed his resignation letter. He served the City for 12 years and will retire at the end of March. Boudreaux said the City is in the process of finding a new candidate. After his retirement, Boudreaux will volunteer as the president at the museum and assist with grant writing, etc. January was not as good as he had hoped but that is because of the bad weather. He said he hopes for better weather in the near future. Recently, there has been a few issues with the airport security system. This is due to the City-wide merger of all the security systems, but Boudreaux predicted everything should be running properly very soon. Nicholson said he is still waiting on the phone call from the IRS telling us to move forward with our FET refund. Everything is going well with the U of A charter season. B. Financial Coordinator James Nicholson, Budget Report. The end of December was rough, and though we have had rough weather in the New Year as well, operations are actually ahead of last January. The weather may have more of a negative effect on February, however. There were not many changes in fuel prices over the last few months. Even though we are still the retail highest price, we are only higher by a small amount. Our self -serve AvGas price is actually lower than the prices at Fort Smith, Summit in Bentonville, and Pinnacle in Springdale. Nicholson said he has been working closely with the City's new internal auditor. She is working to improve the flow of the FBO transactions as well as improving how the airport administration interacts with the City Administration office. Nicholson said they may revamp his monthly financial report. Overall, Nicholson said the airport was ahead at the end of 2013 by about $40,000 which is a positive sign for 2014. Nicholson also reminded the board that January is not representative of the rest of the year and even though the airport is at a deficit right now, he predicts we will overcome that. He said there is just over $500,000 in the airport fund to use for our upcoming projects. C. Administrative Assistant, Lauren Treat, T -Hangar Report. Reported all hangars are full with three rented for storage. D. Wayne Jones, McClelland Engineers, Construction Report. The NFlight construction project is finished. Wayne said he is waiting on the contractor to obtaining waiver releases from all of his sub -contractors. Everything will be finished once the releases have been filed away and he predicted that would be finished in the next week. E. Museum Executive Director Warren Jones, Museum Report. Boudreaux said Warren was unable attend, but he did ask Boudreaux to tell the Board that the museum has had no visitors recently. There were two visitors in January, four in December, and five so far in February. Boudreaux said the museum gets about 20 or 25 visitors a week, so the current numbers are not good. However, this could be due to the bad weather this winter. The museum is not the only business suffering in town; very few people have been getting out this winter. F. Marketing Committee Chairman Bill Corley, Marketing Report. Corley wrote a short proposal summarizing what was agreed to in the recent marketing group discussion (directly followed the last strategic planning meeting). The objective is to increase Jet -A fuel sales by 5-6%. Initial budget will be $10,000. Highly targeted sales channels will be utilized, especially online resources. Success metrics include click through rates, seasonally adjusted tower ops counts, and customer onsite survey/interviews/anecdotal, etc. Corley said he has not heard back from Marilyn Heifner (A&P), though she was receptive of their conversation. Nicholson said the current advertising budget is $4,500. A budget adjustment will have to be done in another account in order to meet the $10,000 mark. Corley said the initial $10,000 will be enough to test the waters and see what works. He asked the board if they think a marketing plan is even worth it, keeping in mind the revenue from our efforts will not be substantial. Riddell said increasing gross sales would be a good goal because it would not cause our expenses to increase too much. Mahony said in the future we know what works so we would have a better return on the marketing dollars. Burggraf said the board does want to grow the airport, but we are not sure if we want to do this particular thing [marketing plan) or not. Gibbs said the airport is basically looking at spending $10,000 to potentially get $12,000 back in the end. A motion to authorize the development of a marketing program was made by Darryl Riddell and seconded by Burggraf. Motion carries. Riddell said we can try the program for a while and if it doesn't work, we can end it. Corley mentioned there is potential for more than a 5 or 6% increase in sales if we are able to find what really works. Gibbs said the board will make a recommendation to the City to allow us to spend the money on a marketing program. Boudreaux mentioned we will start inviting Lindsley Smith to airport board meetings. ITEM #4: Old Business. Advertising Policy for Terminal Lobby Boudreaux reported that some tenants do not care one way or another about advertising in the lobby, but others expressed concern. Boudreaux said he knows we have two interested parties, but it might not be worth the trouble. The business client really does not spend much time in the terminal. Typically it is just the crew who hangs out in the lobby. Riddell said crews do not really care to watch advertising. Gibbs asked if we must allow competitors to advertise in our lobby. Boudreaux said he believes the airport must be nondiscriminatory to any interested party willing to pay the fee since we are a City operation. Riddell said he does not believe there is enough benefit to be gained from the hassle and the criticism we will endure if we try to make it happen. Review of Strategic Planning Meeting: 5 Year Capital Improvement Plan Boudreaux said every year we submit to the FAA our 5 year capital improvement plan. We are only allowed to bank for 3 years so we need to spend it now. Boudreaux said the City must approve our design -only grant. After we apply for a grant, we will award a contract to a candidate to repair the apron. We must do this now in order to not lose any of our entitlement money ($150,000 per year). Boudreaux discussed the implementation plan included in the packet. He encouraged all the board members to review the map, the implementation plan, and the capital improvement plan. Boudreaux also discussed building a two unit, 60 x 60 corporate -style hangar. He thanked Wayne for drafting up the rough plans. Wayne discussed his prediction for the costs of this project. Boudreaux discussed the terms of building a new hangar and the process the airport would go through with the State and City to make it happen. Wayne discussed the Skidabrader, a piece of machine that increases frictional resistance on the pavement. A demo of the Skidabrador is scheduled at the airport on Tuesday, February 25 around 10:00 AM. Wayne said the machine will go over a panel or two so we can analyze the results. Part of the apron repair project is to first repair the panels, and then prepare the surface to receive whatever coating/new surface, etc. Wayne said we are looking at all of the various options. We are not committed to using the Skidabrader yet. It is simply an option that we are considering. ITEM #5: New Business. A. Design -Only Grant for Apron Repair Update Boudreaux said the subject was discussed along with the 5 Year Capital Plan in Old Business. ITEM #6: Other Business. A. Items from the Public. Bruce Dunn discussed the annual Iron Pig Festival (scheduled to take place at airport on Saturday, March 22). The airport will be closed for approximately one hour at the most. Wayne and Boudreaux walk the runway during the event and conduct the annual runway inspection. Dunn said this unique event has gathered national attention — people come from 6 different states to compete at Drake Field. Dunn addressed the limited access situation that arose last year and admitted the Post Office and SkyVenture folks were displeased. Boudreaux said he will meet with Terry Gulley, Dunn, and Mark Frankum next week to discuss if the event will occur this year due to the problems it caused last year. Frankum asked the board why the runway inspection is held at this particular time. Wayne said it is a dual purpose closing. He said areas needing attention are found every year, and he and Ray track some spots annually. Frankum said most other airports keep their runway open. They simply put out a notam and the inspectors move out of the way for planes when they need to fly/land. Boudreaux said part of the reason why the airport inspection has been held at this time for the past few years is to accommodate the race. Frankum said testers who were scheduled during event -time last year were not allowed to park within a half -mile of the facility. He said SkyVenture is fined whenever they are unable to administer a test. Frankum also said he was unable to park near his own business, and some of his employees had trouble getting to work. Riddell asked if any revenue is generated from the race. Boudreaux said yes, the airport charges the Iron Pig $1,000 for their use of the airport. In order for the race to take place at Drake Field this year, Boudreaux said Dunn must ensure that this situation (access denied to building) will not happen again. Riddell said there should be a way to work that out. Gibbs said this event would gather a tremendous amount of positive exposure for the flight school. Mahony said this will also help to grow the public's knowledge of the airport. Dunn said 600 participants is probably as big as the event will grow, and he has already arranged overflow parking at Greenland High School. Riddell mentioned that he is glad to volunteer on race day. Wayne said the hour-long closure during the race is a big benefit for him and Ray so they can look at the pavement without being rushed off. A motion that the board supports this race (besides the problem that occurred last year) because it is an important contribution to the city and an opportunity for the inspection of the airport was made by Rick Bailey and seconded by Josh Mahony. Motion carried. Additionally, Mike Bowman requested that everyone remember to fill out their surveys for the tower and return those to Treat. B. Items from the Airport Board. Gibbs asked about the hay lease. Nicholson said the lessee paid a few months ago. A brief discussion about other overdue statements followed. MEETING ADJOURNED AT 3:23 P.M. Darryl Riddell, Secretary Date