HomeMy WebLinkAbout1983-09-12 MinutesNOTICE OF AND CONSENT TO A SPECIAL MEETING OF THE BOARD
The undersigned hereby acknowledge receipt of official and timely notice
of a special meeting of the Board of Directors of the City of Fayetteville,
Arkansas, to be held September 12, 1983, at 1:30 P.M. in the Continuing
Education Center, Room 107, Fayetteville, Arkansas. The purpose of the
meeting being:
1. Consider a request from Scheduled Skyways, Inc., that the
City extend the effective date of the Ordinance restricting
stationary aircraft run -ups at Drake Field.
2. Reading of proposed parking rate increase Ordinance (reading
missed at September 6, 1983 Regular Board Meeting).
The undersigned further consent to the meeting at the time and place and
for the purpose hereinablve set forth and hereby ratify all action taken
at the meeting for said purpose.
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MINUTES OF A SPECIAL BOARD OF DIRECTOR'S MEETING
A special meeting of the Board of Directors was held on Monday,
September 12, 1983, in Room 107, Continuing Education Center,
Fayetteville, Arkansas.
PRESENT: Mayor Noland, Directors Bumpass, Johnson, Lancaster,
Orton Osborne and Sharp; City Manager Grimes;
Assistant City. Manager McWethy; City Attorney McCord,
City Clerk Griffin; members of the press and audience.
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CALL TO ORDER
aQ Mayor Noland called the meeting to order at 1:30 p.m.
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INVITATION TO EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF ARKANSAS MUNICIPAL LEAGUE
Director Johnson stated that the Executive Committee of the
Arkansas Municipal League had expressed interest in holding a
meeting in Fayetteville in August, 1984, but an invitation would
need to be issued by the Board, if they wanted to host the meeting.
After a brief discussion, it was decided that Director
Johnson would write a letter to the Executive Committee inviting
them to hold their August, 1984 meeting in Fayetteville.
READING OF PROPOSED PARKING RATE INCREASE ORDINANCE
Mayor Noland stated that the reading of this proposed Ordinance
had been inadvertently missed•at the September 6, 1983 meeting.
City Attorney McCord read the Ordinance for the first time.
Director Bumpass, seconded by Orton, made a motion to suspend the
rules and place the Ordinance on second reading. Upon roll call,
the motion passed by„a vote of 5-0 with Directors Osborne and Sharp
absent for this vote. The City Attorney read.tlte Ordinance for the
second time. Director Bumpass, seconded by Johnson, moved that the
rules be further suspended and the Ordinance be placed on third and
final reading. Upon roll call, the motion passed by a vote of 5-0
with Directors Osborne and Sharp absent for this vote. The City
Attorney read the Ordinance for the final time.
There being no additional comments, Mayor Noland asked, "Shall
the Ordinance pass?” Upon roll call, the Ordinance passed by a
vote of 5-0 with Directors Osborne and Sharp absent for this vote.
City Attorney McCord asked if the Board wished to adopt the
Emergency Clause, as all of the Directors were not present for the
vote on the Ordinance. Mayor Noland,_secondedyby Bumpass made•a
motion to adopt the Emergency -Clause•` Upon rol1- call, the.
Emergency Clause was adopted by a vote, of 5-0 with.Directors Osborne"'
and Sharp -absent for this vote.
ORDINANCE # 2939 APPEARS ON PAGE Z( OF ORDINANCE AND
RESOLUTIONS BOOK. XIV
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REQUEST FROM SCHEDULED SKYWAYS
Mayor Noland introduced a request from Scheduled Skyways that 156.1
the City extend the effective date of the Ordinance restricting
stationary aircraft run -ups at Drake Field. He explained that
Ordinance 2851 became effective September 7, 1983, as the noise
barrier for stationary aircraft engine run-up testing at Drake
Field had not been completed. Scheduled Skyways' Counsel, Tilden
Wright III, had advised City Attorney McCord in August that they
would be requesting the Fayetteville Board of Directors to hold a
special meeting to consider amending the curfew ordinance to extend
the effective date. The Board decided to grant this request for a
special meeting at the regular Board meeting of September 6, 1983.
City Attorney McCord gave a brief summary of the case, bringing 156.2
the Board up-to-date on its status. He stated that in September,
1982, a settlement agreement was executed by all the parties concerned,
(residents of Greenland and the City of Fayetteville) whereby the City
agreed to design and construct a noise barrier in accordance with the
recommendations made by the expert consultant retained by the City,
provided that 90% funding could be obtained from the Federal and/or
State Government. Scheduled Skyways agreed to pay the 10% balance
if such funding was obtained. As part of this settlement, the City
adopted an Ordinance which would prohibit stationary aircraft engine
run-up testing at Drake Field between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. with the
provision that it would not become effective until September 7, 1983.
The two lawsuits were dismissed by the plaintiffs with prejudice,
which meant that they could not be refiled. Efforts have been made
since that date to obtain Federal funding, but for a number of reasons,
Federal funding has not been obtained to -date and construction of the
noise barrier is not underway. He said that Scheduled Skyways was
requesting that the Ordinance be amended to extend the effective date,
for some period of time, but the Counsel for the plaintiffs has stated
that this is not acceptable to his clients. Mr. McCord said that as
far as whether the City has the authority to amend the Ordinance, in
his opinion, they did, if they decided it was best interests of the
public.
Mayor Noland asked Airport Manager Ede Hogue what the status of 156.3
the grant was. Mrs. Hogue replied that they had a contract to complete
an Airport Noise Control and Land Use Compatibility Study (ANCLUC)
along with the Master Plan last year after this problem developed and
it was their understanding from the FAA that this was the necessary
document that would be needed prior to the construction of the barrier.
It was not until last month, after the ANCLUC Study was almost completed
and the application for Federal funding submitted to the FAA that it
became known that a Part 150 would have to be completed and approved
by the FAA, which would take approximately 6 months, to go through all
the proper channels. She added that the 150 program was new, that
the research and documentation had been done through the ANCLUC Study.
She stated that their plan now was to have an application in to the
State Aeronautics Committee the first Thursday in October, to try to
go with State funding, which she felt would be available, although
until the Committee met, there was no way to know in advance. If
State funding was obtained, she thought construction on the noise
barrier could begin the first part of October.
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157
Director Bumpass asked if-allthe plans were ready to proceed 157.1
with the construction and how long would it take to construct it.
Mrs. Hogue answered that the plans would be ready to advertise for
bid within"two weeks. She said that Max Hall, Engineer on the project,
had been with them the past week and this is what he had indicated
Mr."Max Hall addressed the Board. He stated that the necessity 157.2
for the Part 150 Study came as a surprise to everyone concerned,
including probably the FAA. He further stated that a 150 Study has
a 6 -month hearing time on it, but it takes a full year to complete it.
10 He said the cost would not be too bad, because approximately 90% of
Nmi the work had been done through the ANCLUC Study. He said that this
O would delay the project an unacceptable amount of time, for everyone
concerned and particularly for the residents of Greenland. Because
7 of this, he said that Mrs. Hogue had asked him to work with the State
Q Aeronautical Commission to see if funds were available to begin the
project immediately. He continued that he had visited with the
Director and they had indicated a willingness to participate because
they recognizedthat the City was caught in a dilemma of not having
the Federal money available that had been anticipated. He said he
would be meeting with the Commission along with City Staff to ask
that,the State participate in expediting the funds in order that the
project could move rapidly along.
Mayor Noland asked Mr. Hall to give him the most optimistic 157.3
completion date, taking no delays into consideration, providing funds
were made available. Mr. Hall responded that it would take approxi-
mately 22 weeks for the fill area and the asphalt base -that the
structure will be built on; the actual construction time when materials
are available (they will need to be ordered) :would be about three weeks
for the structure to be usable; there is also a three week waiting .period
for delivery of the materials, which is treated lumber, the same type
as you see on telephone poles. Mr. Hall concluded that the most
optimistic completion date would be between November 15 and December 1,
to have the structure in place and in use.
Director Bumpass asked what the estimated cost of the project was, 157.4
and Mr. Hall responded that the estimates had run from $70,000-
$90,000, but there were several variables in these figures because
of quantity of fill material needed and also, they were exploring
another structure option that the FAA might participate in, with
some grant money on the paving (that they had left over'from another
project) which would save some money.
Director Johnson asked what percentage of State .funding would 157.5
be available. Mr. Hall answered that they would like to go for
100%. He said that the State Aeronautical Commission had set a
precedent with the Springdale Airport structure in that they gave
them a 50% grant although they did not participate in the site work
that was necessary to get the site ready to build the structure.
He continued that if the project was broken up into two phases,
(site work and construction of the structure) he felt the City.
stood a good chance of getting 100% on the site work and 50% on the
construction of the structure itself.
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Director Sharp asked if other airlines would be able to use 158.1
this facility and Airport Manager Hogue responded that any aircraft
that needed to do runups could use it - it was not for Scheduled
Skyways exclusive use. Director Sharp then commented that the Board
might want to look at working out some kind of arrangement whereby
airlines and individual aircraft owners could pay for the use of the
facility so the City could be reimbursed. Director Osborne stated
that he did not think the City could charge for the use of the facility
if it were built with State or Federal funds. Director Sharp asked
if the State would expect reimbursement if we were eventually able
to get Federal funds. Mrs. Hogue said she had checked on this. She
stated that Federal funding would have to be dropped if they went
ahead and pursued whatever State funding that might be available.
Joe Benson, local Counsel for Scheduled Skyways, addressed the 158.2
Board, thanking them for the opportunity to present their request
for an extension of the effective date of the Airport Noise Ordinance.
He stated that if State funding was secured, Scheduled Skyways would
share in the cost of the project over and above the amount of funding.
(City Manager Grimes pointed out that in some of the more recent
conversations with Skyways, after they found out about the problem
they were going to have with Federal funding, in that they were not
looking at $9,000 now but possibly as much as $30,000, he had suggested,
if the Board concurred, in splitting the local share). Mr. Benson
continued, stating that he would like to address briefly the efforts
that had been made by Scheduled Skyways and the City during the past
year to demonstrate to the Board and the citizens of Greenland, the
good faith and diligence with which they had tried to effectuate the
terms of the settlement agreement.
He continued that at the time of the settlement agreement, no 158.3
one knew how long it would take to obtain funding or to construct
the barrier, that twelve months had been a negotiated time period,
a compromise in the settlement. There was no data available as this
is a one -of -a -kind noise barrier. They now knew that this was not
long enough to coordinate all the activities required with all the
various entities involved in this particular grant application: the
FAA, Skyways, the City of Fayetteville, McClelland Engineers, ESI
of Springdale, Vincent Mestre, the Consulting Engineer of California,
etc. He stated that Skyways commitment has always been to provide the
highest quality air service possible to the City of Fayetteville and
Northwest Arkansas and will continue to be. He asked, however, if
this was possible, when there was a total and absolute ban on night-
time stationary engine testing. He continued that at some point,
there is going to be an aircraft that is scheduled to fly out in the
morning that needed engine testing, that would not be able to make
its schedule because of the ban. He related the sequence of noise
barrier testing Skyways had conducted at the Springdale Airport after
the settlement agreement had been reached in September, 1982,
culminating in the testing data being presented to McClelland Engineers
and the Airport Manager on January 14, 1983. He continued, bringing
the Board up-to-date on what progress had been made since then, including
the measures Skyways had taken to reduce the noise level already, by
moving their maintenance facility to Springdale, etc.
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He thanked the citizens of Greenland for their patience,
adding if Skyways is penalized by this Ordinance taking effect,
a number of people will be adversely affected, including the
citizens of Northwest Arkansas who rely on air service in and
out of Fayetteville.
Director Johnson asked if the noise barrier was designed
primarily for the type planes Skyways uses and Mr. George Henry,
Vice President of Scheduled Skyways answered that it was a multi-
use facility and would be sufficient for the Metro aircraft.
Ill Mr. Gordon Cummings, Attorney for the Plaintiffs, addressed
H the Board on behalf of his clients, stating his surprise on having
to address this matter again as they had spent many hundreds of
hours a year ago going over essentially the same problems that they
7 were going over today.
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He continued that the twelve-month period was not arbitrarily 159.4
picked out of the air, but rather a period that was much longer than
his clients and the other residents of Greenland felt was necessary
to get the proper results, and although it was less time than Skyways
wanted, he said,he thought that was what compromise was all about.
He stated that the problem had not gone on for just one year, but
four years, and Skyways had been aware of it, so the twelve-month
figure was entered into in good faith by all parties. He continued
' that everybody knew two simple things: (1) at the end of this year,
the City of Fayetteville either had a noise barrier under construction
or already erected that solved the noise problem,or (2) the Ordinance
went into effect. He stated that the settlement did not contain a
provision that the money for the barrier come from the Federal
Government. It required that a noise barrier sufficient to reduce
the noise at the airport at night to a tolerable level, be constructed.
He contended that Skyways could have put the noise barrier in while
the grant application was being processed and then been reimbursed.
He further contended that alternate structures could have been put up
on a temporary basis, such as the "hush houses" in Fort Smith, which
was a prefabricated structure. He claimed that if there had been any
will to get the job done in the last year, the problem would be over,
but, in his opinion, there was a lack of the will on the part of
Skyways.
Mr. Cummings conceded that Skyways had reduced some of the night- 159.5
time runups that had kept his clients and other residents up five
n ights a week to the present level of two to three nights a week, but
he reiterated that Skyways had made no arrangements for any other
alternative, such as temporarily suspending. the night-time runups, or
moving the program, etc. He pointed out'that, in his opinion, Federal
funding was no more certain today than it was a year ago, adding that
State and/or Federal funding was always uncertain.
He concluded by stating that if the nightime mechanical work was 159.6
e liminated, it would force this type of work to be done in the daytime,
which might insure a safer passenger airplane, as people could see
what they were doing, citing an account he said he had seen in the
newspapers of three fires aboard aircraft during the past year during
n ightime runups.
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9-12-83
Mr. Henry of Skyways responded to Mr. Cumming's statement
regarding the safety of nightime runups. He stated that the
work done on the line at night was just as safe as that done
during the daytime, and that as far as a "hush house" such as
Fort Smith has, this was not designed for a turbo prop aircraft,
but for a jet engine in the tail of an aircraft and cost in the
neighborhood of $500,000.
160.1
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Director Bumpass asked what would happen if no funding at 160.2
all became available.
Mr. Henry responded that if this occurred, at this time
they would have to sit down and discuss the situation with the
City and try to work out a reasonable solution. One of the
other options Skyways would have would be to move the entire
airlines, although this was not what they wanted to do.
Airport Manager Hogue stated that until the State Aeronautical
Commission acts, no one knew what they would do, but she said that
the Commission knew that Fayetteville would be bringing an applica-
tion to their October 6th meeting and the reaction she had received
had been favorable.
Director Lancaster commented that he did not think the City of
Fayetteville or the citizens of Greenland wanted to lose the services
of Skyways, as right now, Drake Field had the only air carrier service
in Northwest Arkansas. He continued that he felt that everyone
concerned had one thing in common -to solve this problem; as a
resident of the South side of Fayetteville, he knew the problems of
the Greenland residents, because when certain weather conditions
existed, he could also hear the aircraft running up. He concluded
by saying that you never know what to expect from the Federal
government; in the past twelve months, they had run into one obstacle
after another, but he felt more confident with the plan to go through
the State Aeronautical Commission with their request for assistance.
Director Osborne remarked that as much as he disliked this
situation, he did not think that 32 more months would have that much
impact on the plaintiffs. He made a motion to extend Ordinance 2851
for a period of 31 months, until December 31, 1983. This motion
was seconded by Director Lancaster. Upon roll call, the motion passed
by a vote of 6-1 with Director Sharp voting in the minority.
Director Orton stated that she hoped that Skyways would continue
to do as much maintenance work in Springdale as possible and not move
any of this back to Fayetteville during this period of time. Director
Osborne stated that he would consider this an extreme show of bad faith
if they did.
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160.6
160.7
City Attorney McCord read the proposed Amending Ordinance the first 160.8
time. Director Lancaster, seconded by Johnson, made a motion to suspend
the rules and place the Ordinance on second reading. Upon roll call, the
motion passed unanimously, and the City Attorney read the Ordinance the
second time. Director Osborne, seconded by Johnson made a motion to
further suspend the rules and place the Ordinance on third and final
reading. Upon roll call, the motion passed unanimously, and the City
Attorney read the Ordinance for the final time.
9-12-83
Director Bumpass stated that, if this Ordinance passes, it
should be implicit that all parties get together and formulate
a contingency plan to be implemented in the event funding does not
come through, He further stated that hewould like to see a time
Y table showing the time it is anticipated to take to effectuate all
the construction and funding. He added that he Just wanted to make
sure that the facility would be on line by December 31, 1983 and
if, at any point in time, it looked like it was not going to:.
be possible, the Board should be made aware of it.
aA '\
Director Lancaster remarked.that if Director Bumpass thought
a special meeting was in order to see what progress had been made,
he would suggest scheduling one after October 15th.
O Director Osborne asserted that there was no intent to downplay
the importance of this situation by granting the extension but
Q it had been his experience that when you are dealing with the Federal
or even the State government, it could at times become very complicated
and frustrating. He added that he felt .a long-range solution would be
better served by granting the 31/2 months extension. He agreed with
Director Lancaster and Bumpass that the Board did need to be aware of
what progress was being made. Director Bumpass stated that he did
not feel a special meeting needed to be scheduled at this time, but
he would like to see a.report, possibly from the Airport Committee.
He further stated that his main concern was what the Board would do
if the grant money was not forthcoming as anticipated, adding -that
if.this occurred, the problem would just have to be addressed at that
time.
Mayor Noland instructed Airport Manager Ede Hogue to give the
Board a report just as soon as the State Aeronautical Commission
met, to let them know exactly what their statu5.on the funding was.
Director Orton stated at this point that she did not intend
to vote for another extension and Mayor Noland stated that he was
hearing this.from several Directors.
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Mayor Noland then asked, "Shall the Ordinance Pass?" Upon roll '161.6
call, the Ordinance passed unanimously.
Director Osborne, seconded by Lancaster made a motion to invoke - 161.7
the Emergency Clause. Upon roll call, the motion passed by a vote
of 6-1 with Director Sharp voting in the minority. The Mayor
declared the Emergency Clause passed.
ORDINANCE # 2940 APPEARS ON PAGE 73 OF ORDINANCE & RESOLUTIONS
BOOK XJV .
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ADJOURNMENT
The meeting adjourned at 2:45 p.m. 161.8