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HomeMy WebLinkAbout03-12-1998 Airport Commission Meeting Minutes MINUTES IOWA CITY AIRPORT COMMISSION THURSDAY MARCH 12,1998—5:45 P.M. IOWA CITY TRANSIT FACILITY MEMBERS PRESENT: Pat Foster,Rick Mascari,Howard Horan,Mark Anderson,Tom Bender STAFF PRESENT: Dennis Mitchell,Ron O'Neil CALL TO ORDER: Chairperson Foster called the meeting to order at 5:45 p.m. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: The minutes of the February 9th, 1998,Commission meeting were approved as submitted. AUTHORIZATION OF EXPENDITURES: Mascari made a motion to approve the bills. Anderson seconded the motion and the bills were approved 5-0. PUBLIC DISCUSSION—ITEMS NOT ON AGENDA: No items were discussed. ITEMS FOR DISCUSSION/ACTION: a. ACSG Project: Greg Bridger gave the Commission an update on the progress of the land acquisition project. He met with an attorney and an appraiser concerning the Fitzgarrald property. Mrs.Fitzgarrald has decided she would like a third appraisal for the property. Bridger said that they were close to closing on the Kennedy parcel and were just waiting for the updated abstract. The appraisers are working on the Gringer property. There are a couple of issues to resolve on the Ruppert property. One concern is an offer that was made on part of the property and how that would affect the appraisal. Bridger will be meeting with Schentlers the first part of April to discuss their parcel on South Gilbert Street. Bridger said he received good news last month at a FAA meeting in Kansas City. The Commission could pursue avigation easements instead of the more expensive"no-build" easements. The FAA would not require the Airport to condemn for avigation easements. Anderson said he read that the project was behind schedule and over budget. Bridger said that they were on schedule and under budget. Anderson said he would like to see a map that depicted where each parcel was in the acquisition process. b. PS Air/ICFS lease: O'Neil said he met with the owners of PS Air to discuss what would be expected of them in order to have the option to lease for six more years after the ICFS lease expires in four years. O'Neil said possible projects are hangar construction,removing the old fuel farm,installing a new fuel farm,or assist in the Terminal renovation. Mascari said he would be interested in having PS Air construct a hangar. Peterson,from PS Air, said he would discuss building a hangar if a lease could be worked out to recover their investment. Horan said he would like to see a land lease for the area north of the Terminal Building He said that might involve moving the parking lot. Anderson said he thinks it will be important to include the FBO when the design for renovating the Terminal building is completed. Jones,from ICFS,said the FBO building should be at the south end of the Terminal Building. O'Neil said that it is important to give ICFS and PS Air an idea of what improvements the Commission would like them to participate in. Mascari and Foster said they thought negotiations should center on building a new FBO hangar to replace the maintenance shop. Horan and Bender will work with PS Air to negotiate an agreement. Horan said he would also like to discuss the fuel farm issue with ICFS and PS Air. He would prefer that ICFS remove the old tanks and provide the Commission with proof of a clean site. This will be on the agenda for the April meeting c. Iowa Jet Services: Mascari said John Ruyle and Bill Staib were in attendance to represent Iowa Jet Services.(IJS) The proposal the Commission received on March 10 suggested a 55 year lease. Mascari said he thought this was too long. Horan said he thought the longest lease should be 20 years. Mitchell said that without seeing a specific proposal,the FAA would probably say 30 years is too long,but 20 or 25 years might be allowed Horan said the Commission would need to decide how far in the future they want to make a commitment for other Airport Commissions. Foster said the Conunission needs to make sure both potential FBO's are treated fairly. Is there a problem with committing to PS Air for only ten years while committing to IJS for 20 or 25 years? Mascari said the ICFS agreement is a business agreement and the agreement with IJS is for a land lease. Bender said he thought 20 years was workable. He asked if only going 20 years would break the deal? Ruyle said he thought IJS was looking for a reasonable time to recover their investment. He said Staib would like at least 30 years with a negotiable extension. Jones said if PS Air were to build a building,he thought they should be given as much time as US to recover their investment. Jones also commented that he did not think two FBO's could make a living at the Airport. Foster said if PS Air is going to build a building,a separate land lease could be developed,just as it would be with IJS. Horan had questions about the how much would be charged per gallon to retire the cost of installing the new fuel farm and for how long of a time period this would be charged. O'Neil said he thought the cost to retire fuel farm would have to be more than the$.02 per gallon,even if IJS used 30,000 gallon per month. Horan said there was still a question on who the preferred fuel supplier would be. This is probably an issue that can be resolved easily enough. O'Neil said he thought that for the health of the Airport,he would like to see PS Air and IJS work together and end up with one company on the Airport responsible for fueling. That would also reduce the City's liability by knowing who is responsible if there would be a fuel spill. Horan said that it is important that IJS understand that new minimum standards would be in affect in the next month. He would rather see them concentrate on the charter jet service than try to offer just enough services to qualify as an no in order to have better control of their fuel prices. Ruyle said Staib offered to have rental aircraft and flight instruction to meet the FBO requirements but would prefer someone else provide those services. Horan asked about when IJS would have their Part 135 Charter Certificate. Ruyle said US would operate under a certificate from someone else until their own certificate is approved. He thought that would be within a year. O'Neil said he had questions about information in IJS's proposal concerning precision instrument approaches. O'Neil said he contacted the person in the FAA that reviews the approach applications for the Central Region and Cedar Rapids has not applied for a precision GPS approach Even if they did,the technology is not available for Cedar Rapids to share a ground- augmented system with Iowa City. If US has information that would assist in Iowa City getting a precision GPS approach,O'Neil suggested the Commission prepare an application as soon as possible. Foster said there are more questions about the proposal than answers at this point. Horan said one of the questions is where to site a 120'by 240'building. The proposed building is twice the size of any building listed in the Master Plan. Mascari summarized the issues still concerning the Commission about the proposal. There are questions about the fuel farm,location of the main hangar,and how Staib would provide the other services required to qualify as an FBO. Mitchell said it is premature to approve the proposal. The Commission could indicate to Staib that they agreed with the concept. Mascari made a motion to have the Conunission approve of the concept of Staib's proposal and begin to negotiate the details. Anderson seconded the motion. After a short discussion,the motion passed 5—0. Anderson made a motion to direct O'Neil and Mitchell to develop a land lease for Staib's building, Horan seconded the motion. During the discussion,Anderson also wanted to set a public hearing on the lease. Mitchell said the lease should be developed before a public hearing is set. The Commission said the land lease and business agreement would be two separate agreements. Mitchell will research to see if ITS can operate for an extended period of time without their own Part 135 Certificate. The motion was revised to develop a lease but not set a public hearing at this time. Horan seconded the revised motion and it passed 5—0. The Conunission will meet on March 26th to discuss the proposed lease. d. Gordon Aircraft/ELM lease: Horan and O'Neil met with Dennis Gordon to discuss his lease. Gordon said that if he could renegotiate the FILM lease on the same terms,he would let FILM out of their sublease agreement. If not,he would like to continue subleasing. O'Neil said the only question remaining is the business agreement to operate an aircraft sales business. Gordon would like to negotiate an agreement with the same terms as his old agreement. Mascari made a motion to sign a business agreement with Gordon for one year,with a 3%increase in the fee. Horan seconded the motion and it passed 5—0. e. Minimum standards: Mascari and Anderson have revised the draft minimum standards developed by O'Neil. Anderson circulated copies of the revised standards. There was some discussion on some of the revisions. O'Neil said that after the Conunission has completed their revisions,a public hearing should be set to receive comment on the minimum standards. The public hearing will be set at the March 26th meeting. The hearing will be scheduled for the April 9th meeting. Anderson will give a draft copy of the standards to IJS and PS Air. Before the public hearing,there will be a copy of the standards at the Airport Terminal,the City Clerk's office,and the Airport Manager's office. f. Airport Terminal Building-REP: The RFP's have been sent to several architectural firms in Iowa City. The RFP's are due March 17, 1998. After the proposals are received,Horan and Anderson will review them and short list two or three firms. The plan is to develop a schematic design. This will give the Commission an idea of what the renovations would look like and how much it would cost. O'Neil asked when the Commission wanted to interview the two or three firms? They would like to be able to select a firm at the April meeting. Anderson said a special meeting might have to be scheduled to interview the firms. g. State IDOT Airport Improvement Project grant: O'Neil said applications for the State AIP program are due April 1. O'Neil said he would like to apply for two control access gates. One would be by the Airport Manager's office and the other would be by the Airport Terminal. The State grant program is 70%state money and 30%local money. Bender made a motion for a resolution authorizing the submission of an application to the IDOT for two controlled access gates. Anderson seconded the motion and at roll call vote,the motion passed 5—0. CHAIRPERSON'S REPORT: Foster said he had nothing further to report. COMMISSION MEMBERS'REPORTS: Horan said he has been doing some research on airport fueling systems. He has talked with PS Air,US, and others. He said he also talked with the Mayor,who expressed his support for working with IJS to assist them in locating at the Iowa City Airport. Bender said he toured the Airport with O'Neil and they discussed the Master Plan. He said he is pleased money is being spent on the Airport infrastructure. Mascari thanked the Commission for the time they are spending to accommodate US and keep the project moving. Anderson said he wanted to make this the finest airport in the State. He commented that he liked the sununary that O'Neil puts in the monthly packet that tracks the progress of ongoing projects. He would like to add target dates for the completion of the projects. Anderson would like to send a generic letter to people who use the Airport to ask for suggestions on improving the Airport. The letter could be distributed to those that lease hangars,as well as those who use the Airport Terminal. Anderson suggested publishing an open letter inviting comment. Bender said maybe a letter to the editor could be written,inviting comment from the general public. Bender will write a letter for the Commission. Anderson wanted to know when annual runway repairs and patching is done? O'Neil said when he is relatively certain there will be no more snow for the season,the snow plow blade is taken off the truck and the broom is put on. Areas that need sweeping are swept and areas needing patching are patched. Small areas are patched on a routine basis throughout the year with cold patch mix and hot asphalt mix is used when it becomes available in the Spring. Mascari wanted to know how much it would cost to sweep the runways on a regular basis. O'Neil said it would cost about$20,000 a year to sweep all of the runways twice a month. Anderson suggested hiring the Streets Department to sweep the runways at least once in the Spring O'Neil will see if that can be arranged. It would be about$850 per sweeping. ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT: O'Neil said the marketability study for the North Commercial area will be completed at the end of March. O'Neil said the State Transportation Commission would be holding meetings around the state this summer. The schedule is in the Commission packet. ELECTION OF OFFICERS: Foster made a motion to elect Horan as Chairperson and Mascari as Vice-chairperson. Bender seconded the motion. Mascari nominated Anderson as Chairperson. There was no second. Bender made a motion to cast a unanimous ballot for the Horan/Mascari nomination. Foster seconded the motion and it passed 5—0. SET NEXT MEETING: The next regular Airport Commission meeting is scheduled for April 9, 1998,at 5:45 p.m. ADJOURNMENT: The meeting was adjourned at 7:47 p.m. r � Pat Foster,Chairperson