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HomeMy WebLinkAbout12-10-1998 Airport Commission Meeting Minutes MINUTES IOWA CITY AIRPORT COMMISSION THURSDAY DECEMBER 10, 1998—5:45 P.M. IOWA CITY TRANSIT FACILITY MEMBERS PRESENT: Rick Mascari,Howard Horan,Mark Anderson,Tom Bender STAFF PRESENT: Dennis Mitchell, Ron O'Neil CALL TO ORDER: Chairperson Horan called the meeting to order at 5:45 p.m. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: The minutes of the November 12, 1998, Commission meeting were approved as submitted. AUTHORIZATION OF EXPENDITURES: Horan asked when the entrance sign would be completed. O'Neil said the lettering for the sign should be completed within the next two weeks. Mascari made a motion to approve the bills. Bender seconded the motion and the bills were approved 4—0. PUBLIC DISCUSSION—ITEMS NOT ON AGENDA: Richard Blum, representing Howard R. Green Company, circulated copies of the final report for the fuel farm study. He said the Commission would need to make sure there is access to the North Commercial area for aviation equipment. If an aviation business is located north of Runway 06/24,there may be difficulty servicing them. There are some restrictions on support vehicles crossing active runways. Blum said the report is the same as the final draft presented to the Commission at an earlier meeting. The costs associated with above and below ground tanks were about the same. ITEMS FOR DISCUSSION/ACTION: a. North commercial area—Larry Schnittjer, from MMS Consultants,presented a draft of the infrastructure layout for the North Commercial area. The road would go from Ruppert Road to Riverside Drive. There would be twenty lots of various sizes. This would include five larger lots that could be subdivided if smaller lots were easier to lease. One concern is how to manage the storm water detention. Schnittjer said he has presented a couple of alternatives to the Public Works Department and is waiting for a reply. The system carrying the water from Wal-Mart is not adequate to handle any more storm water. One option is to put a detention basin in the southwest corner of the property. The Commissioners said this would probably not be possible if this was a wet-bottom basin. Mascari said he would not be in favor of any more water near the primary runway. He does not want to provide any more of an attraction to waterfowl. The main discussion that followed concerned how to best design the system to take care of the storm water while minimizing the amount of standing water on the Airport. The Commission requested Schnittjer present a more detailed plan at the Commission meeting on January 146. This would include a storm water management plan and the amount of square feet in each lot. b ACSG Project—Greg Bridger gave the Commission an update on the land acquisition program. He said the auction for the Terrace Hill Mobile Home Park was held on December 2°d. All but eight of the units were sold. He thinks the proceeds from the units that sold should cover the expenses for disposing of all the units and providing the Commission with a clean site. The relocation costs were under budget. He is projecting that there should be similar savings with the other mobile home park. There are two parcels scheduled to be closed, two parcels progressing to settlement, and one that is tentative. He is ready to start on the relocation of the Iowa City Mobile Home Park. There is one tenant that will need to be moved immediately because he qualifies as a hardship case. Horan said ACSG is asking for an extension on their contract and additional fees. He said he has discussed this with Mascari and Foster. He would like some direction from the Commission. Horan said he thought ACSG has done a good job up to the present time. Bridger said there were a lot of things that came up that were not in the project. Because he is dealing with so many different people in the relocation part of the project,there are a lot of things that can not be anticipated. He said that is why there is a clause in the contract to allow for additional time. O'Neil said that at the last meeting,the Commission discussed extending the contract until August. Bridger said he thought the program would be substantially completed by August. Participants are allowed up to 18 months to make claims to the program. Horan said he would suggest moving forward with the program with no additional funding to ACSG. He said he is not comfortable with any of the alternatives presented by ACSG. Mascari suggested getting other proposals to finish the project. O'Neil suggested Horan and Mascari meet with ACSG on Tuesday,December 156. He said it would take a full time office to manage the relocation of the mobile home park. The FAA would pay 90%of additional finding if the Commission decides to increase ACSG's fees. Mascari said he did want to call attention to a letter O'Neil included in the info packet from one of the former Terrace Hill residents. The resident commented on the great job ACSG did in relocating him. Anderson said that ACSG needs to identify what obstacles they have encountered that would justify an increase in their consultant fees. c. Iowa City Flying Service lease—O'Neil said part of the agreement with ICFS concerning the SW FBO hangar was that the current maintenance shop and the United hangar would be rented on a month to month basis once the new hangar was completed. Mitchell said he has not had time to put the language together for the contact addendum. He would have it ready for a future agenda. Gordon Peterson,one of the owners of ICFS,said he is interested in negotiating an agreement to rehab the maintenance building. He said he will put information together on what ICFS is prepared to do and what commitment they would expect from the Commission. They may put improvements into the building in exchange for rent. d. Iowa Jet Services—Horan said that in light of what he has read in the newspapers,he would like to defer to the City Attorney before there was any discussion. Mitchell said the next move is up to Iowa Jet Services. He has not received a signed FBO lease or land agreement from IJS. Until that occurs,the Commission does not have anything to act on. Mitchell recommended taking IJS off the agenda until they are ready to move forward. O'Neil said the Commission should reexamine the FBO application and decide if they have enough financial information to adequately protect the Airport. Horan said this would be off the agenda indefinitely. e. Terminal Building renovation—Mitchell said he is working on the FILM contract. He said the Commission may want to conduct a Section 106 historical review to see if there is anything historically significant about the building. Because the building is not eligible for federal funding,there probably is not a requirement for the review. But because the Historical Commission is interested, it would be a courtesy for the Commission to invite them to participate. If a 106 review is necessary,this should be part of HLM's contract. O'Neil said funding for this project is on the Council agenda for December 15th. There will be some discussion of the project at the Council meeting on December 14th. If the Council approves the project,the Commission can have a special meeting to approve the FILM contract. Anderson said to make sure the contract covers reimbursable expenses. f. Southwest FBO building- O'Neil said that the Commission approved a not to exceed dollar amount for construction inspection. He now had the contract completed and would need approval of the contract. Bender made a motion for a resolution to approve the construction inspection contract with Van Winkle-Jacob Engineering in an amount not to exceed$ 8000.00. Mascari seconded the motion. At roll call vote,the motion passed 4— 0,with Foster being absent. O'Neil said the majority of the footings and frost walls are completed. When additional information is received from the manufacturer,the final footings and frost walls will be completed. The building is scheduled to arrive in February and Wendler will begin construction as soon as it arrives,weather permitting. CHAIRPERSON'S REPORT: Horan said he participated in the Chamber of Commerce Transportation Forum on November 18th. He presented information on current projects and explained some future project in conjunction with the Master Plan. r COMMISSION MEMBERS' REPORTS: Anderson would like the Commission to send a letter to KCRG about the way their helicopter flies in and out of the Airport. Their pilot does not follow standard procedures and it is a safety issue. Horan will send a letter to KCRG from the Commission. Anderson asked when the entrance sign would be completed? O'Neil said the letters are ordered and should be installed sometime in December. Anderson said the Centennial Airport near Denver was in the news because they had their funding from the FAA taken away. Centennial is a general aviation airport and someone wanted to start a commercial airline service at the airport. The local authority said no and the FAA responded by refusing to fund projects at the airport. The issue is in the court system. ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT: Mitchell said he has been contacted about some of the remnant parcels purchased in the land acquisition program. These are areas outside the RPZs not needed for safety or noise abatement. The Commission directed O'Neil to look at the impact these areas have for safety. If there is little or no impact, O'Neil should have the areas surveyed and appraised. O'Neil said he included information in the packet about the length of commission member's terms. The state law allows for a term anywhere from three to six years. O'Neil said he wanted to know if there was interest in changing Iowa City's six year term to a term of four or five years. Because of the long commitment, it is sometimes difficult to recruit new members. If the Commission were interested, it would need to be changed by the Council. Information was included in the info packet concerning the operation of the UNICOM radio. O'Neil said an article was sent to him concerning increased interest in the new TLS. The Council budget meeting for commissions will probably be scheduled for January 286 . O'Neil said he has someone willing to set up an aviation educational center for the fly-in. The Commission will need to find people to work at the center and make a financial commitment. The Commission said they were interested in the idea. O'Neil said the Science Center might be interested in providing people to work. O'Neil met with the Lee Utt on December 9'h. Utt is the FAA engineer from Kansas City assigned to the State of Iowa. Utt is very supportive of the Iowa City Airport. SET NEXT MEETING: The next regular Airport Commission meeting is scheduled for January 14, 1999,at 5:45 p.m. ADJOURNMENT: The was ad- urned at - 8 p.m. i "Ie—s... Howard Horan, Chairperson