Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout05-06-2003 Airport Commission Meeting Minutes MINUTES IOWA CITY AIRPORT COMMISSION TUESDAY,MAY 6,2003—4:00 P.M. IOWA CITY AIRPORT TERMINAL MEMBERS PRESENT: Michelle Robnett, Alan Ellis,Randy Hartwig, Rick Mascari STAFF PRESENT: Sue Dulek,Ron O'Neil CALL TO ORDER: Chairperson Ellis called the meeting to order at 4:02 p.m. Ellis said this was the regular monthly Commission meeting that had been moved from the regular time on Thursday, May 8,to accommodate Michael Hodges, from Airport Business Solutions. He said there would not be a meeting on Thursday. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: O'Neil said there were two corrections. The first was under the discussion of the Aviation Commerce Park. At the April meeting,the Commission directed Dulek to file suit against Rob Nichols to recover rent from the parcel he leased in the ACP. The second change concerned the vote for the officers at the March meeting. O'Neil said for the vote for chairperson was 4—0, with Thrower abstaining. For vice-chairperson,the vote was 3—0,with Thrower and Mascari abstaining. After some discussion,the minutes of the April 10,2003,Commission meeting were approved with the corrections. AUTHORIZATION OF EXPENDITURES: Ellis asked about the bill from Hardware Specialists? O'Neil said it was for service doors for Building H. The building was built in 1987 and all five of the service doors were rusting out. Robnett made a motion to pay the bills. Mascari seconded the motion.The motion passed 4 -0, with Thrower being absent. PUBLIC DISCUSSION—ITEMS NOT ON AGENDA: Harry Hinckley,the tenant from Hangar#31, said he had received a lease that was quite different from anything he had received in the past.Hinckley said he has been a tenant at the Airport longer than anyone else has and he did not think the lease was appropriate for a corporate hangar. He said the lease was too vague and general. He said he has been in his office and hangar for 15 years and thinks the previous leases were better than the lease presented to him. Mascari asked what specifically he didn't like? Hinckley said there were several things but he didn't feel he needed to write the lease for the Commission. He said for one thing, after fifteen years,he didn't think a damage deposit was necessary. He had several other suggestions for the Commission on wording changes that would clarify the lease. He said there were two or three things he is permitted to do and thirty or forty things the Commission can do to him. Ellis said the Commission can not discuss this as an agenda item,but if Hinckley was interested, he would put this on the agenda for the next meeting. Hinckley said he would suggest the Commission read the lease the Manager wrote and compare it with this new lease that the 1 Commission wrote. He said the old lease is more appropriate for his hangar space. He said that, as an example,the new lease does not address who pays utilities or that other hangar tenants have to maintain enough heat in the building to keep the water pipes from freezing. Ellis said the Commission developed the lease and solicited public comment. He said this would be on the agenda at the next meeting and asked O'Neil to send the Commission the old lease and the current lease. Mascari invited Hinckley to attend the next meeting. Hinckley said he is not comfortable coming to the Commission meetings. He did not feel he should have to help the Commission write their leases. He suggested the Commission not micro-manage and let the Manager take care of the day to day management. Mascari said the Commission does not micro- manage. He said he used to be involved with the day to day management,but not any more. Robnett said the intention was to create equitable standards. She said the Commission has hired Michael Hodges to help standardize the Airport policies. Hinckley said he would like to review the lease before the next meeting. In other public discussion,Ron Duffe, from Jet Air, said he had put some additional signage on the 100LL fueling station to help direct pilots to it. ITEMS FOR DISCUSSION/ACTION: a. Obstruction mitigation project- Mike Donnelly,from Stanley Engineering, said they have been making contacts with owners of the obstructions. He said they sent out letters and have been making personal follow-up interviews.Ellis asked what would happen if they can not mitigate all of the obstructions? Would the FAA deny them a precision approach? O'Neil said that the FAA could deny giving a precision approach or may even raise the minimums for the Airport. He said the obstruction mitigation is not just to get a precision approach. The obstructions affect the current safety zones. Hartwig said someone had questioned him about some obstructions that seemed to be quite a distance from the Airport. Donnelly said he met with the Public Works Department to discuss obstructions on City property. He said he also discussed the new flagpole on top of the Old Capital dome with the University. They didn't know they were required by the FAA to file for an airspace study. The flagpole will be lighted and the airspace study should let them know what they can do so they will not be in violation of federal airspace. Donnelly said he would be getting a report to O'Neil to discuss the costs of the actual obstruction mitigation. b. Environmental Assessment project—Dick Blum, from H.R.Green, said all drafts had been submitted to the FAA and there had been no response as of yet. He said O'Neil had reviewed the initial report and his suggestions were being incorporated into the report. Blum said all FAA deadlines have been met to stay on track for FAA funding for this year. All the fieldwork has been completed. Ellis asked if the United hangar disposition was included in the EA? Because it is an obstruction,Blum said there were two options for the hangar. One was to move the hangar and the other was to tear it down. Blum said there would be costs associated with refurbishing the hangar if it was moved. Robnett said if a cost benefit analysis showed that it would cost a substantial amount to rehab the building, given the current budget crisis,the 2 a building may have to be torn down. She said even if it is restored,the Commission might not be able to afford to keep up the maintenance on the building. Mascari said the only way he would support moving the building is to move it off the Airport. Ellis said he would like to move forward with moving the hangar instead of tearing it down. He said funding might dictate it would be torn down instead of moved. Mascari said that it is important to remember that Airport safety comes first and if the hangar is an obstruction, it can not remain where it is. Ellis said this should be on the agenda for the next meeting for the Commission to decide what they should do with the hangar. Blum said he would develop a working paper to discuss the Commission's options. He will sent that to O'Neil before the next meeting. c. Aviation Commerce Park(ACP)—Overton said he is getting a lot of inquiries,but no one is taking the next step to make an offer. He said he is somewhat surprised,but because of the economy,commercial sales are slow. He said there has been plenty of local publicity. He said he is disappointed in the amount of activity. Mascari asked if Overton was advertising nationally? Overton said they had discussed that at an earlier meeting and decided that the cost of advertising nationally in some of the trade magazines was cost prohibitive. Michael Hodges said there are some trade magazines that the Commission can advertise in without being a member of the organization. Mascari said the Commission needs to get something going on the ACP. He asked Overton what happened to the potential buyer for Lot#17. Overton said the buyer wanted the property at well below market price and has decided to look elsewhere. Overton said the land is not overpriced. He said the property is priced about in the middle of where other similar property is priced. Mascari wanted to know if the Commission could offer any type of financing for buyers? He said that could attract the first one or two tenants. Ellis said the value of the property would go up over time. Overton agreed,but said the pricing structure now in place would be realistic for at least the next year. Robnett said the ACP got some free advertising in an article Overton did and she wanted to thank Overton for that. Robnett commented that it was her understanding that the commercial market was extremely flat at this time. Overton said there has not been a lot of commercial activity around the area. He said that sales would just be a function of time. Ellis asked about leasing? Overton said it does not come up very often and he does not think it is something that will be much of an option in the future. Ellis asked what the Commission would think of trading control to the City of enough property to pay off the infrastructure and erase the debt. Then the land that was left could be leased. Mascari asked why would the Commission what to give up control? He would not be in favor of that idea. Mascari said the Commission should set a deadline for sales. Dulek said the Commission does not have a sales contract with Overton. Their contract is for leasing the property. Mascari said that when the contract expires, if Overton has not sold any property,the Commission should recommend the Council hire someone else. Mascari said something has to be done. Hodges and Overton will contact each other to discuss marketing advertising. Hodges said he knows of an airport in California that is similar to the ACP that has through- the-fence access. 3 t Overton said the development was planned to have through-the-fence access,but there would be some development cost for the taxiway. Mascari said that the Commission needs someone to get the job done of selling the lots and he expects Overton to get the lots sold. Overton said it is also his responsibility to keep the Commission informed on the realities of the market. Overton said he has invested two years of his time on this project and has not received any compensation. He said he has plenty of motivation to sell the property. Mascari said he is livid that nothing has happened and he expects results. Overton said he is on the advisory board for ICAD. He said he is reporting to the Commission what is going on for commercial property throughout the area. The market is flat. O'Neil asked Dulek to provide an update on the Nichols contract. Dulek said she had filed a lawsuit and the papers were served on May 1. She said that she had not had a response. If he does not respond within a certain amount of time,he basically loses by default. O'Neil said there was a memo in the packet written by the Director of Finance, explaining what he thought was the debt owed by the Commission. O'Neil recommended the Commission reply to the Mayor in writing,stating their understanding of the Airport debt and what the Commission thought should be repaid. O'Neil said he thought it should be clarified what will be done with the funds from sale or lease of the ACP. Ellis said he would draft a letter to the Mayor. He will have Dulek and O'Neil review the letter. d. Strategy/business plan project—Ellis introduced Michael Hodges from Airport Business Solutions. Hodges said he met the Council last night. He said from meeting with the Council,he was under the impression that the Council wanted something to happen right away. He said the strategy plan is somewhat different than the business part of the plan. He said it would take a little time to gear up. He said ABS will need input from the Commission to see where they have been,what was tried,what has worked,and where the Commission wants to go. Hodges said he was surprised when he first saw the Airport. He said he wasn't sure what he would have to deal with. He said he thought this was a great general aviation airport. It has a tremendous infrastructure. He said even though this is a small community,because this is a University town,there should be more potential for student pilots. Hodges said that ABS will explore every possibility for generating funds from aviation uses. If it is not possible to be self-sufficient,ABS will tell the Commission that. ABS will try to put the Airport on a track to be as self-sufficient as possible. That is a FAA goal. It is not a mandate,it is a goal. ABS will try to minimize the amount of the Airport budget that comes from the General Fund. Hodges said that general aviation airports that are self-sufficient do not become self-sufficient through aviation services alone. Usually only a small amount of their budget is from aviation uses. Having property to lease for non-aviation uses will assist in the goal of self-sufficiency. Marketing the Airport should be a joint effort between the Commission and the fixed base operator. Hodges said ABS has experience in working with government agencies and private aviation businesses. 4 Hodges said he would be looking at how the Airport is managed. He will look at the existing structure of the Airport Manager and the Commission and what their roles are. They should put policies and procedures in place that will minimize the amount of required interaction needed between the manager and the Commission. This will create continuity when there is change on the Commission. He said they would review leases to see if all the basic items are covered. Hodges said they would gather information,format it and give it back to the Commission for review and comments. He said a plan is a political document as well and will need comment from the Commission on whether certain recommendations will work. Hodges said they would interview the FBO and get their opinion on what it will take to grow business on the Airport. Robnett asked what ABS needed from the Commission. She said she knew of several data sources that would be helpful to ABS. Hodges said it would be important for the Commission to provide input when the draft reports are completed. Ellis asked Hodges if the Commission should sit down with a facilitator and have a meeting or several meetings on strategic planning? Hodges said he would wait until the Commission sees the initial draft of the plan before deciding whether they needed to have a facilitator. e. Commission meeting agenda format- Ellis asked that this be deferred to a future agenda. CHAIRPERSON'S REPORT: Ellis said he did not have anything that had not already been discussed. COMMISSION MEMBERS'REPORTS: Mascari asked O'Neil how much the renovation was to be in Building D and how did he get funding? O'Neil said it would be between$ 14,000-$ 15,000. He said he got proposals from several contractors and presented the information to the City Manager. This was all part of the exchange of space with Jet Air,IOW Aero and trying to find a place for the Civil Air Patrol. Mascari said that he saw there was a response from the DOT concerning a precision approach. He said the DOT thought the FAA would pick up the maintenance for the ILS. O'Neil cautioned that the person from the FAA that said they could pick up the annual maintenance was the person that designs the approaches,not the person that approves funding. O'Neil said an ILS would cost between$1 million and$ 1.2 million. He said that if the FAA would not pick up the maintenance costs,he did not think the Commission could afford it. He said Ankeny installed their own ILS and now there is a question of whether or not the FAA will provide maintenance. O'Neil said an ILS is a high maintenance item that costs between$60,000 and$80,000 per year. Mascari said he thinks the Commission should consider this a top priority for money received from sales of the ACP. ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT: O'Neil said that because of budget cuts at the State level,the City would receive several hundred thousand dollars less than expected. He said the Commission would need to review their FY 2004 budget. All City departments will be affected in some way. 5 • The property west of the Airport,including some Airport property,is scheduled for final annexation on May 20. That is the same day the bids are due for the Mormon Trek project. The airport is required to put together a Spill Prevention Control and Countermeasure Plan. (SPCC). O'Neil is getting a proposal from Stanley Environmental,who is working on plans for other City departments. Hodges said ABS writes those plans and he will have someone from his office contact O'Neil. O'Neil provided the Commission with Commission and Council meeting schedules for the summer. There were copies of letters in the packet to John Ruyle and Harry Hinckley concerning their leases. O'Neil said there was a request to store non-aviation items in the United hangar. Mascari said it would have to be on the agenda. There was not additional interest from the Commission. O'Neil wanted to know if the Commission was interested in reviewing the conference room policy,particularly as it related to fees. There was not interest by the Commission to put this on the agenda. A developer west of the Airport wanted to know if the Commission was interested in water storage on the Airport and easements over some of the Airport property? Mascari said he thought this is something the Manager should deal with. O'Neil said he would take care of this. SET NEXT MEETING: The next regular Airport Commission meeting is scheduled for June 12,2003,at 5:45 p.m. O'Neil asked if there were any questions about the summer schedule? He said some of the meetings were not on the regular dates. No one had questions about the schedule. ADJOURNMENT: The meeting was adjourned at 6:31 p.m. ia Alan Ellis,Chairperson 6