ASHLAND AIRPORT COMMISSION

September 1, 2009

MINUTES

MEMBERS PRESENT: LINCOLN ZEVE, RICHARD HENDRICKSON, LARRY GRAVES, RUSS SILBIGER, ALAN DEBOER, BILL SKILLMAN, ALAN BENDER

STAFF: SCOTT FEURY

MEMBERS ABSENT:  TREG SCOTT, DAVID WOLSKE

Visitors:  Dave Ridsdale

CALL TO ORDER:                   9:30 AM

APPROVAL OF MINUTES: August 11, Motion by Graves for approval, second by Skillman, unanimous vote, minutes approved as amended.

Additional Items: (1) Sandler Lease (2) Brown Bag Lunch (3) Waiting List Procedure (4) City of Ashland Airport-Jackson County

Public Forum: No Public Comments

OLD BUSINESS:

A.    AIP Project Engineering Design: Fleury informs Commission that he received information from consultant regarding a change in possible construction of the runway overlay project. The funds might not be available until fall 2010 or even 2011. The new FAA liaison to the Ashland Airport stated this to ReidMiddleton.  Fleury also stated that do to the mountains near runway 30 (Beacon Hill) the FAA is recommending that no PAPI lights be installed for runway 30 and the VASI lights be removed. The Airport Commission has a serious concern over this statement, because if the VASI lights were removed this would eliminate night landings at Ashland Airport. The request Fleury to research more into this manner and discuss at next meeting. Fleury to speak with FAA and consultant regarding the lighting situation.

B.     Insurance Requirements: Fleury states that he is receiving the 1^st amendment documents from tenants and there insurance binders for the required 1 million dollars.  Fleury created a spreadsheet to track all required information on hangar tenants.

C.    Wash Rack Operation: Fleury states the wash rack is functioning properly and still plans to post an “only rain the drain” stencil along with some information regarding the wash rack use. Fleury would like to continue discussion next month regarding recycling policies in general at the Airport.

D.    Goals and Visions: No new information regarding presentation from Silbiger last month.  Commission members need to fill out survey and return it to the City. The survey is due back to the City of Ashland by September 21, 2009.

E.     Sandler Lease: Staff informs Commission that Sandler was granted a one month extension to his current lease and that the extension was approved via consent agenda. Commission questions why the extension to the current lease was granted and will the rent charge be retroactive for the time? Motion by DeBoer; With regards to the Sandler lease which expired 8-14-2009 and as per the charge of the City Council and its own goals to maximize revenue no payments should be missed as shown on the Council approved rate sheet and lease template. The Airport Commission is available to the Council for consultations and recommendations as needed on any matters. 2^nd by Skillman, all approved. Motion by DeBoer; As a general operating procedure for the Ashland Airport, any hangar tenant that leaves after there first right of refusal to rent a hangar and the hangar sits un-rented at the current approved rate will be given first chance again to rent the hangar after an approved rate reduction becomes available. There must be a good faith effort to rent the hangar at the highest rate before a reduction is pursued. 2^nd by Skillman, all approved. The Commission discusses having a study session with the City Council at some point in the future to help them understand the operations of the Airport and all business Airport related. Fleury would like the Commissions help in creating an informational packet to give to the City Council that discusses the benefits, uses and all applicable information. Fleury to start work on a packet and over the next couple of meetings and refine it with the assistance of the Commission before giving it to the City Council.

F.      Box Hangar waiting list procedure: The box hangar waiting list is a separate list from the T-hangar list and was created by Skinner after recommendation of the City. Skinner Aviation to maintain list and the deposit is the same as a T-hangar. Skinner to notify people on existing T-hangar waiting list that there is now a separate waiting list for box hangars.

NEW BUSINESS:          

A.    ODA Economic Impact Study: Fleury put the ODA economic impact study that related directly to Ashland in the packet along with the SOU economic impact study performed on 2005. He would like Commission to review both studies in order to develop an informational packet to send to the City Council on the benefit of having a regional airport in Ashland. Zeve asks Bender if it would be possible to have some SOU students perform the study again. Bender to look into it.

B.     Airport Website: Graves presented overview of Airport website to Commission. He asks the question about what are goals of having a dedicated Airport website.  Commission states that the website is approximately 7 years old and was created with volunteer help from Commission members at the time. Goa Lobaugh helped update small things while still on Commission. Commission agrees that the website is outdated and would like to update and improve website to better market the Airport and Ashland in general. The Commission believes the website good be a good promotional tool and is open to the idea of advertising on the website to offset cost of improvements and hosting. Silbiger mentions that the City has there own website platform and that we should look into what assistance if any the City could provide to improve the website internally. Fleury to contact Ann Seltzer to see if anything can be done internally to keep costs low. Graves offers to meet with Seltzer to discuss improvements to site.

C.    Medford Tower Tour: Bender states that the Commission can tour the new Medford Tower at any point and if they would like to go as a small group that is perfectly acceptable. DeBoer states that anyone can tour the tower all they have to do is call ahead and schedule. Commission members to get together at some point and tour the tower.

D.    Jackson County Control of Airport Discussion: Bender states that he had a conversation with Bern Case regarding the possibility of control of the Ashland Airport changing from the City to Jackson County. Bender states that the City of Medford used to own Medford International Airport, but that it was transferred to Jackson County control to better serve it. Commission discusses pros and cons of having Jackson County ownership of the Ashland Municipal Airport. Hypothetically there would be more staff available to work on Ashland Airport projects with only a marginal increase to the workload of Jackson County employees. The question of political impact was brought up. Would County control change the political climate here in Ashland, would Ashland citizens be will to travel and deal with others on Airport issues. The Commission believes now that they help with the citizen interaction and try to solve problems as they receive them. They wonder if Ashland citizens needs will be met with County control of the Airport. Hendrickson states that he believes there is no political issue with regards to the Ashland City Council. Some people may think the Airport is a luxury, but they do not understand fully what functions a regional airport like Ashland offer. Hendrickson states that he believes a majority of the Councilors and Mayor approve of the Airport. Hendrickson also states that Senator Merkley’s staff was flown around the Klamath Basin recently and they flew out of Ashland Airport. Governor Kulongoski recently flew into Ashland Airport for a function in Ashland. Commission would like to have better PR/Marketing of the Ashland Airport, because many people do not know things like this. Commission also wonders if Ashland would receive any benefit from the economy of scale, Jackson County Airport would receive more money based on having control of Ashland, but would they actually invest that money into the Airport.  Bender states that essentially Ashland Airport is a reliever airport for Medford as the case with fog in winter, planes and deliveries are sent to Ashland when they can not land in Medford. Commission would like to investigate possibility of being designated a reliever Airport for Medford. Commission would like to see if the reliever designation would also lead to more money being funneled down to the Ashland Airport for maintenance and improvements. Graves asks the questions what problem are we trying to solve by Jackson County taking control of the Ashland Airport? Commission does not believe they would be solving any problems.

E.     Ashland Municipal Code-Airport Commission: Silbiger states that there is a statement in the code update that states all Commission members are required to have aviation related experience. The Commission has a concern that using “all” will make it harder to fill vacant positions on the Commission and can be misconstrued as exclusionary. The Commission would like to see any citizen have the chance to sit as a member. Motion by DeBoer to change the word “all” to “majority”, 2^nd by Hendrickson, all approved. Fleury to contact legal and Diana Shiplet to see about having code wording changed.

AIRPORT MANAGER REPORT/FBO REPORT/AIRPORT ASSOCIATION:

A.              Status of Airport, Financial Report, Review of Safety Reports: Skinner states that the open T-hangar was vacant because they are the lease desirable hangars to rent at the Airport. They contacted numerous people and finally found a taker. Skinner also states that the hangar turnover during the past few months has been higher then ever before and he assumes that it is due to the economic situation. Skinner states that the accounting error from last months billing has been updated and should show on the newest FBO monthly report. He also states that fuel prices have been stable for the past few months.

B.               Maintenance Updates – Silbiger stated that the SuperAwos is now updating every 20 minutes instead of every 60 minutes. Fleury states that once fire danger is lifted he will have the willow trees removed across from Hassels.

OTHER:

The meeting of the JC airport commission is the third Monday of the month at 12:00 PM.

NEXT MEETING DATE:  September 1, 9:30 AM

ADJOURN:  Meeting adjourned at 11:16