ASHLAND AIRPORT COMMISSION
January 5, 2010
MINUTES
MEMBERS PRESENT: ALAN DEBOER, RUSS SILBIGER, BILL SKILLMAN, DAVID WOLSKE, ALAN BENDER, LARRY GRAVES, BOB SKINNER
STAFF: SCOTT FEURY, MIKE FAUGHT, ADAM HANKS
MEMBERS ABSENT: LINCOLN ZEVE, RICHARD HENDRICKSON, TREG SCOTT
Visitors:
CALL TO ORDER: 9:31 AM
APPROVAL OF MINUTES: December 1, motion by Wolske for approval, second by Bender, unanimous vote, minutes approved as amended.
Additional Items: none
Public Forum: No Public Comments
OLD BUSINESS:
A. AIP Project Engineering Design: Fleury informs Commission that the PAPI light 2-degree baffle for runway 30 has been approved by the FAA for installation with the new AIP project. Fleury also states that he will be working on the Connect III applications for the rural Airport funding and they are due by May 1, 2010. No additional updates.
B. Airport Website Development: Development of the website is moving along. Fleury and Graves have met a couple times to add content and clean up existing items. Graves mentions that there are no Airport related photos on the Ashland Website currently and asks for photos from Commissioners. Skinner mentions that John Gipple could be a good resource for photos and he will contact and find out more. The webcams that are setup up for the current website are having issues with updating, Skinner to investigate further. Fleury and Graves would like to link the webcams to the new and improved site if possible. Graves and Fleury to present the Airport Commission with the new site at a future meeting and discuss content improvement and additions after the bulk of the work is completed.
C. CAP Hangar: Fleury gives brief overview of CAP issues addressed at December meeting. Skinner states the main issue is definitely not having enough visibility of operations between the City and the CAP. CAP to inform the City/Commission of meetings, trainings and other issues that arise. CAP has email addresses of all Commission members and should email meeting minutes on a regular basis along with a CAP member trying to attend the Airport Commission monthly meeting occasionally. The second main issue is the condition of the CAP hangar. Skillman will discuss condition of hangar and visibility of CAP with Squad Commander Chris Adams when he can. Fleury also states in Zeves absence that he would like to see the City charge the CAP a fair lease rate at the expiration of there current lease in 2011. Commission would like to research how the CAP is treated with regards to a lease at the Medford Airport. Bender to discuss with Case and determine how the lease is executed for the CAP at the Medford Airport and report back to Commission at next months meeting.
D. Airport Commission Goals: Fleury gives overview of Commission Goals as discussed at the December meeting; Find money for Airport maintenance and improvements, develop and implement a riparian restoration plan for Neil Creek and develop an education curriculum for Airport field trips to work in conjunction with the local schools. Wolske mentions article he read about camping at public general aviation airports throughout the Country. He would like to see a compatible usage of the open space around the airport along with the restoration of Neil Creek habitat and formation of walking trails around the perimeter of the property. Graves comments on how he spent many nights camping on airport grounds. Commission has concerns about issues that may arise if camping is permitted on site. Through the fence issues seem to plague some airports and the Commission does not want to increase safety risks. Bender states that the FAA wants airports to be self sufficient and that non-aeronautical uses are permitted as long as that money goes back into the maintenance and improvement of the airport. Commission to discuss further at future meetings.
E. City Council Goals: Faught discusses current City Council Goals and asks if the Commission would like to tweak any of the existing goals. He states that they are not looking for new goals, just minor changes/additions to the current ones. After reviewing the City Council goals the Commission would like to add the word Airport to the environment section in the land use and transportation plan section. Fleury to add wording and send to Diana for inclusion and potential adoption by the City Council. Next Faught reads the section in chapter 8 of the TSP that refers to the Airport and how it will be looked at in the TSP. Commission has no comments regarding TSP. Faught invites a member of the Commission to be on the technical review committee for the Transportation System Plan and Wolske volunteers.
F. Planning Commission Meeting: Fleury says he has not heard from Bill Molnar regarding what exactly the Planning Commission would like to do regarding a question and answer session with a member or members of the Airport Commission. Fleury to contact Bill Molnar again and get update for next meeting.
G. Housekeeping: DeBoer states that he has cleaned up most of the debris around his bank of hangars, excluding the wing jig which he states should stay in its current location. Fleury states that issues and items that present safety hazards should be focused on first and foremost. Fleury also states that the Commission has left it up to Skinner to use his judgment on housekeeping items and other Airport related issues and they should continue to do so. Commission would like to keep the housekeeping item on there radar as to not let certain issues get out of hand gain.
NEW BUSINESS:
A. Burl Brim Training Tower: Fleury informs the Commission of Brims plan to build a training tower to train soldiers and law enforcement personnel at the Airport. This item has been fast tracked do to time constraints for the current training session timeline. Fleury informs Commission that he and the City were contacted prior to Christmas about building a tower on site behind Brims current hangar location. Planning would not allow construction of a temporary tower behind current hangar, but will allow construction of tower in the envelope of the current planning approval for the future hangar construction site. Fleury states that the legal department is working on a temporary ground lease that will allow for the use of the training tower on site for a maximum of six months, at the end of the lease term the tower will be required to be removed from the site. This removal is meant to move Burl towards generating a full planning action with the tower to be constructed behind his current tower along with new hangars and a parking lot to accommodate his rolling stock. Commission. Fleury also states that the Ashland Fire Department would like to use the tower for ladder training occasionally. Adam Hanks gives brief overview of the planning side of the development and how they can approve it for a temporary basis. He also states that he met with Brim, Larry Holzgang and Derek Severson on site to discuss operation. Larry Holzgang works for Oregon State Business Development Department and Derek Severson works for Ashland Planning. The construction of the training tower is an economic development item and the State and Local Jurisdictions would like to see it advance. Fleury states that the lease needs to go before the City Council for approval and will do so at the January 19th meeting. Commission wonders why they are just hearing about this item now. Fleury states that he found out about it just prior to Christmas. Commission would have liked an email on the subject because it seems like the issue is out of there hands now. Commission would also like to know there true roll in the planning process for future projects so they are not left “out of the loop”. Graves asks the question, what exactly is Burls training operation at the Airport? He would like to see a presentation from Brim Aviation on exactly what they will be doing at the Airport with regards to the training tower. Commission voices concern over existing area used for Brims rolling stock and how there is still no lease for area after Brim agreed to pay a fee in April 2009 for use of area. Fleury explains that after meeting with Legal and Planning to discuss lease for tower that both departments stated we could not create and charge for a lease of the parking lot because Brim does not have planning approval to use the site on the Airport as a parking lot. Fleury had sent out copies of a lease to Brim in November for the “parking lot” and calculated that the area used was 6000 sq-ft. He had not heard back from Brim at the time of the December meeting and was going to discuss with Faught, but then this other issue came up regarding the training tower. Commission is concerned with Brim not using it as a resource for questions and development out at the Airport. Commission feels they are the last to know when it comes to important items and would like to know things in advance to adhere to there duties which is to make recommendations to the Mayor and City Council. They can not fulfill there duties if they are kept out of the loop. Skinner mentions another issue regarding the Brim operation at the Airport. At a previous Commission meeting, it was stated in a previous meeting that the Commission motioned for Brim to develop a method of tracking all fuel pumped into his and any other aircraft and pay $.07 per gallon monthly for the flowage, excluding emergency operations. Skinner to research meeting minutes and forward information to Fleury for discussion at February meeting.
B. Airport Day: Fleury to contact Brittany about attending February meeting to discuss Airport Day. Zeve has already discussed Commissions interest in being more apart of Airport day with Brittany.
AIRPORT MANAGER REPORT/FBO REPORT/AIRPORT ASSOCIATION:
ADJOURN: Meeting adjourned at 11:25
