Agendas and Minutes

Airport Committee (View All)

Airport Commission Regular Meeting Minutes 9/7/2010

Agenda
Tuesday, September 07, 2010

 

ASHLAND AIRPORT COMMISSION

September 7th, 2010

 

MINUTES

 

 

 

MEMBERS PRESENT: ALAN DEBOER, LINCOLN ZEVE, SUSAN MOEN ALAN BENDER, LARRY GRAVES, BOB SKINNER TREG SCOTT, RICHARD HENDRICKSON, RUSS SILBIGER

STAFF: SCOTT FLEURY, MIKE FAUGHT, MEGAN THORNTON

MEMBERS ABSENT: ALAN BENDER, DAVID WOLSKE, BILL SKILLMAN

Visitors:  Eva Voget, Gary Voget

CALL TO ORDER:                   9:30 AM

 

APPROVAL OF MINUTES: August 3, motion by DeBoer for approval, second by Moen, unanimous vote, minutes approved as written.

 

Additional Items:  None

 

Public Forum: Voget discussion. Gary and Eva Voget hand out letter and read to Commission. Letter details issues that the Voget’s have with Brim Aviations helicopter operations that are based out of the Ashland Municipal Airport. The Vogets also ask the Commission and City to hold a night time meeting that would allow for more working individuals to attend and voice their concern over the helicopter operations. The Commission would like to review the letter before the next meeting and generate a response to the items brought up. Voget’s state that the extended hovering of the helicopters on site generates the biggest noise effect to the surrounding area. Zeve thanks the Voget’s for coming before the Commission and states the Commission will work within its delegated power to address the issues.

 

OLD BUSINESS:

A.        AIP Project Engineering Design/Connect III: Fleury updates Commission on status of AIP project. Fleury was recently informed by the FAA that a discretionary grant in the amount of $1,581,949.00 was authorized by the FAA. The grant is currently with the Department of Transportation for final review and signature. Once the grant if signed off it will be sent to the City for signature by the Mayor and returned to the FAA. This will allow the City of Ashland to enter into construction and construction engineering contracts with Knife River Materials and Reid Middleton for the construction phase of the project. Fleury reviews that the construction will include 3 phases and will allow the runway to be used during 2 of the phases with a full closure during the 3rd phase. The actual construction start date will still need to be determined and the City will work with Knife River Materials to develop the best start date that will allow for construction with the least amount of impact to airport users. Fleury was also informed recently by the Oregon Department of Transportation that the City will receive a Connect III grant that supplies the required 5% matching funds of the AIP project. This 5% matching grant along with the FAA 95% discretionary grant will cover all project expenses for the runway overlay.

 

B.         Caldera Height Encroachment: Fleury informs Commission that he generated a letter and personally spoke to Mark Knox about the proposed height encroachment on Clover Ln. Fleury reiterated that the Commission does not see the height encroachment as a safety concern, but would like Mark Knox to perform his due diligence with regards to any FAA rules or regulations that would need to be followed, including submitting the FAA form 7460.

C.       Airport Payments: No new information presented. Item was a recap regarding verification that the City of Ashland is collecting all fees associated with proper use of the Airport. Fleury states that the land use component of Brim’s storage area lease will be removed and resent to Brim for signature. The Legal Department is also reviewing the fuel flowage permit and once complete the City will send to Brim Aviation as well.

 

NEW BUSINESS:        

A.     Good Neighbor Policy: Discussion continues regarding onsite helicopter operations. Commission. The FBO’s concern is safety on site and then direct impact to neighbors of the Airport. Brim Aviation knows that noise is an issue that will always plague their operations on site. Brim has stated in previous meetings that he will fly off-site as much as possible to minimize impact to surrounding property owners. Skinner contacted the Flight Standards District Office (FSDO) and spoke with Mike Harris regarding safety aspects of helicopter training at the Airport. One of the main points of training on site deals with the possibility of an engine failure and the pilots ability to auto rotate and land without causing damage to people or structures in the surrounding area. The Commission would like to invite a FAA representative to a meeting in order to discuss the safety issues involving helicopter operations on site. Fleury to draft letter to the FSDO office and inquire about having a representative speak before the Commission. Commission is willing to meet in the evening or at a different time in order to involve all parties in the discussion.  Skinner states that we need to follow the Federal Regulations for safety for any operations on site and the Commission and City should be educated on what those regulations are. DeBoer discuses the importance of economic development vs. the sound from Brims on site operations. Is Brim Aviations business what we want on site at the Ashland Airport as an economic benefit to the Community as a whole? Is Brim Aviations Operations incompatible with the Ashland Airport? DeBoer believes that there are other airports that are better suited for helicopter training. Brims Aviation was and will be heavily involved in fire fighting locally along with search and rescue and marijuana eradication but does this benefit outweigh the noise issue? Brims training also brings in money to the local economy via jobs and spending from foreign representatives, but does this benefit outweigh the issues generated by training on site? These questions will be a point of discussion in future meetings as the safety and noise aspects of a helicopter operation are investigated more thoroughly.  The Commission will always work within its delegated power to develop an Airport that meets the needs of its users and creates the least amount of impact to its neighbors. The Legal Department will review Federal Regulations for airport noise and its impact to neighbors.

B.      Commission Goals: Discussion on goals on hold till the next meeting

C.    Future FBO Hangar Open space: Fleury states that an issue was raised on how the open space between Sky’s hangar and the FBO maintenance hangar was being used. This area is undeveloped it is generally used as parking for employees. There is no land use approval for this area as either a parking lot or hangar space currently. Brim questioned why he should have to receive land use approval for the storage area as the other areas being used for parking do not require it.  Fleury states that based on Sky’s lease they have 1.6 times their hangar envelope for parking and landscaping and that their additional area is not fully defined per the SASO lease agreement. Brim Aviations SASO also allows for the 1.6 times the hangar space for additional parking. Currently Brim uses the undeveloped area behind his hangar for employee parking and Sky uses the area directly adjacent to their hangar. Public Works had a discussion with the Planning Department regarding land use at the Airport and the Planning Department understands the situation at the Airport with regards to development and the approved layout plan. The Planning Department does not want to condition things that go against the existing layout plan, specifically with paving areas of the airport that do not require paving as part of the build out. The planning department is ok with undeveloped portions of the airport being used as parking since there is a lack of paved parking currently at the Airport.  The zoning ordinance for the Airport Overlay still needs to be updated to reflect current conditions. Fleury started to work on a new zoning ordinance, but has not had enough time to put a serious effort into its development.

 

 

AIRPORT MANAGER REPORT/FBO REPORT/AIRPORT ASSOCIATION:

A.                 Status of Airport, Financial Report, Review of Safety Reports: Commission asks Skinner to add a complaint section to the current FBO reports that are turned in monthly to the City.  Commission asks for status of SuperAwos and its associated FAA approval. Skinner states that he has not heard of any new movement on the approval issue. Skinner to follow up and get back to Commission with any new information.

 

B.                  Maintenance Updates – Fleury to discuss having a surveyor access the airport approach and the relative tree heights to determine the level of encroachment. Fleury also informs Commission that other improvements will take place as soon as the schedule allows. These improvements include the tree trimming, paving and stripping. Some of the stripping has been completed with the rest to be done when the crew has the available time.

 

C.                Brown Bag: Hendrickson attended the brown bag meeting in Zeve’s place. Nothing of significant note to report about.

 

D.                 Transportation Commission: Wolske absent from meeting, no discussion.

 

 

OTHER:

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

 

NEXT MEETING DATE:  October 5th, 9:30 AM

 

ADJOURN:  Meeting adjourned at 11:24

Online City Services

UTILITIES-Connect/Disconnect,
Pay your bill & more 
Connect to
Ashland Fiber Network
Request Conservation
Evaluation
Proposals, Bids
& Notifications
Request Building
Inspection
Building Permit
Applications
Apply for Other
Permits & Licenses
Register for
Recreation Programs

©2024 City of Ashland, OR | Site Handcrafted in Ashland, Oregon by Project A

Quicklinks

Connect

Share

twitter facebook Email Share
back to top