Airport Board

Airport Advisory Board January 30 t h , 2019 Bowman Field Meeting called by Jim Jonas, Chairman Members Present: Jim Jonas, Chairman; Al Messer, Vice-Chair; Randy Johnson; Eric Type of meeting Monthly Meeting Cortright, Tim Casey; John Lombardi; Members Absent: Nick Nardacci Minutes taken by Carlye Hansen Staff: Greg Bahr, Airport Manager; Chas Ariss, Planning and Public Works Director; Carlye Hansen, Planning Department Secretary; Charlie McCurdy, Commissioner AGENDA TOPICS Call to order Introduction of New Commission Representative Charlie McCurdy was sworn in as a commissioner in early January. At this point, he expressed interest in being the representative for the Airport Board, so he had this conversation with Terry Vermeire, and it was decided that he would take over as the Commission Representative for this board. Mr. McCurdy was introduced and welcomed. Approval of Minutes A. October 31 s t , 2018 B. November 28 t h , 2019 Motion was made by Tim Casey to approve the minute of the October 31 s t , 2018 minutes; seconded by Al Messer. Motion passes 6-0. Motion was made by Tim Casey to approve the minutes of the November 28 t h , 2018 minutes; seconded by all Messer. Motion passes 6 -0. Manager’s Report – Greg Bahr, Airport Manager A. Fuel Farm Greg did receive information from Sarah Jones regarding the status of the fuel farm. The sizes have been finalized at 12,000 gallons of Jet A, and 5000 gallons of 100LL. Rick Tabish is currently working on obtaining a fuel truck. The specs will be ready for review and will be sent to Greg when completed for his review. Right now the tanks are eight weeks out and they are looking at installation of the fuel farm to be in May. The only real issue is that they will need to have a designated containment ar ea for the truck. They are looking at a couple of areas where they can move and adjust the fence to let make this happen according to the regulations. At this time, the fuel farm will be covered by a person from the airport, likely Greg or Randy Johnson, and for the time being this will not be a paid position. There has been no decision yet as to revenue from the fuel farm, but there should be a percentage of flowage money from fuel purchased by aircraft. ( Please see attached) B. Pavement As previously discussed, we are on schedule for runaway pavement maintenance in the spring. This will include both runways and the taxiways. This also includes striping and numbering. Greg heard from Tyler Reed, at Morrison -Maierle, and unfortunately, the original cost of the project has gone up to a possible 5x the amount of the first cost state d between $180,000.00 to $200 ,000.00. There is currently $20,000.00 in the budget, which was the 10% match given by the county for this. This will need to be looked into more in-depth. There is also information out there about more grant money that we ae waiting to hear on, however, there will be no county match for that. Tyler is also looking for a waiver for this and will get back to us as soon as he hears more in that regard. The apron repair is still on or next summer, however, this is a separate project. (Please see attached) Page 2  C. Maintenance Update Since the last update in November, Greg has only had to plow twice. He did a light inspection after several months and there were only seven changes that needed to be made. There was an issue that came up two weeks ago. A Life Flight fixed wing pilot tried to land and for whatever reason, could not get the airport landing lights to come on. With the plain being unable to land, he had to then detour to Butte, and a helicopter was dispatched to pick the patient up at the hospital. Greg was suspicious as there is a tendency that if you click the radio too fast that this can happen, however the pilot was very adamant that he had been flying for an extended amount of time and that he knows what he is doing and that this has never been an issue until now. Greg is unsure what happened, but did note that when he came in the next day that his computer wa s down in the office, so was wondering if perhaps there was a misfortunate power outage at the same time. This whole issue however, has prompted Life Flight to look into this and perhaps begin the process of updating equipment or doing a different frequency. T hey are wanting to assure that this doesn’t happen again. Charlie McCurdy asked if there was any sort of backup generator on the property and there is not. As of now, the lights are working well and both Randy and Greg have flown their planes and state there is no issue with the lights at this time. D. Usage Right now, there is very low activity at the airport. There hav e been several general aviation and some activity with the military. E. DigiWx The triannual inspection was done and everything checked out and is working well. New Business A, Election of 2019 Chairperson and 2019 Vice -Chairperson Motion was made by Tim Casey to appoint Jim Jonas as the 2019 Chairperson of the Airport Board; this was seconded by John Lombardi. Motion carried 6-0. Motion was made by Eric Cortright to appoint Al Messer as the 2019 Vice -Chairperson of the Airport Board; this was seconded by Jim Jonas. Motion carried 6 -0. Page 3  B. Engineering SQE – Jim Jonas Jim Jonas had talked to Sarah Jones and came up with a template , of sorts, that will need to be placed with bids for Professional Airport Planning Services. He did not get the information to Carlye until yesterday, and she did print it out, however, believes she put it in a folder for another meeting happening today. She apologized for this. Jim asked that she send this out to the board members via email and he would like this to be looked over with any questions a nd comments to be sent to him via email or to Carlye, in which she would forward these on. When this has been updated with changes, he will refer this document on to Chas Ariss, for further review, and to see what the next step is in the process. (Please see attached) C. Hangar Lease Payments At this time, there are three lease payments that are in arears: Michael Simms, Jim Novak (deceased), and John Ford. At this time, it was discussed that two gentle reminders be sent to Mr. Simms, and to the Estate of Mr. Novak, asking to make these payments current. Mr. Ford, however, is in his second year of nonpayment, has had multiple certified invoices sent to him, and this has been ignored. It was discussed that Carlye write a very firm letter stating that this must be paid in full or legal action will be taken, and when this is done, she will take this to Ben Krakowka, County Attorney, for review, and then send this letter certified again to Mr. Ford. Miscellaneous/Public Comment At this point, Charlie McCurdy offered any help that he could give to the airport. He is excited that the airport is growing and he sees the airport as having the potential to be a significant economic indicator within the community. Carlye noted that there will need to be a few changes in handling of agendas, me etings, etc. She states that she is being pushed to be more by the book. What this means is that she would like all agendas by the Wednesday before (7 days) all proposed meetings so she can get this on the website in a timely fa shion as she is supposed to do, and packets delivered within five days of the meetings. She also states that according to the bylaws, the airport board is supposed to make a biannual report to the commission and she notes that this has not been done. Mr. McCurdy thought that th is absolutely should be done as this shows the commission and the public what is going on with and within the airport and that they actually have something of significant value to add to the community. At the next meeting, Greg would like to start discu ssing the Fly-In for this coming summer and would like to get this at least scheduled on the books a nd away from the same weekend as we have been doing due to the conflict with the car show that has been a conflict the previous two summers. Page 4 Greg would also like to again discuss the car/auto races that took place at the airport last year. Mr. Rose contacted him again, and as there was significant rocks kicked up last year and tread marks left, as well as no economic value to the airport or the community. He is feeling that perhaps this is not a good event to continue with. He would like to discuss everyone else’s thoughts at the next meeting. Next Meeting Date Wednesday, February 27 th, 2019 Adjournment: Meeting adjourned at 8:30 a.m. Respectfully Submitted, Carlye Hansen Carlye Hansen, Planning Department Secretary 2019 Page 5