Airport Commission

1 FITCHBURG MUNICIPAL AIRPORT COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Date:- Wednesday 18th February 2015. Commissioners present:- –Joe Poznick - Chairman. - Jack Naylor, - Peter Kettle - Commission Secretary - Commissioners Brousseau & Walker not present. Meeting called to order @ ---- 18.01 A request was made by Commissioner Kettle to audio record and Mike Lally to video record. Request accepted by Chairman Poznick. Approvals for this month to be 15-02 1. Chairman’s Remarks:– Review Meeting Protocol. 2. Correspondence:- Letter received from the FAA on SAM account. Commissioner Poznick sent it to the city (Treasurer) for action. ACTION:- City Hall- Treasurer. 3. Approval of Minutes:- Chairman Poznick made a motion to approve the January 2014 minutes. Seconded by Commissioner Naylor. All in favor. 4. Consultant Report/Gale Associates – Matt Caron – (See Attachment I) 4.1 Final Environmental Impact Report. Matt advised the FEIR was filed on the 15th Jan with MEPA. The FEIR is currently published in the Environmental Monitor and comments are due by Feb 20th. The FEIR decision will be made on the Feb. 27th meeting. A hard copy of the documentation was passed to the Commission together with a CD. According to Matt there should be no major hang ups on request for approval. “ 2 4.2 Phase I Avigation Easement Acquisition. Gale advised that offer letters for the purchase of easements were sent to Phase I property owners on Dec. 12th 2014. Responses have been received back from some of the property owners and their representatives/lawyers. Details will be discussed within the Executive Session following the meeting to expand on current situation. 4.3 Phase II Avigation Easement. Matt advised that Gale has coordinated with all property owners included in Phase II and conversations have been fairly positive to date. Seven (7) of the eight (8) property owners have replied. The appraisal process has been started and is ongoing. The surveyor has been provided with the property information but the snow has been a limiting factor on surveys being conducted. Gale has coordinated with MBTA and Mass DOT to discuss removing obstructions and all things going well. 4.3 Phase III Avigation Easement Acquisitions and Permitting. 4.3.1 Matt advised that 18 of the 22 property owners have been contacted and again this will be covered within the Executive Session. However – the remaining four (4) letters were sent out today the 18th Feb. to make contact. 4.3.2 It should be noted again, that the FAA’s position is all permits for construction/tree clearing projects must be in place with the FAA by December 1st of the preceding year in order to submit a grant. Gale has coordinated this with the FAA and as the Phase I Easements are well under way, the FAA is allowing some flexibility on this to be now implemented by the 15th March 2015. Finally – Gale is soliciting proposals from sub consultants to round out the additional tasks to complete this project and issue the NOI. 4.4 Runway 14 end Obstruction Removal and Aeronautical Survey. (Off Airport Property) Matt advised that a draft scope of work has been completed by Gale and this will be forwarded to the Airport, FAA and MassDOT for comment. The airport has responded but nothing has been received back from the FAA or MassDOT which means the scope of work has been finalized. Gale is in the process of obtaining proposals from the sub consultants for the environmental and aeronautical studies and once the proposed fees are received they will be passed to the airport for approval. Gale is in the process of identifying a Draft Construction Safety and Phasing plan (CSPP) for review on the 27th Feb. Matt advised that Gale would like to meet with the Airport in the 1st “ 3 week of March to review the plan and make sure everyone is happy with it. Gale is also preparing the 95% specification plans and make them available on the 20th March, followed by a meeting with the Airport on the last week of March. Chairman Poznick advised that date may have to be moved to the first week of April, to which Matt responded that would be acceptable. Finally the project schedule is being prepared by Gale for the “entire project” which should be available by May 1st – 2015, to make sure the grant is available from the FAA. Chairman Poznick requested this document is sent directly to him, to then pass on to Montgomery Consultants, already authorized by him. Three items are required by the airport for this month and they are:- a) Negotiate and finalize the Engineering contract. b) Review the Draft CSPP and approve. c) Review the 95% plans and specs upon receipt. 5.0 Old Business 5.1 Kenny Churchill – Rodeo. As Kenny had advised he would be late in arriving he will be seen when available. As it happened, Kenny arrived at the end of the meeting and was seen at that time prior to the Exec. Session. 5.2 Hangar 7/ Twin City Scott advised the Commission that he had been in contact with the city re the building inspector visiting to see if the building 7 now came up to the City Code, following the improvements that have been made. Unfortunately inspector Duffy advised that he has not been available due to snow problems with other city concerns - and will get to building 7 within the next two to three weeks. ACTION:- Scott Chairman Poznick advised that Scott and he had met with the City Planning board and the Council had approved the funding for the new roof on building 7. We are now waiting for the release of the money from the City Purchase Office for the RFP. ACTION:- Scott 5.3 New Admin Building “ 4 Chairman Poznick advised that a meeting was held with the City Engineers and the result of the discussion was the addition of a couple of stubs from the new sewer line in order to accommodate additional buildings. Such as Autumn Air, the new FPA building, Twin City and Bullock. It was also discussed about using the current gate that is not currently in use near hangar 3 and positioning it next to the new FPA building. At a meeting with the planning board last night the 17th Feb. it was unanimous that the planning board is very much behind the new Admin Building and look forward to it’s completion. ACTION:- Scott 5.4 Hangar Space Policy. This is complete and we wait to see the additional written information in policy format for addition to the Airport Procedures. 6.0 New Business. 6.1 Chamber of Commerce Event – May 28th 2015. Even though there was no representative from the FPA/FCA, as this has been a past occurrence which went very well, a motion was proposed by Chairman Poznick to accept this event on the 28th May. Seconded by Commissioner Naylor. All in favor. 15-02-01 6.2 Fuel Provider This was approved by the Commissioners in attendance last month in the Executive session and further discussions have been had with Shell. Chairman Poznick advised that signage will be provided free and a better price was gained for fuel, together with Shell contributing to the clothes the airport staff will be wearing. Shell will also do all of the implementation for the new Shell Credit Cards and hopefully this will be accomplished in a relatively short time frame. This will be good for the airport as the price for jet fuel is less 20 to 30 cents per gallon and avgas is less 10 cents per gallon. The trucks will also cost less than the current provider. ACTION:- Scott. 7.0 Financial and Operations Management Updates.(SEE ATTACHMENT II) 7.1 Monthly Activity Review “ 5 Scott advised it has been a slow month due to snow, but they had ordered a new supply of Avgas which was $0.40 less than the current stock purchase. Overtime has been considerable due to snow clearing from the runways. 7.1.1 Rent FCA is up to date with the exception of the $274 which is in dispute. Currently FCA now owes the airport $4,100. Skyline – is still owing a considerable amount of money but owner Ken Brown advised he will pay his bill once he has the lease for the building which Chairman Poznick is currently working on. Also the money Ken spent on the heaters is getting close to the cumulative rent charged monthly and this needs to be looked at and balanced to see where we currently stand. ACTION:- Scott Sea Side Aviation has completely paid off their outstanding bill for N10697. The only remaining outstanding account, is for N5404T, which Sea Side advised they had “forgotten about it”. Chris Lund - Commissioner Kettle advised that he owes almost $1000 and suggested that the plane should be put outside of the hangar, unless the plane debt is fully paid up. This was agreed to by the Commissioners. ACTION:- Scott Twin City now owes 2 months and as they are working out of the building they should be paying their bills. Commissioner Kettle advised he will go and speak with Mark and Eric. ACTION:- Commissioner Kettle. Chairman Poznick proposed a motion to approve the February Financials. Seconded by Commissioner Naylor. All in Favor. 15-02-02 7.2 Operational Update and Managers Report 7.2.1 Customer Service – Standards As Commissioner Brousseau was not available to comment, Airport Manager Scott Ellis deferred this subject to the March Commission meeting. 7.2.2 MUNIS “ 6 Scott advised that MUNIS is being introduced slowly as the payroll is now generated on MUNIS and must be approved by him with a “stamp” to approve he authorizes the hours. As soon as available the fuel and rent will be applied on to MUNIS but training has still not been completed for all staff to date. ACTION:- Scott 7.2.3 Work Assignments Obviously all assignments have been concentrating on the removal of snow and only routine general maintenance has taken place since the last meeting. ACTION:- Scott. 7.2.4 SeaSide Aviation This was covered under Financials. ACTION:- Scott 7.2.5 Airport Projects Scott advised that the SRE door had been giving problems and sticking open. The specialist company viewing the door operating system viewed the door and suggested the motor was the problem. Not happy with that Scott called another company and they identified the problem was with one of the actuators within the unit and not the motor. The second company has the job to put it right. ACTION:- Scott 7.2.6 Machinery Scott advised that the snow clearing machinery had been working hard and that problems were staring to show with certain pieces of equipment. Chairman Poznick advised Scott to make produce a chart identifying what piece of equipment needs what and to get it costed accordingly. A plan then needs to be formulated to identify where the money is going to come from. This chart is to be available for the March meeting. Plowing is going well as reported by all concenrs but there have been some concerns with ice forming which is then identified by NOTAM to incoming and outgoing aircraft. ACTION:- Scott 7.2.7 Belltronics Quote. (See Attachment III) “ 7 Scott provided a quotation for the purchase of new hand held radios for use by personnel on the airport. Chairman Poznick made a proposal to approve the purchase. This was seconded by Commissioner Kettle. All in favor. 15-02-03 7.2.8 Kenny Churchill – Rodeo Kenny Churchill arrived at 18.53 from a meeting with the City Licensing Board. All approved with License for the Rodeo to take place. Kenny advised that he wanted an additional day to the May 22nd/23rd./24th was given as Sept 19th/20th/24th. Chairman Poznick advised that as long as all licenses are obtained then there is no problem with the event. Chairman Poznick made a motion to accept the two separate dates. Seconded by Commissioner Naylor. All in favor. 15-02-04 The meeting closed at 18.59. The next meeting will be held on the 18th March – 2015 @ 18.00 A vote was taken to go in to Executive Session to discuss Phase I, II & III status. All Commissioners present voted positively to go in to the Executive Session. The above meeting minutes are considered a true reflection to the best of my ability, of what was discussed. Secretary of the Commission:- Peter E Kettle Peter E. Kettle “ 8 “