Board of Aviation Commissioners

Minutes of the May 14, 2015 Monthly Meeting of the Michigan City Aviation Board of Commissioners Call to Order: Meeting called to order at 6:00 PM in the terminal building at the airport. Members Present: Greg Poulin, David Miller, Kirk Hunter, Doug Buell. A quorum was present. Members Absent: None Others Present: Jessica Ward- Airport Manager, Paul Schaffer- BF&S, Joe Doyle- Council Liaison Minutes: The minutes of the April 9, regular monthly meeting, were emailed. Motion to approve: Kirk Hunter Second: Doug Buell Motion Approved. Reports: The April financial reports were summarized by Jessica Ward. Account Balances: Our current account balances are in front of you. I will start with an update on our electric and gas account. As discussed last month, in January we had an increase of 16% over last year. February we had an increase of 35%. March this year was $1,793.98 and April was $1,126.28 for a total of $2,920.26. March and April last year were a combined total of $3,848.41. This is a reduction of 24%. Last year May we paid $788.31, while this year we paid $709.17, which was a reduction of 10%. This year up to this point we have spent $6,793.28, while last year up to May we had spent $7,155.81 which is a 5% reduction. Our travel account is $122.75 over our monthly projected budget, because I attended the AAI quarterly meeting down in Columbus in April. Our advertising account is over our monthly projected budget by $341.33. I will be ordering pens with the airport logo before the end of the year. But the money for our ad in the visitor’s guide as well as the cost for our ad on the county maps has already come out of this account so the balance will be sufficient. We just paid for a load of Jet A which leaves us a balance of $235,682.24 in our aviation fuel account and paid for the mowers and tractor from our capital projects account which leaves us with $115,144.19 in this account. If we also plug in our AIP local share which hasn’t come out yet, we have a balance of $81,144.19. Fuel Sales: Overall, we sold 1381.2 gallons of 100LL for a total of $9,352.74 and 5231.7 gallons of Jet A for a total of $11,283.51 in April. We sold 256.9 gallons of self-service based 100LL, and 597.1 gallons of self-service transient 100LL last month. We sold 973.7 gallons of Transient self-service Jet A. We sold 215.5 gallons of full service based Avgas. We sold 311.7 gallons of full service transient Avgas. We sold 1568 gallons of full service based Jet A and 2690 gallons of full service transient Jet A. Year to date we have sold 15,128.8 gallons of fuel for a total of $50,639.68. Our self-service Avgas fuel price is $0.95 less than Porter County and $0.36 less than Knox. Our full service Avgas price is $1.05 less than Porter County and $0.72 less than La Porte. Our Jet A price is $1.44 less than Porter County, $1.28 less than La Porte, and $1.33 less than Knox. Airport Manager: 1. Land Lease Rent Invoices: Taggart Aviation is the last of the land lease rent that I am waiting to receive. The total billed for land lease rent this year was $15,201.15, of which we are waiting on $2,581.31. We are currently mowing 6 hangars for a total of $1,440.00 for the season. 2. Family Advocates Event Proposal: We have received the proposal from Family Advocates for their October event they wish to hold here at the airport. Nothing in the proposal had changed from what  was discussed at the last meeting with Maggie Fritzen from the organization. Bill Nelson, as well as myself have looked over the proposal which I also sent to you earlier today. We just received it yesterday afternoon. Bill and I agree that although it makes for a very informative proposal, it falls far short of the terms we would want to have in a binding legal contract. With your permission he suggests that he be authorized to put together a more formal contract for this event for board review at the June Board meeting. To keep things simple he will likely use the Michigan City Park model agreement that I previously gave him as the foundation for the contract and to maintain some consistency with what other departments have done. Bill also will need to know if you would like to waive any fees and/or accept the offer of the “in-kind sponsorship” they offered on page 3 of the proposal. Motion to modify the Michigan City Department of Parks and Recreation License Agreement for an airport event license agreement as well as wave any fees and do an in-kind sponsorship for the Family Advocates event: David Miller. Second: Doug Buell. Motion Approved. 3. Nick Kant-Public Records Request: Bill Nelson responded to a public records request from Nick Kant from Skydive Horizonz. He sent the requested documents on April 28, which was a copy of Skydive Horizonz Tie Down Lease and agreement, a copy of the agreement with Skydive Greater, and the November 6 and November 11 correspondences between Jeff Thorne and Skydive Horizonz in regards to the termination of the lease and agreement. 4. News & Views Show: Dave Biela from the News and Views Show on the local public access channel would like to do a show about aviation in our community. He is requesting a couple of representatives from the airport come and speak with them in a question and answer segment which is taped on Friday afternoons and shown on Saturday mornings. I will also be taping a segment on the “Interesting Individuals” show on local public access television about our annual pancake breakfast tomorrow at 2:30 with Bill Landing. 5. Enterprise Concessionaire Agreement: We received a copy of a concessionaire agreement from Enterprise and Bill has many questions and comments that have been sent by email to the board previously. Kirk, Bill and I will sit down with Enterprise before the end of this month to discuss all question/comments including any from the board with Enterprise to see if we can negotiate an agreement with them. 6. Notice of Wireless Communications Tower Permit Request: We received a letter from Edward Klein as a notice to the Board of an upcoming permit request being filed with the LaPorte County Board of Zoning Appeals to erect a new wireless communications tower for use in the Amateur Radio Service. The tower and antenna will be erected at the residential address of 5423 N Pawnee Trail, in LaPorte. The height of the tower and antenna will be 75 ft. above ground level. He also enclosed the FAA Determination of No Hazard to Air Navigation, concerning this installation. Paul Shaffer was asked to look over the paperwork to make sure it wouldn’t affect operations at the airport. Airport Development: 1. AIP 18- Wildlife Fence Phase 2: Trees are all chipped and remain on site waiting removal. A drainage concern was raised by the neighbor on the southwest corner of the airport. They reported they have always had some wet areas but it had gotten worse do to the construction activity. The concern is being addressed. Ruts from the clearing equipment channeled water onto the property. The final grade will restore flow to preconstruction conditions or better for the neighbor. In the end the drainage situation should improve for both the airport and the neighbor. The entire area is low and will have some future maintenance issues just because of the natural topography. We will see potential drainage improvements during the future lowering of US 20/35 that could solve the issues altogether.  a. Partial Pay Request #4: Federal $179,116.00, State $9,950.89, Local $9,950.87. Motion to Approve: Kirk Hunter Second: Kirk Doug Buell Motion Approved. b. Contractor’s Progress Estimate #2 for $145,744.06: Motion to Approve: David Miller Second: Kirk Hunter Motion Approved. 2. Runway 20 Tree Trimming: Tree trimming quotes resulted in the low quote coming from “The Tree Man” out of La Porte. The low quote of $6,000.00 per acre allows us to trim all of Area 1 with the funds available. BF&S will prepare a grant application that includes Area 1 only and one with all the areas. This will give the FAA the option to grant more funds should they become available. Motion to approve FAA grant application for AIP-19: David Miller Second: Kirk Hunter Motion Approved. 3. Runway 2-20 with Runway Protection Zone Study: a. Motion to sign a letter to Rick Power, the new La Porte District Deputy Commissioner, requesting assistance with the RPZ correction project: David Miller Second: Kirk Hunter Motion Approved. 4. Sale of Property at 6446 N 600 W: Jessica received a call from Jeffery Schnebel asking if the airport would be interested in purchasing his property for sale. The board is not interested at this time. Old Business: 1. Sale of Hangar A5-1: Steve McGue changed his offer to $35,000 for the hangar once he heard what it was appraised for. Pall Filter Specialists is in the process of making a decision of whether they would like to fix it up to raise the appraisal value or if they would just like to let it go as is for that offer. We have not received a right of first refusal letter at this point. New Business: None Claims Docket: Amount: $220,390.41 Motion: David Miller Second: Kirk Hunter Motion Approved. Correspondence: None Public Comment: Joe Doyle stated that the Summer Festival Committee Fish Fry will be at the senior center on May 22. Adjournment: There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 7:05 pm. Motion: David Miller Second: Kirk Hunter Motion Approved.