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08-18-10 Airport MinutesAUGUST 18, 2010 Members Present: Scott Richardson Dave Hoerner Keith Robinson Dan Snyder Chris Aymes Staff Present: Fred Leistiko — Airport Manager Wade Elder — Community Development Jeff Walla — Stelling Engineers Members Absent: Terry Anderson Dick Rapacilo The meeting began at 3:00 P.M. in the downstairs conference room at the Kalispell City Hall. There was no public comment. The following is a summary of the topics discussed by the council: The City budget was approved on August 16ffi which included the Airport Enterprise Fund, the operations and maintenance portion of the airport operations. The Enterprise Fund budget, to -date, was discussed. This showed the current income and expenses of the airport. The budget looks good for the day to day operations of the airport, but what about the capital improvements needed and the $1.5 Million in deferred maintenance for the past 15 years. How can the City of Kalispell afford this large expenditure and how do other airports afford the same high dollar expenditures in the State of Montana. Response.- Whenever a Montana airport files for a loan or grant from the State or Federal government they must list their annual income and expenses as a part of the application. Mr. Leistiko stated that in his position as a member of the State Loan and Grant Program he has been able to review all of the grant applications in Montana over the last several years and it has revealed that most all airports in Montana, with few exceptions, rely on the State and Federal government for their major capital improvement dollars. Without these dollars airports would not exist in Montana and most other States. Communities must show that they can support an airport before the State and Federal government will step to the plate and assist the community in the building of, or upgrading of a community airport. Once the improvements are completed, the FAA will make available, to a local community, the necessary funds to keep the airport maintained. The FAA maintenance money cannot be used for operations and personnel. The funds can be allowed to accumulate for up to four years to help fund any large maintenance projects such as those the City is now staring at. So, when you make up your budget for a new facility, you can plan on the $150,000 annual maintenance money from the FAA if your airport is on the NIPAS list and meets FAA standards. 3. The Advisory Council Members were asked to consider helping the City Airport by becoming more involved in the following areas: a. Explaining how the airport acts as an economic engine for the City. Although not always that visible, it is still there in the money spent by people who come through the city airport to visit or do business in the community. b. Help make the airport more visible to the public by getting the public involved. One way is to have some events at the airport. This will need some sponsorship to accomplish. City insurance will not allow the airport to sponsor events. c. Form an organization called Friends of the Kalispell City Airport to help inform citizens about how the airport helps our community. A discussion evolved around each of the subjects listed above. The main concern expressed by the Advisory Council was that the City Council and the Mayor wants them to get involved, but they don't listen to them when they do get involved. They listen more to a small group of non -aviation people like the Quiet Skies group of six or eight people and ignore their own advisory group of citizens. The comment was made that prospective advisory council members don't want to serve on the advisory council because the City Council and City management won't listen to them anyway. They have been involved. They are the people who have been standing up and trying to counter the misinformation being put out through the Quiet Skies group. The City should have responded immediately to the Quiet Skies group instead of letting them go on and on about the airport without anyone correcting them or challenging them. A discussion regarding the formation of an organization called "Friends of the Kalispell City Airport" was held. The Advisory Council liked this idea and started a list of at least a dozen business people who would sign up immediately to support the airport. One advisory council member who is in the BID in downtown Kalispell will talk to the BID about supporting the airport. Stelling Engineers volunteered to assist in the explanations of technical terms and information if needed. The Airport Manager advised the Council to direct all legal or legislative questions to the city attorney or the airport manager for clarification. This process of upgrading and rebuilding the airport to meet FAA standards has been going on for more than 12 years now and there is a lot of background the Advisory Council doesn't have. As a matter of fact there is a lot of information the general public does not have either. The City hopes to rectify that situation with a newly designed Airport Website with a lot of history and copies of all the Studies done to date. The Advisory Council recommended that the City refer people to the many federal publications that are available to answer their questions. Most familiar are the Airman's Information Manual; the Facility Directory; and the VFR Supplements. All these publications explain the techniques and procedures used by pilots during takeoffs and landings at airports. The Advisory Council would agree to help the City explain the grant assurances when the City is ready to listen to an explanation. The Advisory Council would agree to help the City explain Through the Fence operations and their ramifications, pro and con. Discussion ensued regarding the KGEZ radio towers and why negotiations have not been started to remove the towers. Several Advisory Council members stated that they knew that the City now has a willing seller for the radio station towers and asked why the City has not started negotiations with the new owner. The Advisory Council is concerned that the City now has a chance to rid the airport of this safety hazard and has not done anything to correct the problem. The obligation is square on the City shoulders at this time because there is a willing and reasonable seller to deal with in removing these obstacles. The Advisory Council reiterated Resolution 5331 passed by the City Council stating that they wanted to do something about it and now they have the chance and are doing nothing to eliminate the safety hazard. The Airport Tax Increment District has the funds to make an offer for the towers. The Airport TIF funds can be used for the removal of the towers, so why hasn't the City acted on this matter. Jeff Walla was introduced to the Advisory Council to explain the process that will be used to complete the Master Plan Updates. He explained the public outreach sessions that will be held during the process and the new Airport Website that will have the draft plan available and interested parties can go to the site and follow the building of the document. If they have any questions, they can address them at the many public forums that will follow the process. There will be a section on the website where pilots can make comments about the airport on a volunteer basis. Jeff said he hopes to get the acoustical counters installed in the next week or so. These will run continuously for at least a year to count the arrivals and departures at the airport. Also he has ordered and will install two motion sensor cameras that can photograph aircraft arriving and departing the runways on either end. This will give us the information of the types of aircraft using the airport currently. The Advisory Council discussed the two surveys that will be done. One will be for pilots to answer and one will be done through the City of Kalispell, being a random survey about the airport. The pilot survey will ask about how long people stay, what is their business, how much money they spent while in Kalispell, and several other useful questions. This survey is patterned from similar surveys conducted around the State of Montana at different airports. The Advisory Council gave the Airport Manager a copy of the dozen "one liners" the Advisory Council has been using for the past several years when talking to groups. They asked to have it updated and sent back out to them. The meeting adjourned at 5:00 P.M. Respectfully submitted,,-.--- ) Airport Advisory Council