02-28-97 Airport Minutes (Special Mtg)Minutes from February 28, 1997 Special Meeting
The meeting began at 11:30 a.m. Present were: Gib Bissell and Art
Thompson from our board; Mike Strand from Strand Aviation; Dave
Gabbert from the Helena FAA office (other FAA officials had to
depart early due to an emergency); and numerous board members of
the Montana Aeronautics Board.
After discussion of different funding options with Dave Gabbert and
the Montana Aeronautics Board and staff and reviewing other airport
projects throughout the State, it was felt that a master plan is
essential to procure any Federal funding. Dave Gabbert apologized
that he did not explain the funding process in more detail during
his December 1996 visit to Kalispell, but that a master plan is
required by his agency. A master plan, taking into account the
amount of research already done by the City, would cost about
$75,000, would take 7-9 months to complete, and would require a
Request For Proposal (RFP).
The radio towers and land acquisition remain critical issues to the
FAA. We requested that an analysis of the radio towers be
conducted as part of the master plan and that this be done as the
first step in the master plan. Mr. Gabbert agreed and is going to
begin a preliminary airspace analysis on his own of the towers as
soon as we supply him with the latitude and longitude of each
tower. One tower is definitely in need of being moved, however the
second tower is on the border of being acceptable.
Land acquisition will also need to be addressed early on in the
process, but can be accomplished by the master plan engineers.
The FAA has agreed to fund 90% of the master plan and Montana State
Aeronautics officials unofficially agreed to pay the balance.
(Normally the State will fund 5%. ) We should know the level of
State funding this week.
Our recommendations are:
1. The City needs to complete and advertise for the RFP
immediately.
2. Aviation engineering firms considered need to have staff that
can also analyze the radio tower situation.
3. Even without federal funding, a master plan would be a
Airport Advisory Board Meeting
February 28, 1997
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valuable tool and the FAA is now willing to pay $75,000.00, so
we should act immediately while the funding is available.
4. A firm completion date needs to be specified in the contract.
Check the work load of the firm.
5. During key points of the master plan, either the City or the
FAA could decide not to pursue FAA funding and the airport
could then proceed using only City and State money without
delaying the project any more than is necessary.
6. The City needs to designate a time for Airport Authority
meetings and begin immediately to conduct them.
The meeting adjourned at approximately 1:00 p.m.
Kathy Kuhlin, Recording Secretary
per Gib Bissell, Chairman
V,