DRAFT: REVIEWED BY: REBECCA AND KIM & JENNY
THERE MAY BE MORE REVISIONS: 9/29/06
SMITH FIELD USERS’ MEETING
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2006
SMITH FIELD AIRPORT
5:30 P.M.
MINUTES
ATTENDANCE: Tim O’Donnell, SMD Supervisor - FWACAA
Rebecca Ross, Property Manager – FWACAA
Sheryl Kelly, Sr. Mgr. Engineering Services – FWACAA
DISCUSSION PARTICIPANTS:
David DeWald
Sarah Esterline
Larry Zepp
Keith Byer
Margaret Ringenberg
CALL TO ORDER:
Tim called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m.
ITEMS DISCUSSED:
Rules and Regulations - Tim stated a lot of items in the Rules and Regulations were changed; some things were unable to be changed due to FAA, City, County and State regulations. We did provide for comments; if a suggestion was made for a change and we could not change the item it was duly noted.
Tim said he wants to open up today’s meeting to any concerns people may have.
Tim said he went to a conference last week in Denver, Colorado. He said he happened to be at Centennial Airport and as he was flipping through a local newspaper he saw an article concerning Margaret Ringenberg and the WASP reunion in Colorado!
Tim said the purpose of going to Denver was a workshop about minimum standards or what the industry calls guiding documents. It was a workshop about guiding documents, leasing policies and grant assurances for those airports that accept AIP monies. There was information on what other airports are doing. Smith Field Airport (SMD) was mentioned several times as an example regarding the process that we are going through.
Tim said he sat with Chuck Smith from AOPA and also had great conversations with Bill Dunn from AOPA. They were very exited about the way we are handling things and putting the documents out to the users for public comment. This is not a required process. The only thing the State basically requires is that we have a public hearing at a board meeting. We are going above and beyond the requirements. Tim said he is interested in public comments & concerns and we are trying to address them. We are having a second round of public comments before we submit the rules and regulations to the board. Tim asked if anyone has any comments/concerns about the rules and regulations or the minimum standards.
COMMENTS:
David DeWald - David thanked Tim for allowing public input. One of the things David said he has seen come up several times is the following statement, “We need this in here so we can claim the authority for those of us overseeing the airport.” David asked if perhaps that statement could be accomplished in the very beginning via a summary saying that all local, state and federal rules will be given jurisdiction by the authority, without having to spell it out each time. David said he has seen that same comment about six times in the document. Tim said we could have done that, but he does not feel that it is in the authority’s best interest or in the users’ best interest for the authority to police every action at SMD. David asked if Tim has enforcement ability, that is what it sounds like Tim is looking for; if something is being violated Tim wants to have the right to stop it. Tim said only certain things. The document is very specific regarding some of the things that were restated and that might also be in other agencies regulations and that we want within the realm of our enforcement. Tim said we are not going to call the police out to SMD every time there is a pet in the terminal, for instance. We want the jurisdiction and flexibility to handle some problems in the way that we see fit. Tim said a police officer is not going to want come out to SMD and start writing tickets; no one wants that. We need to have some things within our own enforcement rules. Tim gave FAA Regulations Part 91 as an example of something that the Authority does not want to be responsible for enforcing. That is the FAA’s responsibility. Tim said that is why we were very specific in the things we restated and what we wanted under our jurisdiction. David said that makes sense.
Tim explained that the Fort Wayne-Allen-County Airport Authority (FWACAA) has a Real Estate Committee consisting of three board members, the executive director and the property manager. Tim said there was a Real Estate Committee meeting held [on August 23, 2006,] which was attended by Craig and Norene Brown. Tim read the report that he gave to the Real Estate Committee members about the purpose of the rules and regulations:
The purpose of the rules and regulations is to ensure that all users operate
in a safe and orderly fashion and to restrict or prevent any activity or action
that would interfere with the safe and proper use of Smith Field Airport.
The purpose of the Smith Field Airport minimum standards is to encourage,
promote and ensure the delivery of high quality products, services, and
facilities to airport users. The design and development of quality improvements
of facilities at Smith Field Airport. The safety and security of all airport users
and surrounding communities. The economic health of airport businesses and
the orderly development of airport property.
Tim said he also reported on the timeline (up to this point) for the rules and regulations & minimum standards.
Sarah Esterline – Sarah said she was thinking about what David said. Sarah said it just dawned on her that Tim does not want to necessarily have to enforce all of those [pertinent items in the document] but it also states that it is kind of all up to the authority about how things will be enforced. Sarah said Tim will enforce the ones that he wants to then. Tim said it puts it on the Authority; for instance if there is an EPA issue and the Authority does not enforce items that need to be enforced then the Authority will be found liable. The Authority does not want to be placed in the position where it is liable for not enforcing items that need to be. Tim said the Airport Authority’s presence at SMD is himself, from Monday through Friday during business hours.
Tim asked if there were any other comments. Tim said he has not received one reply yet about the rules and regulations & minimum standards. Tim said what he would like to do is to give a two week deadline. Two weeks from today will be the last day Tim will accept written comments on the rules and regulations & minimum standards.
Ken Russell, the AOPA Airport Support Network Representative (ASN) joined the meeting. Tim said that Ken is formulating some comments. Craig Brown is also formulating some comments. Tim asked if anyone had any problems with the two week deadline. Hearing no objections, Tim said he will make two weeks from today the deadline for all comments related to the rules and regulations & minimum standards to be submitted in writing to him. Tim said if anyone needs contact information to please let him know; he has business cards available.
ALP Update – Tim said there has been a conversation with the FAA and our contractor, Aerofinity, and we have a clear understanding of what the FAA wants done and we are currently in progress of completing that work. Tim said that although we do not have a specific date, we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel very clearly.
The FAA was given the Airport Layout Plan (ALP) about two years ago. The FAA first took a look at it starting August 2005 and submitted it back to the Authority and asked the Authority to basically do another survey. The information that we used on the ALP was based on the FAA’s 5010 Master Record, which the FAA maintains. The Authority found out, via an unofficial survey, that the FAA’s information was wrong. The FAA concurred that their information was wrong and that the Authority’s information is correct, but in order to prove it another survey had to be completed by the Authority. Tim said that the Authority got the results back and let the FAA know. The FAA wants the correct information placed on all of the plan sheets, which is where we stand today. Aerofinity, the consultant, is doing this and when completed it will close out our grant with the FAA. Tim indicated that due to the way we are doing the ALP, there are going to be some use areas that are not real specific, specifically, the land side portions of our development. Tim said the goal is to get a completed ALP so that we can move forward with some of our projects, like the A&P facility and the AWOS. As soon as we get the ALP completed, we will need to move forward to complete an update on the ALP to show more specific developments that we would like. We will go through the same process with the Task Force and public meetings.
Larry Zepp stated that the plan has a lot of merit because we can finally get the stake in the ground. Updating that stake is another hurdle, but at least the first stake is in the ground. Tim said that Sheryl, Tory and himself all said the same thing: “Let’s just get this done so that we can move on.” We don’t want to skip anything that needs to be done; we want to meet the FAA’s standards and what they expect for an ALP, especially since they gave us a planning grant to complete it. We want to get the ALP done and then update it as needed and the FAA was agreeable to that.
Larry said it is a living document anyway. Tim said there is no way that we can accurately project every development, especially when you look at an ALP as being a 15-20 year plan.
Keith Byer asked about the timeline. Tim said we are moving forward; it is on the front burner for our consultants.
Ivy Tech Facility~A&P Facility – Tim explained that we are focusing a lot of energy and attention on the A&P Facility. For those that do not know, Ivy Tech has purchased Terre Haute’s A&P equipment and program and their intention is to relocate it to SMD. We are currently working with Ivy Tech and the Anthis Career Center to locate the facility at SMD. Tim said we do not have an agreement at this point with Ivy Tech or Anthis; we are trying to work with them. It isn’t that we are not in agreement, but we have not sat down with them to negotiate that yet, we don’t have time for that; we need to move on the facility now. The Authority is taking a leap of faith in order to make sure this happens in the timeframe we need it to happen. The goal for Ivy Tech is to have the facility up and running on August 7, 2007. If you look at the normal tracking time for a building like this, it should not be done until November 2008. We are trying to fast track it by a year and two months. This is taking a lot of time, energy and motivation to get it done. Tim said we are all working together to get it done. We have a great partnership with Ivy Tech and Anthis. We are helping each other out with any issues that we may see. At this point we don’t have any hurdles, but there is a lot of potential for hurdles. Hopefully we will have the facility up and running by August 2007. One of the major questions we are looking at is that this is going to be a Part 147 school, which means we need to get the FAA to approve it. We have a great partnership with the department that will be approving the program and we are working with them; we are getting positive responses. Our goal is to put a 10,000 sq. ft. facility just northwest of the maintenance hangar with access to Ludwig Road.
Tim said he has met with the Ludwig Park Association and they were very positive. Some of their concerns were in regard to jet engine noise. Our goal is to actually not have that portion of the program at the maintenance hangar. We may have that portion stored in the main hangar at SMD, we are not sure yet. Tim said the engine-runs could be wheeled out to the closed runway. Tim said when he responded with that scenario, there were no other complaints.
It will be landscaped nicely. It is a temporary facility for Ivy Tech to use for three to seven years. During that time Ivy Tech will develop a permanent facility to house the entire A&P Program; this portion right now will just be the power plant. Ivy Tech is hoping to develop a large, permanent A&P Program on the north side. The future use of the 10,000 sq. ft. facility could be for an FBO, common use hangar and some associated terminal building. We can see a lot of potential use for that. With the future plans, the south side is the better location for the facility. Tim asked if there were any questions. There were none.
AWOS Update – Tim said we have an electrical master plan that we hope to kick-off this year. Tim said that he and Sheryl have been working on the plan. What this electrical master plan will do is to provide us the electrical feed to the AWOS location so that it can be plugged in. The AWOS is on the desk of our state historical preservation office. The reason for that is that the property was designated as a historical landmark and for us to put a hole in the ground, we need the preservation office’s approval and that has been holding us up. Once we have the approval, we will put it out for bid. The bid has been written and we will have to do some internal process to get it out on the street. We hope to do that yet this year. Weather will play a factor as well as FAA approval. We have to have FAA certification and we hope to have that done in a reasonable timeframe.
Keith asked if the AWOS will have its own frequency. Tim said we do not know yet; that will come out in the bid process. We are open to whatever works; airports do it both ways. Tim said the feedback he has gotten regarding frequency issues is that if you are on an intercom at a busy airport sometimes you can get stuck. It would be nice to get a discreet frequency which is a year to 18 month process. Tim is fairly confident that just about every AWOS has the ability to upgrade. Tim said an airport on the East Coast uses Super AWOS.
Larry said one of the groups most interested in the AWOS is Parkview Hospital/ Samaritan. Larry asked if this will help SMD’s relationship with Parkview and future development perhaps. Tim said Parkview is going to be a partner on this project; we have worked with them from the beginning. Tim said Parkview is frustrated with the airport’s process but we are working through it. Tim has a message in to them giving them another update. We hope to create an even more beneficial relationship down the line.
Larry said the development with Ivy Tech has to be encouraging to Parkview. Tim said Parkview wants to build a hangar at one of their campuses. The Dupont location is too close to the highway; they are having issues there. They do have their own fuel tanks. We did approach them about possibly putting a hangar at SMD and they basically said not at this time; that door is still open to Parkview. Tim said looking at it from their end, it would be much better for them to have a hangar at one of their hospital campuses. If they can’t, SMD will be their next best choice. Smith Field Airport is right between their campuses. That is why we are putting the AWOS here and that is why Parkview is partnering with us. Tim said you have to be within five miles of an AWOS to be able to use it for an instrument approach to conduct 135 operations. Both of Parkview’s hospitals are more than five miles from an AWOS including FWI. It just so happens that their hospitals are more than five miles apart; SMD is very lucky to be in the position that we are in order to have this partnership with Parkview.
Along the lines of talking to Parkview about the hangars, David asked if Tim can speak to the Authority’s thinking as far as managing hangars at SMD. Is anything going to open up or is it still going to be under the umbrella of Smith Field Air Service? Tim said we are still in negotiations with Smith Field Air Service. One point that has been agreed upon so far is that the Authority will take over management of all of the hangars. Whether that remains throughout the negotiations is not certain; it has not come up. That seems to be a very commonly agreed upon point. Yes, the Airport Authority is taking over the leases. As far as the new developments, the Airport Authority will entertain any development proposal that anyone wants to throw out. It doesn’t mean any commitment will be made; it just means it will be entertained. Before that was not the case due to no ALP; we feel fairly confident where we are at with the ALP process that we will start entertaining proposals and when the time is right for development we will go through with it if it meets everyone’s needs. If anyone has any proposals/ideas, Tim said he will be glad to discuss it. Tim said he has met with one person who would like to consider some development at SMD and there are others.
In the next week to 10 days Tim said he will be doing a t-hangar demand survey/study to see what kind of demand is out there. Tim asked for email addresses and encouraged everyone present to use the sign-in sheet.
Larry said we are making progress. Tim said we are moving forward and we are doing the best that we can. We are trying to act in the airport’s best interest and move forward.
Tim thanked Smith Field Air Service for allowing the meeting to be held at the facility this evening. Hopefully, there has been some progress with customer service. Tim said he has received some positive comments about Smith Field Air Service. He thanked Matt for his hard work.
Sarah asked if there will be another meeting if more comments are received. Tim said he will respond in writing to every comment. The Authority will look at the feedback and consider whether or not most of the concerns have been addressed. The Authority will respond and may go forward to bring it to the board for a public hearing. If we receive comments that indicate there is still a lot of work to be done, we will go through another round. Tim shared that Tory said he wants this done right. Tim said we want to do it the right way and take everyone’s concerns into account.
Tim asked for input about how to improve the process and asked if there is anything that can be done better.
Keith said to just keep things moving.
ADJOURNMENT:
There being no further business, the meeting adjourned.
g:\wpdocs\board\committee meetings\smith field users meeting\09.27.06
jh
|