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04/03/2002AIRPORT AUTHORITY MEETING CITY OF CLEARWATER April 3, 2002 Present: Brenda Harris Nixon Chair Bruce Miller Board Member Bob Lunt Board Member Absent: Gary Benjamin Board Member Ron Streicher Board Member Also Present: Richard Hull Assistant City Attorney William Morris Marine and Aviation Director (departed 3:27 p.m.) Gordon Wills Airpark Operations Manager Brenda Moses Board Reporter The Chair called the meeting to order at 3:00 p.m. at City Hall. To provide continuity for research, items are in agenda order although not necessarily discussed in that order. ITEM 2 – April 3, 2002 Minutes Approval Member Miller moved to approve the minutes of the regular meeting of April 3, 2002, as submitted in written summation to each board member. The motion was duly seconded and carried unanimously. ITEM 3 – Tenant & Lease Report from FBO David King, FBO (Fixed Based Operator), reported the same number of tiedowns and hangars as last month. Fuel prices were lowered this month. The flight school generated over $30,000 in new sales over the last 5 days. Mr. King is purchasing a new helicopter for instructional purposes. In response to a question, Mr. King said he provides monthly updates of people interested in hangars to Airpark Operations Manager Gordon Wills. He said fuel sales generate the highest revenue for the Airpark. Hopes are to move smaller planes into new hangars in order to lease the corporate hangars to owners of larger planes. In response to a question, Mr. King said helicopters at the Airpark fly at 600 feet instead of 1,000 feet and take off and land over taxiways. Although there is no formal flight pattern, helicopter pilots fly 100 feet to the left of any planes taking off and landing during helicopter training. It was remarked that only one complaint was received regarding helicopters flying tight auto rotations. Mr. King said he would be happy to establish a flight pattern for helicopter pilots. Marine and Aviation Director Bill Morris said it is standard practice for helicopters to take off land on taxiways. He felt it would be prudent for helicopters performing auto rotations to do so over the industrial park area of the Airpark to reduce the amount of noise to neighbors. ITEM 4 – Other Business Mr. Wills said PBS&J (Post, Buckley, Shuh and Jernigan) is on track with the scope for the Airpark. He anticipates permits would be in place by the end of July for construction of the corporate hangars. A verbal update from the Engineering Department indicates that readings from the fuel spill that occurred 6 – 8 months ago near the gas pumps came back in the satisfactory range. Mr. Wills said the 200-foot extension on the south end of the Airpark would go out for bid within the next few months. Funds were received yesterday for security enhancements at the Airpark for security cameras, fence updates, card readers, etc. Only 900 feet of the fence needs to be moved. Plans are to have the security system operable and the fence repair complete by April 20, 2002. Mr. Wills said the Civil Air Patrol will participate in the Airpark Open House activities. The newly installed security system will be set up in the Airpark building. Mr. King said a volunteer vocal group would sing at the Open House. He is still working towards finding a plane for skydiving activities. He is offering reduced rate helicopter rides. Klaus Palinkas, HNTB Corporation, said his firm’s architects developed a preliminary construction schedule to be followed upon receipt of SWFWMD (Southwest Florida Water Management District) permits for hangars and the other improvements at the Airpark. He said it generally takes 9 months to complete geotechnical investigations, schematic design review and approval, developmental review and approval, preparation of construction documents, etc. Some items must be done before others, and to try to speed up the process could become costly. Chair Nixon said she wrote a letter to the editor of the St. Petersburg Times regarding an article they reported about Albert Whitted airport. She will share it with Mr. Wills. ITEM 5 – Agenda for Next meeting May 1, 2002 This topic was not discussed. ITEM 6 – Adjournment The meeting adjourned at 3:32 p.m.