MLAA Board of Directors
Directors Meeting REPORT
September 9, 2008
Members Present: Dave Elliott, Mark Shook, Verlin Schauer, Ron Lee, Richard Martin, Jamie Johnston, John Scott
Absent:
Joe Kuberka, Robert Brightwell.
1. Call to Order: 6:03 p.m.
2. Opening remarks by Dave Elliott
3. Introduce Brad Miller
Introduced the new MLAA attorney, Brad Miller. His rate is $145/hr. and he will always get suggested work approved by an MLAA officer before he begins work.
4. AWOS Jerry Stooksbury
Agenda rearranged to discuss the AWOS issue with Jerry Stooksbury. Aviation Specialists Ft. Collins. He has 20 years experience as a flight instructor and pilot. He works with the CDOT Aeronautical board to deploy cameras around the state. Since our Super Unicom is gone, MLAA is exploring options for its replacement. While an AWOS 3 is preferred, if funds don’t fall as anticipated from the state, we may elect to go with something that is less expensive. The problem with these less expensive systems is that currently, unless the entire sensor suite is certified it cannot be put on the Federal data collection system. Whatever sensors are not certified, their data is provided as advisory data only. Jerry recommended the DIGIWX II AWOS System. The cost to include site prep, tower, installation, training and one year telephone support was $63,600. An option highlighted is to add the 80171-AWOS Laser Ceilometer (25,000 feet) for an additional $28,000.00. Annual maintenance costs were estimated to run at a maximum of 10% . Dave Elliott stated that MLAA probably wouldn’t see the money from a FAA or State Grant until next spring.
5. Time of Board Meetings
The next issue discussed was the time of the board meetings. Since no members have elected to attend these evening meetings Richard Martin made a motion to move the time of the meetings to 3:00 p.m. Verlin seconded the motion and it was approved by all present.
6. Approval of Minutes
Mark Shook presented the meeting minutes for approval. Dave Elliott noted some possible errors and suggested that we all take time to read and review the minutes, and we would vote on them next month.
7. Treasurer's Report
Verlin Schauer provided the treasures report, highlighting the fact that it was prepared after a lot of effort was done by Dave Elliott to reconcile the previous two years worth of data. The -15 grant for $500,000 has been received by the FAA and transferred and paid to CDOT. There is an issue of interest due, and Jim Sirhall from ADG is working with CDOT on the issue.
8. Communications
Dave is preparing a quarterly letter to go out to the membership. It should be complete by the end of this week. Included will be two enclosures. One will be the association revenue and expenses, and the other is a letter to new owners and tenants (that landlords will be encouraged to provide to their tenants).
9. ACC Report
Joe Kuberka was absent so there was no ACC Report.
10. By Laws
Proposed By Law revisions to be worked with Dave Elliott, Jamie Johnston and the FAA and CDOT.
11. Inter-Agency Coordination
Nothing to report.
12. Master Plan/ALP (& PUD Update)
Nothing to report.
13. Land Reimbursement.
FAA -15 and CDOT Grant 08-00V-01 ($13,157) have been received and loan payments forwarded (land reimbursement). FAA -16 ($126,360) has been approved and is pending receipt.
14. Resolutions:
None
15.CIP Update.
Dave asked Ron if he had any estimates from the State on what it would take to get the runway and taxiways up to standard. CDOT CIP (Capital Improvement Program – which includes FAA Grants) review for the coming year is scheduled for Oct 17th. MLAA has requested line items for paving/painting, AWOS and our final payoff of the SIB loan.Shawn Peterson, John and TK came down. Ron and Dave will work together to collect those estimates.
16. MLAA Business Plan
ADG still needs to provide MLAA with a monthly report for their progress to date. “Stakeholder” interviews are being conducted. First payment from CDOT Grant 08-00V-02 ($22,238) has been made.
17. Planning
Nothing to report.
18. Facility Report.
Ron Lee submitted a facilities report highlighting the number of lights operational, pavement condition inspection results, the 5010 inspection results, runway markings repainting issues, airport security and promoting an airport clean-up day. Saturday, September 20 from 8:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. was selected. Members will be encouraged to come with their weed eaters to help trim vegetation around the taxiway lights before winter.
19. Vehicle/Equipment Report
Richard Martin stated that on October 4 the Navy will play the Air Force, and Lee Wolford is coordinating 10 planes to stay at Meadow Lake as transient aircraft.
20. Beacon Replacement project
Richard Martin stated that the beacon is here, but very heavy. The association will need to rent a lift with bucket, to help install the system on the tower.
21. Fire Fighting Water Storage/Fire Extinguishers
Thanks to Ron Lee the fire extinguishers have been recharged and inspected. Property markings are being placed on September 10 to show what we own, so we know where we can place the water storage tanks. Verlin would prefer to see the water tanks go on the west side where it is paved, so when the fire trucks are filled with water they won’t sink in mud.
22. Enumeration
Dave Elliott is working with the county on this issue. Some lots do not have any numbers and possibly a few hangars if they did not pull the proper building permits. He also stated that some people have complained because the county is charging non-aviation businesses for business permits. The private property on the airport is zoned as non -residential with an airport overlay. The tax rates are listed as non-residential on the airport. Only aviation related businesses are protected from being assessed a business permit on the airport.
23. Signs
Mark Shook is uncomfortable with the signs being located in the taxiway easement. He wants a more uniform sign code.
24. Meeting adjourned at 8:18 p.m.
MLAA Board of Directors
Meeting REPORT
August 12, 2008
Members Present: Dave Elliot, Jamie Johnston, Joe Kuberka, Ron Lee, Richard Martin,
Mark Shook. Representative members: John Scott and Robert
Absent: Verlin Schauer, due to health issues.
Call to Order: 6:03 p.m. by Dave Elliott
Opening Remarks: by Dave Elliott
1. Let’s delay the Joint Planning Conference with CDOT and FAA until September, and delay the by-law vote till October. More explanation will be provided later.
2. I apologize for the confusion about a workshop meeting on August 4.
3. This past weekend I was able to balance the books for the past two years, and the statement from the CPA should be ready by the next meeting.
4. Grant money is still flowing in. So far we’ve received $8,500 from the Feds and $16,000 from State grants. There’s one more grant for land reimbursement we’re working for $126,360.
Approval of the Minutes:
Mark Shook shared a draft copy of the MLAA Board of Director Meeting Minutes from July 08, 2008. The recording device malfunctioned after the first hour, and it will take longer to complete the draft. Dave Elliott suggested we table the approval of those minutes to the next meeting.
MLAA Reports:
Treasurer’s Report
1. Dave provided a budget worksheet that shows actual expenses from 2003, 2004 2005 2006 and 2007. The proposed budget for 2008 is based on a five year average.
2. We received $21,000 from the State for back gas sales tax.
3. The $500,000 for the first grant this year is being sent by electronic funds transfer to our bank.
4. We still owe $6,611 on the loan.
5. Every July the state talks to all 57 state airports to get an update on projects they would like to accomplish with state funds. Dave Elliott and ADG brought 14 new projects from MLAA to their attention. This is an unusually high number of projects. In the past we have always used our money to pay off the Land purchase loans. Now that the loans are being paid off, we are inputting data to help forecast future projects for their Capital Improvement Plan (CIP). Once a project is on the Capital Improvement sheet these projects can be reprioritized as dollars flow.
6. These proposed projects would be funded 80% by the Feds and CDOT and 20% by MLAA.
7. Our top four projects are a group of things we would like to put together as a single project. They are:
a. Acquire the Penkhus/Johnston Property and move the proposed runway north, adjusting the master plan accordingly.
b. Attach an administrative building to the south end of the Penkhus/Johnston hangar with a large meeting space and kitchen. On the north end of the Penkhus/Johnston hangar build maintenance bays, where we can work on equipment inside, during the winter.
c. Build a transient ramp between the Penkhus/Johnston hangar and the current Airport Restaurant hangar.
d. Install a 24 hr. fuel facility
Richard Martin said our first priority should be a 24/7 fuel facility.
Concerns were raised about having the fuel farm on the west side of the airport, because it would be hazardous with the glider tow plane rope bouncing across the ground at that area. Dave Elliott said that was an issue that needed to be taken into consideration.
High Flights: John Scott stated that catapult wench was warped and it wouldn’t be fixed for at least six months.
During the treasurers discussion, Mark Shook brought up the issue of the Super UNICOM/AWOS situation. The State of Colorado currently only approves a “Cadillac” model of AWOS. This is great for large airports, but budget unfriendly to small airports. Mr. Stooksbury has asked them to consider the option for smaller airports to have a compartmentalized version of AWOS without the ceiling—which could be installed at a later date. The manufacturer is considering a beta test site for this second alternative model. Jerry mentioned promoting MLA as the test site. When the Super Unicom died, this actually helped support the case to have the work done here at Meadow Lake. Jerry Stooksbury would like to come visit us with a Power Point presentation .
Back to the Treasurer’s Report:
8. At the next CIP we can re-prioritize items as necessary.
9. Past Due accounts. Dave has been working on the last two years of records to try and establish the past due accounts. What he’d like to do is wait one more week to have the CPA finalize his findings. Then notify the membership of the things we’d like to accomplish with our budget. Once we can show them what we plan to do with their money, then we can call people about the past due accounts. Laura at Chief was kind enough to research and hand write out all the gasoline sales for the last two years.
10. Gas Sales tax: This is something we may want to consider changing in the By-Laws. Right now, everyone pays 6 cents for any fuel purchased here at the airport. Then the state rebates us 4 cents above that for every gallon we sell. Collectively that’s 10 cents coming back to Meadow Lake Airport for each gallon of gas sold. Over the years there has been some contention about who should pay that 6 cents tax and who shouldn’t.
11. Another way to help raise funds for the airport, may be to raise the minimum assessment from $75 to $120 per year. This increase alone would raise the MLAA budget by $4,500 a year. It’s something to just consider at the moment. It would require a 66% affirmative vote of the membership .
ACC Report. Mr. Rodriguez bought the Strickland property and is proposing development down by the cross wind runway. According to Mr. Rodriguez’ letter to the board, this process has been a drawn out legal affair with all the parties involved. The MLAA Board of Directors would like to avoid these legal disputes, and will support his development as long as he meets the following three criteria.
1. He must meet all MLAA rules, including the required building setbacks.
2. He must not infringe on any taxiway easements on the homeowners side.
3. He must provide a drainage plan
Dave Elliott will write a letter to Mr. Rodriguez stating we have not objection to his concept if he addresses these three issues. Dave will try to get a draft to the members by tomorrow.
By-Law Report
The date we tentatively set for the membership meeting the Feds and State was Tuesday, August 26th, which is the week of the Democratic Convention. That might make it difficult for the group from Denver to come down to MLAA. Instead, it might be better to put off the meeting to September. While they are adamant about getting some of these changes, the things they need are already in the grant assurances. A new date for the FAA and CDOT to come and talk to the membership about getting these By-Laws incorporated. We can target the last week of September and then vote a couple weeks after that. This Joint Planning Committee meeting should be with the whole MLAA user group, including tenants as well as land owners.
Voting Results from the last attempt to updated the By-Laws:
This was discussed at length. It appears there were some discrepancies in the voting tallies to include problems with the spreadsheet, incorrect rounding, and inaccurate updates from the assessor. If the votes were adjusted for some of these issues, it appears that 42% voted yes for the total revision package, but if given a choice, 74% preferred the individual items.
When these individual items were tallied: (Of those members voting)
100% of the people agreed with the use of the airport issue.
73% agreed to the Dissolution issue.
73% agreed with a 2 yr. director term.
91% agreed with updating the mailing address
100% agreed about the required duties of the treasurer
100% agreed with the Business Management issues
and 96% agreed with the fuel dispensing issue.
This highlights the fact as a membership we are in agreement on some of the by-law changes that need to take place. We just disagreed on voting the entire package as a whole (which did not pass) or whether we would approve or disapprove each item on a stand alone basis.
Business Plan Update
So far ADG has not billed anything to MLAA. However, Joe Kuberka pointed out that we still have yet to receive their monthly report on the actions they have taken so far. Dave Elliott will check on the status of that report.
Facility Report:
1. Ron Lee has 90-95% of all the lights working. The goal is to
have 100% of the lights operational by the end of the month.
2. CDOT is coming for the pavement condition inspection Thursday.
3. The 5010 inspection will take place Thursday as well.
Most items have been corrected since the last inspection.
We’ll decide after the inspection if we’ll paint the runway this year
or not.
Dave Elliot suggested creating an icon similar to a rail road crossing icon, (with an airplane on each side, be painted to show airplane crossing areas.
Vehicle Report:
1. Richard Martin stated the big broom (18 foot) is out of action because it is spitting out oil.
2. They are currently working on fixing the little broom.
3. The beacon is ordered and will take four weeks to arrive.
Safety Report:
1. Joe Kuberka asked if anyone had discussed the road incidents with Wray Pedro. The first note to be sent out will be sent to Wray.
Incidents are still occurring and need attention. Airplanes have the right of way on all pavement inside the airport. Many vehicles are driving too fast to be able to yield to aircraft if necessary.
2. There are problems with the “Echo” taxiway where the concrete and as[halt meet west of Blue Sky. If a plane taxis too fast it can shred a propeller. This needs to be addressed.
Communications Report:
Mark Shook states that as a board we are ahead of our promised goals for the year. He also stated it is time for an updated news letter. He stated numerous people have favorably acknowledged the increase in communication between the board and the membership. The website viewing hits are up over 10% this year over last year. Last year totaled over 50 thousand page views.
Old Business:
Dave Elliot spoke for Verlin. The fire cheif did not like the pond retention idea. The tanks will be moved but we are waiting for the transient ramp final decision before we bury the tanks. Both Richard Martin and Dave stated we need to have a hard road surface available by the water tanks for the fire trucks.
Mark Shook stated the mini-monsoon we had last week was a good test for our drainage ditches. The elephant pond went from dry to full from that one storm which dumped at least 2 ¼ inches of rain.
Thanks to the High Flight Soaring Club and Richard Martin for removing the fence on the west side.
Signs:
Jamie Johnston showed the various signs that had arrived for the airport. Three types of signs were made:
1. Signs were made for taxiways
2. Information signs were made for the entrance into the airport
discussing airplane right of way, and the potential to be seen on surveillance video.
3. Business signs were created to help emergency vehicles find various hangars on the airport. Signs were made for all the businesses listed on the MLAA website business directory. Should other businesses request a sign, arrangements can be made through Jamie Johnston.
4. Robert Brightwell offered to help dig the holes for the signs using the auger on the back of his tractor. The sign installation process should begin next Monday.
Next Meeting:
The next MLAA Board of Directors working group meeting will be held, Tuesday, August 26 at 9:00 am at EW Systems.
Dave Elliott stated that use of the internet and email is for drafting purposes. Not for final documents or voting. Email is used just to get everyone’s thought process going. He appreciates the diverse group of people working on the board this year and appreciates the fact that we are all working so well together. If you want your email message to be confidential, please mark it as such, otherwise, Dave will respond to all board members, so everyone is kept in the loop. The goal is to try to avoid factions on the board.
Mark Shook discussed the Sunset Metro Water District request asking us to allow them to divert water off of the property they sold to us. They had sent the official request today and Mark immediately turned it over to the new attorney. After looking at it briefly, it was the attorney’s recommendation not to do anything in haste, but perhaps give it to a water attorney to review. Since no benefit was immediately foreseen for MLAA, the board agreed it was not necessary for us to consume funds to hire a water attorney to support a “free” request from Sunset Metro Water District.
Richard Martin stated he would like to go on record as saying that we should do nothing with Sunset Metro or at least get a water attorney. It is our fiduciary duty to protect our water rights.
Dave Elliott said any water considerations needed to be part of the overall MLAA strategic plan. Anything we do must include the long range implications.
Mark Shook noted the fast response from our new attorney, Brad Miller.
Ron Lee brought up the fact that Lloyd Remus had sent an email earlier in the day resigning from daily runway FOD checks. Ron Lee agreed to pick up this duty. Dave Elliott stated the airport reimburses individuals for their gas while they are conducting this service.
Mark Shook made a motion to adjourn.
Ron Lee seconded the motion.
The meeting ended at approximately 8:30 p.m.
