Dec 10, 2020 Airport Advisory Board on 2020-12-10 1:00 PM (SPECIAL CALLED MEETING)
December 10, 2020 Airport Advisory Board
Full Transcript
Good afternoon. This is a special call meeting of the city of Denton at Airport Advisory
Board for Thursday, December the 10th, 2020. And we do have a quorum. And so the first
thing on our agenda is to do the Pledge of Allegiance. And I guess we can attempt to
do that here. It's kind of hard. Everybody stand up. May we're is allowable to do this
religious sitting, but we'll try that. So I hand over the art. I pledge allegiance to
the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation
under God, indivisible in liberty and justice for all. And now the Texas Pledge. Honor the
Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to the Texas one state under God, one and indivisible.
All right. So the next item is presentation from members of the public. And I know that
we have received one email comment. And are there any others on the phone or any others
that we're aware of at this point? No, sir, there are no callers on the phone. Okay. Alright.
And the one comment that that we have received is related to item AAB 20-022. So I guess
we can address or deal with that when we get to that point. Yes, sir. So the next item
for consideration is approval of the minutes of November the 12th, 2020. And I think you've
all been provided with copies of those minutes. And are there any additions, corrections or
adjustments that need to be made? If not, entertain a motion for approval. Looks like
Lauren's trying to move approval. Okay. But but no voice. All right. Well, we'll work
with that. I see the hand. We have a second for that. And Aaron's can second. Okay, as
a second. So and I see your hand is joining us now. And so so we have a motion and a second.
And so all those in favor, raise your hand. So looks like it is approved. So we will move
on to the next item. Item AAB 20-022. Consider the approval of an amendment to the airport
rules and regulations section 5-11. Dual storage tanks and consider a recommendation to council
for repeal of ordinance 2008-129. So we have previously discussed it at our meetings before.
And so this time I'd like to recognize Chase Patterson from staff that will kind of update
us on this. And and we you know, we'll we can note the comment that we received from
from one person that has an opinion about it. So Chase, you want to kind of update us
on this? Yes, Mr. Chairman, members of the board. As you did mention, we have spoken
about this rule change a couple of times back in November meeting November 12th, the board
voted to bring forward a formal rule change for this meeting to be voted on. What you
have in your packet is the background of everything we've gone through in previous meetings as
well as the ordinance and a clean version of the the rule. Airport staff, we posted
that at the terminal building for the minimum five days before the meeting was well well
before that time. We also posted that proposed rule change on our website. The comment pertaining
to this stated something along the lines of asking us to require the 10,000 gallon tank
size stated other airports require that in some airports don't even require or allow
self fueling at all. While we're not allowed to deny tenants the rights to self services,
we are allowed to put in place rules that that allow us to manage those in a in that
nature. So we're not allowed to deny those self allowed to have those certain qualifications.
Now we aren't we aren't I'm not here to discuss another airports compliance. I have no idea
what what they have in place and who those airports may be but we reached out to the
FAA and they saw our numbers as being being arbitrary numbers that that were were seen
to to not be compliant. So we didn't feel comfortable making a rule change and keeping
it there to to put something in place that could possibly get us in trouble with our
grant assurances and turn out to not be compliant in that nature. So that's that's my response
to that comment. Now, now if the board if the board votes today, the rule will go into
effect 14 days after this vote. Now there will be a repeal ordinance brought to CAC
and Council. If that is the case, and we will not be approving any any fuel fuel self fueling
permits before that time before that ordinance is repealed if it if it is done. So those
will this while this goes into place 14 days after this vote, we will not be approving
any any of those permits until we get that ordinance repeal. Okay. Maybe just a quick
synopsis. Even what we're proposing and looking at approving it's it's not an easy process
what there is a lot of some rules, regulations, containments, things like that. They still
will this will if someone applies for self fueling still will have to contain contain
that have a SWIP spill control plan. They'll have to go through their environmental process
any of the city process development and stuff like that. I believe there's a 50 foot distance
from buildings, they'll have to meet all of those requirements. They will also be remitting
the private fuel fee of 22 cents as opposed to the 14 cents that the FBOs remit to us.
So there still are several things that have to go into place. And if those things cannot
take place within said leasehold, it's still not going to be allowed, it has to take place
on that leasehold and and meet all of the city codes requirements and things like that.
So it's not going to be the wild west. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. These still it still
gives the airport manager to to approve on a case by case basis. They still have to meet
all of those requirements. Things aren't just going to be put up overnight and set where
where tenants see fit. So it's going to have to be somebody that really, really is going
to use this quite often to do this. Absolutely. I don't think it would in my opinion, it doesn't
make sense to spend all this money if they're not going to to use it, you know, it's going
to have to be done the correct way. It's not going to just be, you know, a barrel sitting
out there on the on the ramp was with the hose next to it. So it's going to have to
go through a process. Okay, very good. Any other board members have any comments or questions
related to this? Since we've talked about it, a couple at least two meetings prior and
offered her asked for some comment and this is the only one which is basically saying
that they don't they don't approve the idea but what we're hearing is the FAA is saying
there is no magic number, no number for it. So I guess we we kind of have to go a little
bit with what their words are suggesting to us. So I guess at this point in time if there's
no other comments or questions or we haven't heard from anybody else to our knowledge at
this point, phone calls or white cards coming in. So I guess we could move forward with
voting on a recommendation. I'm sorry, Lauren. I would like to move for approval. Okay. All
right. Lauren's moving for approval. Sorry, I have a second. I think I'm seeing Ed's
mouth move. Ed, are you moving for a second? You're muted. He's seconded. I saw two fingers.
Wave your hand there. Okay. Okay. So so we have a motion and approval or a second and
so I all those in favor for this motion to recommend to the airport rule section 511
that we change the guidelines for fuel storage tanks and to repeal and on the council to
repeal that ordinance 2008-129. So all those in favor show your hand. Okay. All right.
Motion passes. So moving on to item C monthly operations report. Chase, are you going to
be handling this for us? That is correct, Mr. Chairman. We have a monthly operations
report in your packet. You'll notice operations for the overall total, we're just plus about
0.6% right on target with where we were last year. So even with the COVID issues and everything,
we're right on track to finish really close to where we were with our overall operations
last year. You'll notice the fueling started over. We do that on fiscal year. So it started
over October 1, down about 0.3%, but at roughly right where we were at this point last year
for fuel sales for the month of October. Excuse me, Chase. Mr. Chairman, I see that Ed's
video went out. I think it's a requirement that we have to be able to see him in order
to continue because he's our fourth. Okay. Ed, are you hearing us? Yes, I am. I'm trying
to get it back here for some reason. Did you just happen to touch the stop video? There
we go. There we go. Now we're back. Okay. All right. Sorry. Thank you, Mr. Chair. All
right. I'll continue down to incidents. On November 6th, we had an aircraft exit the
runway and cross to the ramp and cross Alvin Bravo without clearance from the tower. That
was a pilot deviation. That person was dealt with by the tower individually. We also had
on November 24th, we receive automated text notifications when there's emergencies at
the airport. So fire was dispatched to a building on the airport, turned out to be a false alarm,
false fire alarm. So there was no fire indicated there on the 24th. And then we have wildlife
occurrences listed there below, as well as historical fuel and operations for your review.
Questions on ops? Nope. Okay. Seeing none, you want to move on to the construction report?
Move on there. So we have a few items listed there. The West parallel runway lighting.
We actually just got a closeout letter today that everything will be processed. But that
was completed and opened up on November 10th. So we have two fully lit runways with approaches
in the airport facility directory update coming December 31st. We'll continue to monitor that
if there's any changes in that day, we'll bring that back to you and keep you informed.
But that's still on schedule for December 31st. And Mr. Chairman, if I can, on those
approaches, we were successful in getting the FAA as they were designing the new approaches
to the new runway to also modify our existing ILS approach with a sidestep approach, which
allows us, you know, the ILS approach into the other runway if for some reason, the primary
runway was down, it would still give us ILS capabilities. So that was that was good news
to us. So we have GPS to both approaches to both
ends on the new runway as well? Yes, sir.
Okay. All right. All right. I'll move down to airport roads. We don't have an update
on that. We do have been speaking with our internal drainage department, they're going
to begin working on some of the drainage ditches along the roads to clean those up where we
just put in that the new asphalt paving on the south end of the airport. And then another
piece we've started is a airport pavement management program. With help from KSA engineers,
we're working on, we've done the core work, our geotechnical work, I think we did 23 core
locations on the runways, or the runway, taxiways, as well as a couple of the taxi lanes and
some ramp areas on the field. And we've also done non destructive testing. So though KSA
is working with two outside firms that are doing that work, that work is already completed,
they'll be going through those analysis and putting together a report and putting that
into a program where we can determine what needs to be done to our current pavement,
and what future work we'll continue to do. And we'll log that work into that program.
So that's going to be a big help for us into to forecast some of these projects that don't
compete well necessarily for the tech south funding.
And Mr. Chairman, members of the board, recall that we have a million dollars currently in
city funds for pavement maintenance. So the purpose of getting this done is to really
give us that laundry list of items that need to be corrected. So the those pavements that
are in the worst condition will be the ones that we're going to try to address first.
And then certainly, you know, crackseals things of that nature will also get done. And, and
again, we've already have the funding in place. So we're excited about getting this information.
So we can actually start tackling all the other pavement.
Again, very good. Okay.
How did it go the one night that we shut the runway down to do some evaluation or testing
what was done there?
We actually we actually shut it down for two nights. Those core samples, I believe we had
10 on the runway, 10 or so and then you have the non destructive testing equipment that
makes several passes, I think they had over 400 points just on the runway and alpha alone.
So being that there's two crews out there working on two different projects, we had
to shut down the runways for for two nights. Everything went well, they got the cores done
in the a lot of time, got the non destructive testing done as well.
Okay.
Is that something that we could look forward to, to seeing a report on that and what they
what they learned?
I guess.
Absolutely. Absolutely. I know they're they're starting their analysis phase now they they
also came out last week to do a visual inspection. So they walk every piece of pavement. The
only thing we're waiting on for the from the visual piece is is the main runway. They've
offered to do that in in during inclement weather. So if it's raining or anything in the next
week or so they're going to come out and do that. So it impacts our operations as little
as possible.
Right.
So yes, we will give you a report on on their findings as soon as we have that put together.
Very good. Any other questions comments on the construction report?
Okay, now I guess I would say the annual hanger inspection report.
All right, Mr. Chairman, the we completed our yearly inspections with the fire department
as well as development services of every hanger on the field. We go along with the fire department,
they do their annual inspections looking for any any issues from their end. And then we
look for any issues from a lease perspective or rules and regulations perspective. Those
were all completed. We actually had had one group that had to reschedule. We completed
those early last week. But most of them were completed at the end of October towards the
beginning of November. Fire is still compiling some of their items, as well as airport staff
we're we're putting together a list. And what we'll do is send out an email letter to to
the tenants if they had any rule or regulation violations, according to our our new rules
and recs. So we'll be putting that together and doing re inspections as we need and follow
up with those tenants on a case by case basis.
Overall everything went well I mean you didn't see any
Yeah overall overall everything went well from a from a fire safety perspective, there's
always going to be we have done these for four or five years we find something, but
nothing that that stood out to me as out of the ordinary this year. And as far as the
rules and regulations go, you know, this being a new process for us, we did find some stuff
but again nothing out of the extreme out of the ordinary. Okay. All right. Any comments
from the board members? Okay, so item four is Council Airport Committee, City Council
Airport related matrix. Chase, are you doing that early and doing that?
Yeah, I can do it. Chairman, Chairman members of the board. Last time we met, I don't believe
the lease assignment for SAM sub SAM sub had been completed. That went to City Council
on November. I'm sorry. Yeah, November 10. And that was approved. The consent to collateral
went to the Council Airport Committee on November 30 and was approved. And it went on Monday
to the City Council and that was approved there as well. A pending item that is going
to go on here that we weren't able to do because it wasn't approved this meeting will be the
repeal for the ordinance and that will be scheduled to go to the Council Airport Committee
on December 22. Okay. All right. And what was the name that
you had on the first one you said it was a S sound of word?
SAM sub LLC. It was originally Plains of History and the assignment was to SAM sub and then
I hope that's how you say it because that's how I say it in my head. And the collateral
agreement was the one that we just wrapped up on.
I thought I heard Sam's son, but okay. Very good. So any questions, comments in reference
to that from any of the board members? All right. Well, I guess that moves us down to
concluding items. And I think, Lynn, you have something that you wanted to let us know about?
Yes. The next airport advisory board meeting will be bringing forward two action items,
changing our bylaws to basically to match the city's bylaws that they have. Scott, we're
going to be adopting those or just amending our current bylaws, adopting those. And then
the second is going to be recommending the change of our regularly scheduled meetings
from 530 since we're going to be continuing on with COVID restrictions with the city.
We can't hold meetings at 530, so we'll need to find a regularly scheduled meeting time
where we can bring forth the airport business permits for ratification.
So as an example, we would stay at this one o'clock time on Thursdays. Is that what you're
suggesting? It seems to be the time that works for everyone.
We can, Scott, we can send out an email and try to make sure that that's the best time.
Another issue trying to do the regularly scheduled meeting is going to be making sure the room
is available so I can book that out in advance. So I will definitely look at the room availability
to make sure that that's a time that we can have a regularly scheduled meeting.
Okay. Did they set it up in blocks? I mean, if it's not one o'clock, can it be two or
does it have to be three? Yes.
So why don't we get a, we'll get a poll to the board members and see day of the week
and time that works best and then bring that forward with the action item.
Okay. And then we will book the room for that time
for the foreseeable future so we can ensure that we have that slot to do a meeting.
Yeah, I didn't know whether the one o'clock time is working for the other board members
or not, whether it, you know, then right next to lunch hour time, I didn't know if that
was causing a problem. I see Ed's in his cars. I don't know what that means.
I just want to point out, I am not on the set of Game of Thrones, just so you know.
I love your background. I think it's gorgeous.
It's actually a warehouse space that I'm officiating. It's the Panhandle House recording studio,
which is across the street from the post office. I'm actually out here in their warehouse space.
This used to be the Headley Buick dealership. And the Headleys, if you ever get a chance,
the archive.org, I think, has interviews with the Headleys and they were very big deal in
1912 and they have a lot of interesting history to share. So anyway, I thought I'd give an
explanation why we're making fun of where we.
Okay. Yeah.
And Mr. Chairman, I have one additional concluding item. And you may have seen some of the emails
go out requesting our tenants to complete their storage permits, which is part of our,
which is part of our new regulations. We have gotten some feedback, or at least Leanne has
gotten some feedback of not being so happy with that request, thinking that it has something
to do with taxes or something like that. It has absolutely nothing to do with that. It's
part of our requirements to be FAA compliant for denoting our based aircraft. So that's
how we collect it, because those documents are not our tenants. They are typically sub-tenants.
But it allows us to respond to the basedaircraft.com website, which is our FAA input site. And
if people have questions about that, they certainly can visit that site. It has a statement
on the front that talks about why it's necessary. And very simply, people were reporting their
aircraft based at multiple airports. And therefore, the FAA and the NIPIUS was over-exaggerating
the number of actual airplanes in the system. So this was the way to solve that was to require
the airports to actually get documentation to showing that the airplane was based at
one location. So that's what that's about. If you do get any phone calls, we're certainly
here to help answer any questions or dispel any rumors of we're looking for tax money
or stuff, because we don't get any of that. All we're looking at is just to be compliant.
So just want to give you a heads up, and we can provide more information at the next meeting.
Okay. That's not that information is not gathered when they do the inspections, the hangar inspections?
We do both. But because we've got the new regulations in process, we haven't actually
got a permit from anybody that would that they've submitted with that information. So
all we've been able to do is visual. And if the airplane is gone, then we don't know it's
there, right? We don't know what the N number is. So this was the way to document that so
that Chase can then enter all of that information in his staff into basedaircraft.com. As you
know, when we do our operations report, the base aircraft are listed there. That's what
that's all about. Okay. All right. Okay. That's all I see on our agenda. Does anybody else
have anything they wanted to put forward or talk about the next meeting? So anything interesting
happening out at the airport that might be nice for all of us to know about? I know I
see U.S. Trinity's completing some of their remodeling work, and it looks like things
kind of did a virtual grand opening. Yes, they did complete that. And again, when we
get to the regularly scheduled meetings, then they will actually come to the meeting virtually
and present what all they're offering. And then any of our new businesses will be required
to do so. All of our existing businesses will not be required. They certainly will be invited
if they would like to come speak to the board. But as now, once we change that regularly
scheduled meeting, we'll be able to bring them forward and introduce themselves and
talk about their businesses. So that'll likely happen at our February meeting.
Okay. All right. Well, if there's nothing else, I guess we can consider the adjournment
of the meeting and appreciate your time and you all have a happy holiday. So thanks again.
Thank you, everyone. Thank you.
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