Apr 08, 2021 Airport Advisory Board on 2021-04-08 1:30 PM

Good afternoon. It is Thursday, April the 8th and this is a meeting of the city of Denton Airport Advisory Board and we have four members in attendance right now and so we can begin the meeting. I understand that I need to report that three of our members are not able to be here, that's Micah Hope, Lauren Upshaw, and Robert Ismert have all had excuses that are excused absences from this meeting. So we will move forward and start the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance and the Pledge to the Texas Flag as well. So place your hand over your heart and repeat after me, "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 with liberty and justice for all." And now honor the Texas flag, "I pledge allegiance to the Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible." Okay. All right. So looks like the next thing on our agenda is to approve. Oh, we have to have election of the chair and the vice chair for this coming year and I guess they have an acorum. We have the ability to do that. So the first thing that we need to do is open the floor to any members that wish to put their name in place for the chair of the advisory board for this coming year. So the floor is open now. If anybody wishes to put their name in there, I'd like to put my name on the floor to continue doing that if I might. And anybody else who would like to do that, certainly welcome to do that. I think you're doing a mighty fine job. We'll keep it there. All right. Well, hearing no other nominations, I guess we'll close those and I'll vote for the chairman, which is myself, Robert Tickner, for this upcoming term. And so all those in favor say aye or raise your hand. Okay. So that's approved. So I guess I get to continue on. Thank you. So now we need nominations for the vice chair in the event that I'm not able to be at a meeting. And so open the floor again to anybody that wishes to put their name or nominate somebody, I guess, to be in there. Robert Ismer is our current vice chair. And Robert, with his work schedule, has not been able to make a meeting for a long time. And he kind of indicates that might continue for the rest of his term, which is through the end of August. So I don't know that that he would have been interested in continuing. So we might need to have a new vice chair. So anybody wish to step up on that? I'd like to nominate Mr. Edgar. Okay. He can do it. I think I saw his head agree to that. No, no, that was it was going this way. All right. I'm okay with that. What about and you okay? Everything you interested? Okay. So all those in favor of Ed Eterans being our vice chair for the airport for this term, say raise your hand, say aye. All right. All approved. So we have our officers for the this next year, I guess. That's kind of what I think we're doing now is the same as all the rest of the boards and commissions since we changed that guidelines here recently. So okay. All right. Moving on. The next item agenda is approval of our minutes of March the 11th. And hopefully you've all had a chance to review those and make any comments or like to make any comments or changes or notations that we need to clarify. I'll move to accept the minutes as presented. Okay. All right. And I get a second from that. Dominic is second to that. So all those in favor say aye. Raise your hand. Okay, we're seeing them. Okay, very good. All right. Now this next thing that we have to do on our agenda is we have to ratify several of the businesses that function on the airport because of our new airport business permitting process. And we're so we're kind of getting caught up, you know, with these people. We did a few of those last meeting. And so this meeting we've got some more and some of them will group together just in the interest of time. But we do want to verify that staff has concurred that they filled out all the paperwork after insurance is in place and that everything is is ready to go. All right. So our first item on the business there is item C item 22 ratification of business airport permit for CFD integration doing business as CFDI arrow to conduct aircraft maintenance and repair services at the Denton Enterprise Airport. So staff have any comments about this business or confirm that everything is in order? Yeah, they chair members of the board. We approved two locations for them. They have an original location at 5077 Sabre and their second location is 5088 Sabre. They put all of their documents together. We took it in as one since it's the exact same business and their risk management approved their insurance on March 22. The first location was approved on December 30 administratively. And the second location was approved February 25 administratively. Okay, good. So they're in the general business of aircraft repair and replacement parts. Okay. And they have been here for for quite some time. Okay, good. Good. All right. So anybody have any questions or somebody want to motion that we approve this airport business permit? I'll move to approve. Okay. And do we have a second? Dominic's going to second that. So all those in favor say aye or raise your hand. Okay. All right. Moving on to item 23, item D 20 item AB 21-023, ratification airport business permit for US aviation group. And as you can look down the agenda, you can see that they have several different things that they're involved in. And maybe what we could do is if anybody has any specific questions about any of these, we can bring that up and talk about otherwise we'll adopt all of these at one time under one motion. But I will note here the different types of businesses that they're in. They're conducting aircraft leasing and rental services. They're conducting aircraft maintenance and repair services. They're conducting aircraft management at the Denton airport. And they're conducting aircraft maintenance technician school services, as well as being a fixed base operator in a flight training service business. And they're conducting on airport car rental concession services at the airport. So maybe staff can respond in terms of all the paperwork's in order. Everything has been approved by risk management and everything looks good. Yes. So I want to add that the reason why all of these are separate is because US aviation, oh, I'm sorry, Scott just chimed in and said we have to call all of them by ID number. So Chair, if you will go down and call each ID number and then back to what I was going to say. Let's see if we have any questions or comments first. I guess I could just do them individually on item 22. That's the one relation to aircraft maintenance and repair service. Anybody have any comments on that? Oh, that's CFDI. We've already done that one. 23 is aircraft leasing and rental services. AAB21-024 is conducting aircraft maintenance and repair services for US aviation. AAB21-025 is replication to conduct aircraft management of USA by US aviation. AAB21-026 is to conduct aircraft maintenance technician school services. And AAB21-027 is for US aviation group to conduct fixed base operator services. And AAB21-028 is for US aviation to conduct flight training services. And AAB21-029 is for US aviation group to conduct on-airport rental car service concession operations. So that covers all of their business activities, which they have filed paperwork individually on each one of those and the proper insurance certificates. Is that correct? Yes. So initially when these were submitted, they were all submitted together and it got really confusing for risk management on which insurance applied to which business and to make sure that we got all of the documentation that we needed. We started submitting them individually. So we required US group aviation to give us seven different airport business permits and put all of the applicable documents with each business permit. So we could submit those individually to risk management and not run into any issues where we were missing a document or insurance or certificate of some sort. We could have combined these all in one, but because I submitted them to risk management separately for approval, I put them in our agenda separately for approval, but they're all US group aviation. Okay. I think it's good that we get to see what all the different types of businesses that they are doing at the airport. So I think this is all fine, but maybe if it is appropriate since we named all those items individually and if any board member doesn't want to pull one to discuss individually or request a vote on it individually, let's just vote them all in at one time. So I learned that since I'm a voting member, I can make a motion and I can second motions. I've been thinking that I couldn't do that, but I'll move that we approve all of this at one time. Somebody wants to second that? Dominic is going to second that. And so all those in favor of approving these seven business permits, raise your hand. All right. It's approved four zero. So, okay. All right. So that moves us to a monthly operations item K on our agenda. And so I guess chase would have some information on this for us. Is that correct? That's correct. Mr. Chairman, members of the board, I do have operations for March 2020 versus March 2021. We did have an increase in total operations, but just under 24%. So 23.6% from March of last year to March of this year, we did see a big boost in VFR and local ops. We did have civil air patrol was doing a training with some of their Cessnas with the air force actually out on the field. So they had at one time anywhere from 15 to 20 172s that we don't normally have out on the field that were conducting operations for kind of the last week of March was their big push. And then we'll see some trickle over into the beginning of April as well. So that was a big increase for our local and our VFR itinerant ops. And then we also did see a good boost in our IFR itinerant as well. We're back over the 700 mark, which is kind of where we stay between 7 and 900 is where we generally are with those IFR itinerant operations. We are still down about 10.5% for the year overall. But if you remember from last month, I believe we were down something like 17 and a half percent. So we're getting closer to that mark. And again, we're still only three months into that operation period. Now I'll move down to fuel. We did see a drop, but remember these are February's fuel numbers, because we don't get the previous fuel numbers until around the 15th of the next month. So these fuel numbers don't reflect really those operations that occurred at the end of March and into early April. So we do hope to see an uptick in avgas usage there at the airport for March's numbers, but we won't see that until next month. Even though we were down just under 13% for February, we still are up over 4% for the year. And again, these are fiscal year numbers, so it goes from October until September. So we are five months in for that fiscal year. And then I have the breakdown by FBO as well at the bottom. Now I'll move on. We did have one alert this past month. They'd have a pilot and a twin engine report an engine outage, just a single side. They did declare an emergency, so therefore fire and EMS was rolled to the airport. They were able to land safely without any issues, injuries or damage. So they were able to make it back to the hangar safely, and fire was able to leave without incident. I have a question about that. I happened to be listening on the live ATC at the time that that was occurring. And so I thought I was pretty impressed with how everybody was handling everything. And I know our fire department got to put their new truck in service, the new ARV truck. So was that the first time that it actually had a roll response? I believe so. We have had some alert ones, but there weren't anything rolled because there was never an alert to an official emergency. I do believe that was the first one. I'll double check and make sure with the fire department, but I do believe that was the first alert they actually rolled the new ARV truck on. And did all that fall into place? I mean, have you had any discussions with them? I mean, are they comfortable with how that all took place? I believe so. I have discussed with them how they love the new ARV truck, haven't had any complaints from it, but they are out. They do come out, test it, check everything out daily. So I haven't had any complaints from them as far as the new equipment. I think they're really going to be able to utilize it to its full potential. Okay. Good. I think this plane that I heard was they reported their problem about 15 miles north. And of course, the tower called the airport as soon as that happened. And the fire department was able to be there and ready for them when they came in. So the response time was really good. So I'm glad to see that. Absolutely. And like I said, they were able to land without incident and fire was there and didn't have to deploy any of their actions there. For wildlife management, we did have two coyotes out on the 19th of March. We're still every day going around those fence lines, checking for holes and stuff like that. You know, with the amount of drainage we have on the airport, there's always some way that something can get inside. But we always try to to get that as much as possible. Okay. Then I have historical operations and fuel as well. And that's all I have for the operations report unless there's any questions. Yes, I do have a question. Will we be looking towards the council thinking back to the storm and so forth that we had? Will we be seeking the council to allot some sort of mitigation, allotment in order to obviously here in Texas, we don't suffer that type of incident often. But once it's often enough, it proves what just happened proves that is a possibility. Are we going to have some sort of allotment that allows us to mitigate that, whether it's, you know, more trucks or equipment to face that type of incident generators and so forth? I don't I don't have anything on that right now. But that can definitely be discussed if that's a question I'll pose to Scott. As far as generators and stuff go, we do have a generator that runs the tower. So we do for all of their radios and equipment up there, one day they transfer lower over from commercial power directly onto that generator. We do not have one for our maintenance shop or our our terminal building, which right now our terminal buildings closed. But generally when we have a winter weather event like this, we don't necessarily base out of that terminal building. There would be a lot of that would be down at the maintenance shop. But that's definitely a question I'll pose. We were able to stay open the whole time. We are looking into the possibility of needing a new brush. You know, our brush did have some issues. So that would be the point of upgrade I would say would be needed there. But as far as a generator and stuff like that, maybe some new vehicles, I would see that coming from that from that brush for sure. But I'll pose that question to Scott. Absolutely. Leanne, go ahead if you want to chime in there. You're muted, Leanne. Scott said they're assembling a number of things to bring to council in regards to your question, Dominique. Okay. That's a good point. And that made me think since you said most of the activity is result revolves around the maintenance building. And with no power, I guess it's you can get the doors open. Okay, they're big shop doors. And what about the fire apparatus? Where they keep that? I mean, is that a problem for them as well? It is. And that's something that that I would say, like I said, all of our most of our operations are based down there. So that is something with these these rolling blackouts, like you said, we don't have them often. But this situation did prove that that is not impossible for that to happen. So that is something we would need to look into is we don't have access to those doors without power. Now for our equipment, most of our most of our winter weather tractors and stuff, you can't get in in there fully anyway, so they are outside, but in order to charge equipment and get any other things you need in and out, that does prove difficult. That's real important that the fire department can get that harv truck out of there. Absolutely. So that needs to be put on the list for sure. Yeah, I'll get that over to Scott. I'm sure we'll have have some updates in the coming months of of whether a battery backup or something on that. Yeah. For sure. Yeah. Okay. Thank you, Dominic, for that question. Leanne has some more information. He's just a part of the they're assembling a number of things to bring to council. And so there's fueling solutions, updated equipment, and they are including a generator in that as well. Okay. All right. Super. So I guess the next item is moving on to our construction report. Yes, Mr. Chairman, members of the board, I do have a couple of updates on that construction report. As far as air traffic control tower upgrades, we do have a council date for April 13. So next Tuesday, for that, after that, that contract does get approved, we will have some discussions, there'll be time for ordering equipment and stuff like that. And we'll get this project kicked off quickly. So that is that is coming next Tuesday, April 13. Okay. Okay. And then as far as I just said, we'll look forward to getting the update on that. Absolutely. And as soon as we get get in touch with the contractor that has been selected, we'll we'll give an updated updated schedule and and when we think this project should be complete. And then moving down to the airport pavement management program, we did get a draft document in last week. So myself and Scott are going over that document, submitting questions, any any issues we find or anything in that document, it's very, very lengthy document, there is a huge section that is all of the scientific and all the facts that they have, but we do have the the main the main body of it that we're taking a look at. And we'll review that go over a few things, make some tweaks and changes to that, and hope to have that next month's meeting for an executive summary with the KSA to present that to the board. I believe next month's meeting is May 13. I believe so I hope I hope to have that by then if not, it'll be for sure be in June, but we're pushing them to get that on that. The May agenda. Okay. I had a couple questions in reference to that. I, I know here I saw a note or you guys sent an email to all the people are interested in airport, and it's that, that the runway we're going to be closed down overnight. I forget what the date was now recently for some geotech cert. We do what's what was that about? That'll be that'll be for a textile project for the for a large runway repair. That's still a project that's in that planning stage. So there's no construction eminent on that. That's still that's just something for our engineering firm that's doing some some core sampling of the runway to get us more information or get text out more information on on what's going on subsurface wise on our main runway. Okay. And is that is that same? I've heard him tell pilots here recently that there was a vehicle negative near the runway. Is that what's going on there? It is those are the surveying company for that this it's very, very in the in the small early stages of that, that type of project, we will have some updates from textile projects in the next couple of months. As far as our runway fix that has been designed. But for that project, that's just geotechnical work for them to get information and they're in the in the early planning stages of that. Okay, good. All right. Anybody have any questions, comments on construction? I see. And I don't know if maybe that's something you might want to add to future construction reports is this kind of update us on what's going on and regard to new hangars and new any new facilities that are taking place on the airport I see. I get out there quite often and I see that there's new hangars going up. So what can you tell us about that right now? We do have one 20,000 square foot hanger on Lockheed. That's near nearing the final stages. I believe they have a final inspection coming up coming up at the end of the month. So that is the the one that's under construction right now. It's it probably will be a privately owned hanger with with office space and their own ranch space and everything like that. I don't I don't know exactly what will be inside from an aircraft standpoint. I know they'll have the ability to lease out their space and stuff like that. So we'll probably expect some some subleasing to some some individual aircraft owners. But at this point we don't we are not fully aware what what will be inside it aircraft wise. Okay. I think you made some mention that there was some drainage work going on here recently by the city drainage department. Are they finished for that or they're not that's still ongoing from a from a drainage perspective. They're they're basically filling in as you know we did our road project last year. This is still a part of that road project from a drainage perspective. They're just cleaning up our ditch lines so that that these roads aren't undermined. I can provide an update on that on the next construction report if the board would like to see that. Very good. Anything else from any other members. Okay. So I guess that moves us to the care the city council airport committee and whether we have any items to send forward to them or have they adopted anything that's been sent or not adopted. What's chair members of the board we don't currently have any pending items on what's in the agenda packet but like chase mentioned we do have as an RFP chase is that what they call it. That's going to the city council on the 13th. For the tower. Yeah for the tower upgrades. That's not in the agenda but it should be on that that that is going for on the airport's behalf to city council on April 13th. Okay. It didn't have to go to council airport committee which is part of the reason why it wasn't in that packet. Okay. And that's all. Very good. Okay. Well that leads us to concluding items and whether we need to have anything brought forth in a future meeting any board members would like to know a little bit more about what's happening or how something is flowing out there. You know I think from you know as I said I get out quite often it looks like things have continued to do well and and I did note that and maybe some of you are basketball fans you know we hosted the UNT hosted some of the NIT games and there were several regional jets coming to go on bringing the basketball teams in and out of the using the Denton airport this past March. So that was nice. I'm sure our FBOs appreciated that. I don't know if we'll get any business I guess what there's a race NASCAR race coming up here in the near future maybe in May I think that might be another opportunity that sees some increased traffic. Have you guys some staff have you heard of anything I mean that Civil Air Patrol thing kind of popped up and that was really good for us. It did and Mr. Chairman members of the board we we have not heard anything as far as race traffic or any any extra traffic coming in for for any more new events. We do expect that our FBOs will be out marketing for those types of events. They do host host events for that for FBOs to to share what types of services they offer and and work with the either race teams or individual folks to to fly into to certain airports. So I'm sure they are making those contacts and having those conversations but we have not been approached by our FBOs for for the need of any extra ramp space for those events. But that is a possibility as that has happened in the past. I think Mr. Ward with US Trinity made mention when he was on last month that that he was getting close to make an announcement of a possible tenant that might be moving their flight operations to to his facilities. Do we have we learned any more about that. We have not. I haven't I have not had any official conversations with Mr. Ward or anybody with US US Trinity. So we'll we'll we will definitely share that with the board if we find anything out from that perspective at future meetings absolutely. OK. Yeah I would be interested in that and whether our I know with things having to be done like this on zoom and all that it's probably put some obstacles be be in front of our economic development people that to work with them on on new new developments or new business opportunities like that. Hopefully we're not missing any opportunities with that. Mr. Chairman both both of our FBOs are very aware of what we can offer from a city standpoint but but I'll double check with both of them and make sure they they're still utilizing economic development development as an avenue for for businesses to bring to the field and they're using them to to bounce some ideas off and stuff like that. OK. Very good. OK. Any other board members have any questions comments or anything you want to see for a future meeting. OK. And then Leanne tell us again what that date is and time you have scheduled the next meeting will occur May 13th at 10 a.m. 10 a.m. Is that that seem to be working for you the ones that are here anyway. OK. All right. So if nothing else we will adjourn this meeting at 2 0 9. So thank you all for coming and appreciate your time.