The meeting was called to order at 7:00 PM by
President Ken at the EAA hangar.
Present were: Andy Andersen, Dave Martin, Al Cleveland, Ken Hardwick,
Robert English, Debra Plymate, Bob Brown, Dave Martin, Jim Hubule, Norm Rainey,
Jim Pryce, and many guests who attended to hear State Airports Manager Mitch Swecker
speak about the current state of affairs with the ODA and the FAA.
Mitch spoke to the audience after Ken introduced
him. After briefly bringing everyone
present up to speed regarding their search for a new ODA director, still
ongoing, he told us what was going on with the FAA regarding the "through
the fence" agreements. The FAA has
said that they are not planning to enforce the refusal of any TTF agreements,
but the FAA organization at large is still reticent about saying anything more
definite. March 21 is the deadline for
public comment regarding the FAA order, and Mitch encouraged all those in
attendance to make comments about it if they have not done it already.
Mitch said that with the current funding, the
ODA cannot afford with the current revenue streams to maintain the airports
without FAA funding. There were
questions about what kind of alternate revenue could be found to maintain the
airport, though no concrete plans were formulated. The use of the airport can be perpetuated as-is with current
funding if the pilots and residents stay within FAA guidelines.
A question was asked about whether there was any
face-to-face threat made about the withdrawal of funding. The answer was no, that there was only
innuendo. Mitch said there was some
risk in bringing this issue to the highest levels of the FAA because that could
bring an answer that no one wants to hear.
When questioned about noise, Mitch said that he
had only received one noise complaint in a full year whereas the Aurora airport
generates several complaints a week.
This airport is not a civil nuisance by any means, and the most recent letter
to the FAA mentioned that there were almost no complaints about noise here.
There was a reminder about what happened at
Creswell, which affected just two houses but the affect was lethal: the FAA
directed that the tie-down fee go to $68 a year and that the access to the
runway terminate with the sale of the home.
Some comments were made about Dan Clem, and
where his loyalties were when he assisted the negotiation of the last
agreement. Mitch reminded everyone that
the ODA is not the FAA and cannot set policy as the FAA can. Moreover, that Dan did negotiate the best
settlement possible before he left the position.
The order that has everyone concerned is an
advisory and does not have the binding force of a regulation. A question came up about whether this was a
bunch of guys saying that the airparks should be shut down, and Mitch said that
he didn't think the FAA was being that deliberate about this, which brought
welcome laughter from the crowd.
Another question came up about an email that was
circulating regarding the cost of leases going up. Mitch responded by saying that there were a lot of non-standard
agreements in exchange for services such as cutting grass or other labor. It is called "payments in kind,"
and the current attempt is to make that practice above-board and fully legal,
to continue "payments in kind" as they have been. Ken chimed in saying that the ODA was going
to review all of the lease agreements on the ODA-owned hangars at all the
airports including the insurances. He
further said that the ODA was not generating enough revenue to keep itself
afloat and that they were looking for increasing their revenue. Mitch said that what Ken said was
fundamentally correct. He said that the
fuel flow for aviation fuel at Portland International was down by $30,000 a
month, so the agency has to reassess where its money comes from to make sure it
can make ends meet. Since 2001 the ODA
agreement says that they had the right to reset their fees every two years, so
this is normal and not a new practice.
Ken asked that if there were specific questions
before the meeting wound up. One
comment was that there should be some trust for the judgment of Randy Babbitt
of the FAA, and there was hope that his decision would come down on the right
side. Mitch said the ODA was really
working on behalf of the airpark residents and was on our side. Mitch was publicly thanked for showing up
and being so good natured, and those present applauded.
The actual ISAS Board meeting began after a
brief recess to clear chairs. The
second part of the meeting began at 8:07 PM.
The only order of business was to decide who the
Board was going to be for 2010. Ken
provided the sheet to fill in the blanks.
Here is the slate of Board members for the coming year:
IAHA-South
Gary Van Horn
Herb Jolliff
IAHA-North
Norm Rainey
Jerry Pryce
Lessees
Ken Hardwick
Jim Davis (hasn't
shown up)
Airport Business
Debra Plymate
Dave Baker (hasn't
shown up)
EAA 292
Bob Brown
<to be
announced>
OPA
Mark Matthews
Dave Martin
Non-voting Members
AOPA – Norm Farb
OFF - Andy Andersen
ISAS OFFICERS
PRESIDENT: Ken Hardwick
VICE PRESIDENT: Dave Martin
SECRETARY/TREASURER: Robert English
Ken said that the last two meetings did not have
a quorum. The meeting minutes were up
on the web site and were not yet approved, so Ken passed around some copies
from the web so that folks could read them.
All present voted to approve the minutes as posted from previous
meetings.
Treasurer's report: still the same amount,
$42.83.
There was no formal agenda items tonight, though
there were a couple of comments: Jim Pryce said that there was one house in
foreclosure in the North Annex. A lien
had been filed on the property before the deadline. Regarding the State request for N-numbers that has been a thorn
in the side of many residents here: there is a Federal registry for airplanes
but not one for the State, and there is no penalty for not registering your
airplane with the State. The request to
examine hangars for airplanes and report their N-numbers came from the obvious
gap between the planes that are registered with the FAA and those few that are
registered with the State.
Andy had a report from the Flying Farmers:
Saturday April 17 is the day for the APT (Annual Proficiency Training)
Seminar. The actual seminar is 2 to 3:30
and flying will go on all day. If
you're interested let Andy know. There
was also an update regarding the fate of the Airport Safety Zone legislation,
which is not going to pass. The next
State ODA meeting is not scheduled yet, though it will probably be in the
Portland or Salem Area, and they will probably have a new chairman: Mark
Darger.
Carole Gabel has said that their hangar,
traditionally available for the ISAS meetings, won't be available anymore. We will have to find a new place to meet
before our April meeting. The library
downtown was suggested and those in attendance liked that idea. The next meeting will likely be held there.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:46 PM. The next meeting is on Monday, April
12. Respectfully submitted by Robert
English, secretary.
Meeting0111.doc