ISAS Board Meeting

April 11, 2011

 

The meeting was called to order by President Ken at 7:00 PM.  Present were: Dave Martin, Andy Andersen, Ken Hardwick, Robert English, Jim Davis,  Norm Rainey, Jerry Pryce, Dan Jaffer, Mark Matthews, Roger Weber, Dave Thiel, Jeff  Burns, Dave Husser and Paul Sieber.  This was plenty enough for a quorum.  Deborah Plymate arrived later.

 

SECRETARY: The minutes from the January Meeting were printed and passed around for review.  Andy had one correction regarding the region of Flying Farmers mentioned in those minutes was a Tri-State region rather than NorthWest.  Jerry made the motion to approve the minutes as corrected and Dave Martin seconded.  All approved by voice vote.

 

TREASURER: no change in the kitty amount, still $42.83.

 

OLD BUSINESS: Gary Van Horn is still in rehab after back surgery, so he was not able to be at the meeting this evening to give us the latest on the TTF issue.  Dave said that he had tried to find the current status of the Senate or Congressional bill to protect Airparks from the whims of the FAA, but was unable to find anything more current than the middle of March.  Ken said that he had spoken with Senator Wyden during a Town Hall meeting and thanked him for his ongoing efforts to help reign in the FAA's more draconian efforts.  Consensus is that we have to keep up the pressure on this, even though the FAA has postponed their decision on residential TTF until 2014.

 

Pilot's Memorial event is coming up at the end of May, and the most recent minutes were passed around. Dan gave us a verbal update since those minutes: Singer Melinda Carlson and her mother Merna would be performing wartime ballads during the lunch period.  The next meeting is May 2, and any questions should be brought to Dan before the meeting.  Andy passed around a flyer about the warbirds chapter and their possible participation.  Dave spoke up about the OPA's anticipated attendance for the lunch, which they figure would be 250 people, and the cost of the lunch would be $5.00.  The Cub Scouts who will be helping out will very likely have their lunches “on the house.”  Mitch Swecker and Joe Smith of the ODA will be present at this event also.

 

NEW BUSINESS: Saturday's Flying Farmers event will start at 8:00 AM at the EAA hangar.  Neil White will be the guest speaker at 2:00 PM, and the remaining time is reserved for certification flights with a suggested donation of $40.00. 

 

The ODA is having public input meetings at the Aurora Airport regarding the new proposals for extensions of that airport.  There will be a new tower site, and a fire station, but the orientation of the runway is still in question.  Various groups and people testifying, some of them actually limiting their time to the suggested four minutes, is the substance of these meetings.  There was also a presentation by Genteman’s attorney for the State to purchase the land west of Independence Airport, and the State did do a study on it, and found the purchase would be two and a half times the yearly budget.  Budgetary concerns are forcing the Governor to propose a re-merging of the ODA with ODOT, and ODA is fighting that. Proposed bills for that reunification are still going through Senate committees.  Mitch Swecker is the interim director right now. 

 

Guest Paul Sieber made a brief presentation about his idea of a grass strip here at this airport, a point that he had hoped to raise earlier but the TTF troubles made it necessary for him to delay his presentation until now.  He had said that the original runway here was a grass strip, and the area where the windsock is now is a serviceable area for such a strip.  There's nine other airports in Oregon that have a grass strip adjacent to their paved runway, and adding one here would be a potentially good economic boost, particularly if there is a major earthquake which would make the paved runway unserviceable.  Ken mentioned that there is a grass strip at Aurora, temporarily out of commission, and the expansion plans are going to keep that grass strip. Andy brought up some history of this airport, back to when this was a glider-training area with grass strips.  Ken further suggested that each sub-group discuss it and see how each group feels about it, then bring their opinions in to the next ISAS meeting.  John Wilson, ODA Airport Operations Specialist, could give us some input about how feasible this would be.

 

ANNOUNCEMENTS: The next OAB meeting is going to be on April 28, a Thursday, from 10 AM until 2 PM.  This next meeting will be dedicated to public input about Aurora expansion plans, as other recent meetings have been.

 

Roger Weber mentioned the RV Fly-In set for the weekend of August 26 and 27.  It's on the EAA on-line calendar. 

 

Ken stated that the leases are in the process of being updated, with the rates going up, and mandating million-dollar insurance policies.  The committee for approval of these new leases included reps from the Department of Justice, so it will be tough to challenge.

 

The meeting was adjourned at 8:06 PM. The next meeting date will be July 11, 7 PM, at the EAA hangar.  Presented by Robert English, ISAS secretary.

 

 

Meeting0411.doc