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