President Alan Wright called the meeting to order at 7:05 PM. Present were Alan Wright, Lynn McDonald, Ed Hanevig, Andy Andersen, Gail Hill, Gary Van Horn, Betty Plude, Phyllis Upright, Carole Gabel, Robert English and Craig Cowles.
The minutes of the June 11 meeting were passed around and read by all attending. There were four corrections to the minutes of the June 11 meeting: in the third paragraph, the sentence starting with “Anne Crook” can be stricken from the record with no harm to the factual information. Also, in the fifth paragraph, the PSI of the pressure-washer is 2600 PSI, not 750. In the architectural report section, the name of “Hal Cleveland” needs to be substituted with “Al Cleveland”. In the next-to-last paragraph relating to the ISAS group, the word “airpark” needs to be substituted with “airport”. Carole Gabel made the motion to accept the minutes as corrected, and Alan Wright seconded. All approved by voice vote.
Treasurer: the bottom-line figure as of 9/23 is $80,709.49. The checking account is currently at $20,000.00, and wanted input from the members attending as to where to put this money rather than a non-interest bearing account. Other than some maintenance money that needs to be set aside, the other money could be salted away and earn some interest. Carole mentioned that all of the lots were sold, which means that the only income we can anticipate is the regular homeowners fees. This may affect how long a time the money can sit before it has to be spent.
Maintenance: Craig spoke about the south end, and commented Lynn on the meticulous lawn work in that area. He also went over the maintenance procedure for the asphalt and the two things which keep it lasting longer than most applications: hot tar always (no cold tar) and good gravel support underneath. Speaking about the weeds along the state-owned taxiways, he stated that he wanted to discuss with the ODA about taking over the maintenance of these for a fee. The brand-new sidewalk next to Craig’s house got lots of kudos, and the cost of that will be about $3500.00 when the costs are all tallied. Buzz needs to haul away the broken-up old sections of concrete, some of which weigh about a ton, other than that it’s done. The new walkway is crowned in the middle to facilitate runoff during the rainy season. Betty asked about the gravel that occasionally gets pushed up onto the taxiway after mowing or weedwhacking, and there was some agreement that this is something that could pose a problem and the more conscientious of us need to watch for this.
Architectural: Don Woodley couldn’t be here, but Carole read his report – The Horne house, next to the Uprights on Piper St., is in the process of building. The Russells are building a hangar on Airport Way. Gary Palmer has sent plans in for a house on Luscombe. Clappeson’s house is sold and there is a renter named Wruck temporarily living in it. The lot at the corner of Stryker and Luscombe, currently owned by Nguyen Yushan, needs another 15 to 20 feet between the taxiway and the tarmack in order to join with the taxiway adequately. This was a source of some discussion, as there was a precedent in the airpark some years earlier (when Andy was architectural chair) that the IAHA would provide the pavement from the state taxiway up to the owner’s tarmack. Gail Hill mentioned that she would be discussing a proposed modification with the architectural committee: a wider culvert so that the driveway to their hangar could be widened. Some discussion ensued about Miles Towner’s problems with the culvert on his property, that he has tried to get the IAHA to cover this expense for him but there is no precedent for this. Indeed, there are many precedents for the opposite - that the homeowner needs to take care of it himself. The subject changed to the fact that these drainage ditches drain the Aeronatics property as well as the farm fields to the west, and the original open ditches (which were adequate) have gradually changed to fully enclosed pipe over the years. No motion was made on any of these points.
Dave Martin on Airport Way has said that he would be willing to donate a strip of his land to pave for a public walkway between the street and the Comanche taxiway. Some discussion ensued about extra walkways between the streets and the taxiways, and in the end it was decided that if the homeowner wanted to do it then it was agreeable with the IAHA board.
The ingress/egress issue: Gary passed around a paper which included all of the recorded mentionings of Independence Airport in the Aeronautics Board minutes going back to August of 1961. It was revealed that the land for the airport was donated rather than purchased. Such land donations usually have stipulations about maintaining the property to the use for which it was donated, but that condition (if any) has not surfaced. These condensed versions of the minutes brought some interesting nuggets of history to the surface, including the first airpark residence back in 1966. The minutes stopped in June of 1973, just at the time when an ingress/egress permit discussion was mentioned in the minutes. An over-ambitious file purging operation has resulted in no documentation after June of 1973. But there was enough information there to ascertain that the ingress/egress agreement had already been worked out. Lots of discussion ensued about the issues surrounding the negotiations for the new basis for the fee. Alan stated that the next step for IAHA is to set up negotiation meetings with the ODA and map out an agenda for them. Gary and Gail wanted to be involved with the meetings, and Phyllis mentioned that Dewey Erlwein would very likely be interested in participating as well. There was some discussion about whether to retain Jennings in an advisory capacity, and it was agreed that since the ODA has an attorney with them it would be a good idea for us to have one too. The money to pay the attorney (20% discount off of Jennings’ regular fees) would come from the general fund, and though there was some doubt about the appropriateness of that it was agreed that it was definitely for the good of the Association to have an attorney available during these negotiations. Alan made the motion that we hire Jennings in this capacity with a current spending cap of $1,000.00 with that to be revised upward later if need be. Phyllis Upright seconded. All approved by voice vote. Alan said that he would be sending off e-mail to negotiate the time for these meetings, make up an agenda for this meeting, then contact Jennings. Hopefully it will be completed this year, with a deadline of June of next year.
CC&R changes: there were some proposed re-wordings of the CC&Rs and the by-laws that would allow the Association the latitude to collect the ingress/egress fee on behalf of the ODA. A copy of the original resolution of the Board of Directors for IAHA was passed around, and changes marked – some of these changes involve the names of people occupying posts within the Board (the secretary, for instance). There was concern as to whether the approval of these changes would have to be by majority vote of the general membership according to the CC&Rs. As it turns out, the 2/3 majority is called for in cases of increasing the annual assessment, but not actual amendments. Another important consideration was that the only votes that would count would be ones that actually are present or proxies returned – if less than a full majority actually votes, we only count the actual votes rather than taking the ones that didn’t vote into consideration. Gary suggested that a careful read be done so that we (members of the IAHA board) fully understand what is being changed. Alan officially tabled the wording until we can have a special board meeting to cover this issue specifically. A week from today was suggested, and Monday the 29th was Alan’s choice. We agreed to meet at that time.
Gail mentioned for the good of the Board that the crosswind runway was being closed at the Eugene airport in favor of two parallel runways. The ASN has asked to hear from anyone who is concerned about that.
Andy reported about the drive for an official club house for the IAHA, continuing the discussion that was held at the previous meeting. He stated that there was a need for a Community Center in general, and that the need for an IAHA facility might dovetail with that. The first step would be to explore the legal ramifications of combining the functions of IAHA with a community focus. Phyllis chimed in with a report on what Dewey has been doing to find an actual location – the most feasible of the three locations possible is an Aeronautics lot. This has been designated as a no-building lot as it has an old unused septic tank underneath it, but that can be taken care of. Tasha at the ODA office will be informing the group soon as to whether the buildability of that lot can be open for discussion. The value of a community center is obvious, and it is very possible that the ODA will reconsider their stance on this lot.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:13 PM. The next meeting is to be held next Monday at 7:00 PM.
Respectfully submitted by Robert English, secretary.