City Council - Regular Meeting

e e e e I call to order meeting of the Bristol Virginia City Council called council meeting uh today is March 31st 20125 and I'm looking for an adoption of the agenda I move for adoption of the agenda as presented second all right I

have a motion in a second clerk please call the rooll farum yes Holmes yes Osborne yes Pard yes n yes all right called meeting agenda a resolution to support additional Air Service to the Tri Cities airport in the amount of 75,000 over a 2-year period no one has signed up for public comment and uh Randy I'll look for you for a report sure uh Council uh today you have before you a resolution that would um I grant the the city the authority to provide $75,000 worth of funding to an airline uh that is yet to be named and Destination Unknown at this point um to provide additional service to Tri City's airport uh this has been worked on for some time now and other the other owners of the airport are contributing to this project and as since we're a one 16 owner I feel it's important that we play a part in this not only because we're an owner but ALS also because it's economic development for our region uh we have hard rock here now which would utilize that those new routes would be my guess to uh get uh customers into Hard Rock and into Bristol so it's my recommendation that we uh support this resolution all right thank you right reading of the resolution resolution approving a financial contribution in the amount of 7 $5,000 supporting Regional efforts to recruit additional Airline service at the tri City's airport authorizing such agreements as may be needed to effectuate the purpose of this resolution and expressing the intent of the city council to appropriate funds to effectuate the purpose of this resolution as needed whereas the city along with other Legacy owners of the Tri Cities airport has been asked to

contribute funds to an effort to recruit a new Airline which will serve passengers at the tri City's airport whereas these funds will be utilized to establish a minimum Revenue guarantee Fund in the amount of $2 million necessary to attract the new Airline and whereas the minimum Revenue guarantee would be used exclusively to support any Financial loss the new Airline might en encounter in the startup phase typically over a 2-year period and whereas by expanding services offered at Tri City's airport creates the opportunity for increased options to patrons and positive economic impact of the city and the region and whereas staff recommends supporting this effort along with a financial commitment of $75,000 and whereas funding for this incentive would come from general fund revenues and the funding would be held by the city until needed now therefore be it resolved by the city council as follows section one that the council authorizes a commitment of a contribution to the tri City's airport to recruit new Airlines into our Market in the amount of $75,000 section two that prior to any dispersement of funds pursuant here to the city manager shall review all documents and agreements made in conjunction with the recruitment of the airline and dispersement of the funds shall be s subject to his approval of the terms of any such documents and agreements section three that the council finds that the expenditure of any funds pursuant to this resolution is for a public purpose including but not limited to Economic Development and will promote the health comfort and prosperity of the citizens of the city and section four that this resolution shall take effect after its adoption adopted this 31st day of March 20125 by the city council all right thank you looking for a motion and second I move for approval of the resolution as presented second all right we have a motion in a second um going into Council discussion so I know this has been talked about for a long time so I'm excited that to see us

moving forward um I think this is a huge investment for our future the um I think just to be clear we know it doesn't guarantee that there's going to be a new Airline coming but it's certainly going to help in those recruitment efforts and hopes that we will have one and I know there's been a lot of discussion about this and I do think it would help in bringing a lot of visitors um from outside the area by having this direct flight um and as well as help with hard rock I think hard rock hard rock will be the Hub to for this but then also they'll spoke out to other areas of of our region so I'm in favor of it I was like I said I'm excited to see it um come forward um it's been a discussion for quite some time now I want to say a couple of years now um so I'm happy to see it come forward I agree I think this is um this is a big deal you know last year I think I flew out of Tri Cities 10 or 11 times and you're kind of limited when you can only go Tri Cities to Charlotte or Tri Cities to Atlanta so um I think this is a big deal for us and you know it'll it'll open us up to a lot more travel and tourism uh for people who want to come here for the Cino and for other things too Rhythm and roots and you know our natural natural resources outdoor beauty stuff so I think this will be great and um hopefully they can land somebody and they can uh land a uh a good destination for us I would have to agree with um both councilman Osborne and mayor Nave this this is a great um prospects um we're going to get get our people out and about a little more accessible to other places but we're going to bring so many folks here too we're going to have so many more visitors with something like this if everything pans out um just our our

region our city especially is so dependent upon tourism and this will be a huge asset to that but then also I just want to clarify a few things the $75,000 is over a two-year period so it's not all in one year if we even have to disperse those funds if um the airline which is looking at us as a prospect whoever that Airline is um they they know this is a region that can handle it is just a startup cost so this may go to supplement what um those startup costs are we don't know if it will take that hopefully it won't they know what they're doing um they're the professional so hopefully it'll pan out so that nothing or not much has to come from us but then also the other localities that are involved they're also reaching out to private businesses to to kind of raise that total $2 million pot if necessary so it just really shows the community is behind it really shows that this region is behind it it just tells the airline we're we're open for business um we're open for visitors we want you to come we want you to be a part of it so we're excited we also know that there's another uh prospective Airline that's looking at another destination so we know th this is a sign that Airlines and uh other tourism related businesses are taking Tri City seriously and that this is a very good thing um it will give uh depending on exactly what the destination is which we don't know as of yet it may give uh our uh destination marketing organizations such as explore Bristol other areas where they can then market so um it's not just benefiting uh as has been theorized primarily Hard Rock but everybody else in our area that focuses on tourism uh bringing in people from other areas uh it could then lead

towards some of our air uh facilities such as hard rock for more of uh uh business organizations meeting there conferences and things like that uh once it's a lot easier for businesses to come in here for those conferences then we'll have more ability to support them and um I think this is is a good thing from multiple different perspectives all right no further discussion uh clerk please call the rooll faram yes Holmes yes Osborne yes Pard yes Nave yes all right next item um looking for a motion and second for adjournment a move that we now adjourn second all right clerk please call the rooll farum yes Holmes yes Osborne yes Pard yes Nave yes we are adjourned