Airport Advisory Board - Regular Meeting

Well, it's 9 o'clock. It's the 11th of August.

This is the August Airport Advisory Board meeting.

Let's call it to order. I'll bring an invocation. Lord, we thank you that we are able to come together to do the business that you have at hand. Father, we especially at this moment remember Terry Crawford and ask a special blessing on his family of peace and comfort in his loss. Lord, we thank you for this time. Be with us as we go forward. Amen. Pledge. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Roll call.

Randy Klein.

Here.

Kevin Reed.

Here.

Thomas Smolin. Here. Thad Boyd.

Here.

I have to leave a little earlier, so if we could take things we need to vote on.

Well, the first one is the minutes, so that's perfect. Take a motion.

Move to accept the minutes as presented. Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

The grant goes to City Council for their consideration next Tuesday. It's $406,165 from the FAA. $21,377 is the airport share for a total cost of $427,542. This regrades the south end of the airport right adjacent runway 36 on the approach end to FAA standards. Pretty simple project, just moving some dirt around and smoothing things out. Any questions? Staff recommends approval. No questions. Move to approve.

Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

So approved. Next.

This one, we don't have the grant quite yet in hand, but I need the board to consider it. because it's going to go to council on September 1st. So this particular grant, we submitted a pre-application back in February for some equipment upgrades inside the air traffic control tower, replacing the touch screen that controls all the airfield lighting. We're going to repaint the control tower, reroof the control tower, put in new shades, which doesn't seem like a big project but the shades have to be FAA spec and they're very expensive, very expensive for vinyl roll down shades. And then some new FAA approved controller chairs. And that's basically what this grant covers. It's 100% FAA funded. It's estimated at 220,000. We still have some design work to do but that's all rolled into that total number. FAA, we're going to submit the grant this week. We'll get the hard copy back next week, and then it goes for city council approval on September 1st. Recommend approval.

All right. I'll move. Second.

All in favor? Aye.

Groot. Our share is zero. That's kind of a no-brainer.

I'm sorry? I said our share is zero. That's kind of a no-brainer. Yeah, you can't beat that. Okay, on to the director's report. I know you want to move quick through this, so this will be fast, too. On the pond relocation, that was approved last month. We're just starting the design to relocate that pond. The Mouser, the RPZ grading, the next step after council approves the grant and then we get the grant back from the FAA is to actually award the project to the contractor. It's already been bid, so that's the next step for the grading. On the apron rehab, we're still waiting for those two lids to come in. They're on a boat right now. The contractor said that it would be airmailed. It wasn't. They're on a boat. I believe it's going to be here next week, but I'll believe it when I see it. Those are the lids for the two vaults that are on the apron that enclose the electrical that Shelter will use for ground power connections. On the master plan, I got the final document. That will be submitted to the FAA this week as well. And then the clock starts ticking with their review. It could take a couple months. It could take six months. Depends how long it sits on someone's desk in the FAA.

There is no requirement to have it done in a certain amount of time? No, they don't have a requirement with that.

Not that I'm aware of. Alpha 9 driveway, that's still permitting with the city. That's moving slower than I'd like. On the T-Hanger campus rehab, that's in permitting right now. That's moving pretty good. Alpha 12 infrastructure. We're waiting on funding to do the flat work but we have had some interest from some developers that are interested in the entire Alpha 12 project where they would take down all of the property down there on the south side and they would undertake the infrastructure that we've already designed. So didn't anticipate seeing that because we went out to bid a couple times trying to find somebody to do that but now Now it looks like there may be somebody there. On the concrete pads, again, that's tied. That same project with the T-Hanger Campus Rehab, that's in permitting. Taxiway Charlie Phase 1. We're looking at redesigning the stormwater on that project. One thing that came out of our stormwater master plan is... uh... kind of a a change in the approach on on some of the airfield stormwater accommodations and long story short with the stormwater master plan is saying that we can do could end up saving us over seven hundred thousand dollars in construction costs on tax away charlie if we redesign a certain portions so we're we're working with our consultant about that uh... i'm excited about that because it if we can reduce that cost By $700,000, we should have just enough in our existing coffers to fund Phase 1 if we don't get any grant money. So that's an important aspect.

As long as it doesn't cost $700,000 to get it updated. It won't.

It shouldn't. It better not. uh... the ATCT lighting controls uh... that's again you just voted on that tonight uh... this morning the air show planning the final agreement goes to council next week uh... we've amended it slightly to put some revenue sharing in there one of the things that that we heard through our individual visits with our city council people is we don't want to be in the hole uh at the end of the of the air show uh so we want to it should be a net zero as far as revenue and expenses we have to provide the police we have to provide the fire for the event and we got the estimates from both of those entities and and uh it's about forty five thousand dollars total uh in expenditures that we have to cover, in overtime fees and things like that. So there's some revenue sharing language that we worked into the agreement. There's some termination language that we put in there as well to where if the promoter defaults ANY CERTAIN ANY NUMBER OF REASONS THAT THE CITY DOESN'T HAVE WE'RE NOT COMMITTED TO DOING A SECOND OR THIRD OR FOURTH SO WE NEEDED TO FIND IT OUT IN THERE BUT I'M HAPPY WITH IT OUR ATTORNEYS ARE HAPPY WITH IT AND IT GOES TO COUNCIL NEXT WEEK AND THEN ON THE FUEL AND OPS OPERATIONS WERE DOWN ALMOST A THOUSAND TOTAL OPERATIONS IN JULY OF 26 COMPARED TO JULY OF 25 The fuel sales, on the other hand, set a record for Avgas sales in July. I can't read that number. You could probably see it closer on your screen if it's in front of you. Jet fuel was a little down, but we did set a record on the Avgas side. We're still almost 100,000 gallons over where we were this time last year. So we're still trending in the positive on the fuel sales. And speaking with Shelter this morning, I guess prices dropped. I'm sorry, Tim. You said 20? Yeah, it was like 20 cents. 20 cents yesterday. That concludes my presentation.

You know, Matt, it'd be interesting to correlate the operations and the fuel sales with the revenue in Ocala and Marion County because I have noticed personally that it's quiet here. You know, granted, traffic's still crazy, but it has really slowed down this summer.

Yeah, in certain areas it has, and in other areas I've seen it pretty busy, so...

Just kind of interesting.

Yeah, it is. And it would be tough to find a correlation.

Right.

I mean, I would have expected our avgas to be lower than what it was, but it didn't. So it was surprising. Jet fuel, on the other hand, July, August, it's pretty typical to drop down this time of year.

Thanks, Matt. Sure.

Microphone. So the Avgas is staying strong because we have five flight schools, and I think probably the majority of the operations that we didn't see this year are other flight schools that come in to use our facilities that don't end up buying any fuel. So while the numbers are down, our flight schools are still really strong, and our jet traffic is still strong. It's just summertime. None of the horsey people want to be here. Right, right. Thanks, Tim.

Thanks, Matt.

Very good.

Any persons wishing to appear? Anybody that's not on the agenda? How about any comments from any of the board members?

Matt? I'm good. Randy? Miss Terry. Yeah, Miss Terry. Kevin? Second. Lost a good one. Yeah.

All right. If I can add to Mr. Crawford's legacy, just a quick minute, a Terry Crawford minute. Yeah, yeah. We did a little bit of research. Terry was appointed to the airport board on April 1st, 1975. Oh, wow. I was four years old. when he was appointed to this board. I don't think you'll find another person that was so dedicated to public service and for the length of time that he sat up there with y'all. It's pretty amazing. His contribution to the culture and legacy of the Ocala Airport will stand the test of time. Absolutely.

And he's going to be missed. He served with my father. Yeah.

Decades. And do you recall the celebration of life date and time?

It's the 29th, isn't it?

Saturday?

Yeah, I think I included everybody in the email calendar invite on that.

I was just asking, so it's in the minutes? Yeah. 29th, 1 o'clock, First Baptist. Okay. 1 o'clock viewing, 2 o'clock celebration. So... All right. Well, on that note, I hate to end on that note, but there's one.

Second.

All in favor?

Super.

Aye. Aye. See you next month, guys.

You got court this morning?