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HomeMy WebLinkAboutFlying Cloud Airport Advisory Commission - 01/08/2015 APPROVED MINUTES FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION THURSDAY,JANUARY 8, 2015 7:00 P.M., CITY CENTER HERITAGE ROOM 1 8080 Mitchell Road COMMISSION MEMBERS PRESENT: Chair Jeff Larsen (arrived late); Vice-Chair Keith Tschohl; Commissioners: Benjamin McQuillan, Joseph Sutila and Mike Wilson COMMISSION MEMBERS ABSENT: Jay Erwin and Caryl Hansen STUDENT REPRESENTATIVES: Britta Carlsen (absent), Brian Gilje STAFF: George Esbensen, Fire Chief; Jan Curielli, City Recorder VISITORS: Jennifer Lewis, MAC Representative I. CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL Vice Chair Tschohl called the meeting to order at 7:00 PM. II. APPROVAL OF AGENDA MOTION: McQuillan moved, seconded by Sutila, to approve the agenda as published. Motion carried4-0. III. PUBLIC COMMENT There was no public comment. Wilson said they received some complaints from Shelly Nelson and a couple of residents in her neighborhood about activity last Saturday. Esbensen said Mrs. Nelson indicated she might attend the meeting tonight but she has not yet shown up. Chair Larsen arrived at 7:07 PM and assumed the Chair. IV. APPROVAL OF MINUTES A. COMMISSION MEETING HELD THURSDAY,JULY 10, 2014 Larsen said his last name should be spelled "Larsen" in Paragraph 1. B. COMMISSION MEETING HELD THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2014 FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION MINUTES January 8, 2015 Page 2 Hansen emailed two corrections to the November 13 minutes: "Erwin", not "Irwin" in the list of Commission Members Absent; "Elliott", not "Eliot" in Item VIII.A. and on Page 6, Paragraph 5. Sutila said the name "Proelx" should be spelled "Proulx" in the list of visitors; Page 4, Paragraph 4; and Page 6, Paragraph 7. Larsen said Sentence 2 of Item V.E.3. should be changed to "Mr. Schmidt replied any place from which you can see is inside the fence." MOTION: Tschohl moved, seconded by Sutila, to approve the July 10 and November 13, 2014 minutes as amended. Motion carried 5-0. V. DISCUSSION ITEMS A. UPDATES ON HELICOPTER NOISE ABATEMENT STRATEGY FROM NOV 14 MEETING 1. Review New Helicopter Operations Letter of Agreement--Attached Wilson reviewed the changes made in the letter of agreement. He noted the helicopter hover area will be known as the helicopter area. He said they looked at putting in a second practice area; however Hummingbird Aviation said they don't use two areas at once. They also have received two more hangar requests that would take the proposed second area out of the picture. He pointed out the helicopter operation areas delineated on a map of the airport and noted they are landing more at the mid-field point. Jennifer Lewis arrived at 7:22 PM. Tschohl asked about use of the south hangar area if they are building there. Wilson replied it depends on whether the tower moves, and they would revisit the issue if that happens. Larsen asked how big the helicopter area is. Wilson said approximately 600 X 600. Larsen asked if there would be a problem with safety next to the hangars for the center area. Wilson said the concern is with the second hangar to the west because the tower operates blind in that area. Larsen asked if the map slide was reviewed with Hummingbird. Wilson replied Hummingbird helped to develop it. Larsen asked if the drawings are correct in the handout. Ms Lewis said they are correct. Sutila asked about the white spot on the west end of the map. Wilson said that is a future addition. Larsen asked when that would occur. Wilson said it would probably not occur in that location. Ms Lewis said the information will be distributed to their email correspondents and at pilot briefings. FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION MINUTES January 8, 2015 Page 3 Larsen asked if Hummingbird is the only one directly impacted at this point. Wilson said all the other helicopter operators and flight training with Hummingbird are impacted. Larsen wanted to make sure those who aren't heavy users are not missed with the new information. Wilson said Hummingbird is doing an excellent job in modifying the routes. They are trying to be good neighbors. Larsen commented he was impressed at the last meeting by Mr. Cooper's composure and the clear way he explained his concerns and considerations. He felt we have gotten excellent responses on virtually everything we have brought up with people at the airport. B. NOISE COMPLAINTS/STAGE 2 OPERATIONS REPORT -- MAC Ms Lewis said, while there were fewer complaints in November, 481 complaints were received in December, about twice what was received in December of previous years. They are not sure why there were so many this year but there was nice weather for much of the month of December. She said the data for December was better so they have fewer unknowns, which is good because they are not able to follow up on unknowns. They sent out 18 letters and have had a good response from those who received first time letters, which indicates the process is working. She said any helicopter operation that generates a letter will get a copy of the agreement. Ms Lewis said they recently received phone calls from Mrs. Nelson and a couple of other residents in her neighborhood. The phone calls were triggered by an operation last weekend and were complaints about hours and in particular the hours of helicopter operations. They investigated and determined the operation was not a Hummingbird operation. Mrs. Nelson said she felt the helicopter operations were bothersome so she did not have confidence the new letter of agreement would have an impact. She wanted to pursue additional actions because this does not do the job. Larsen asked what that helicopter operation was doing. Lewis said there were two unknown and three known operations but none of them were operating for several hours, and all operations occurred from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM. She said they can't be sure what type of helicopter it was. McQuillan asked if Mrs. Nelson is aware of the large helicopter operations there which include the main operation for mosquito control as well as several TV station news coverage helicopters. He thought Mrs. Nelson might be confusing Hummingbird helicopter noise with other helicopter noise. A lot of people have put a lot of effort into this letter of agreement, and she has already stated that it isn't working. He was concerned how long it will be before we go back to the way things were so that Hummingbird can cut out the added expenses they incur to follow the terms of the new letter of agreement. He asked if there has been any concern expressed by Hummingbird about the less efficient operations required. FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION MINUTES January 8, 2015 Page 4 Wilson said they do see some of those from Hummingbird because Mr. Cooper goes to great lengths to accommodate the agreement. Sutila asked the name of the other operator. McQuillan said it is Scott's Helicopters. Tschohl noted that Mr. Nelson stated at the November meeting that the mosquito and news helicopters were not a concern. Esbensen noted Mrs. Nelson also said their main complaint was with the training after dark. Wilson commented it appears the Nelsons are complaining about things other than helicopters. Ms Lewis said that was true and noted the number of complaints regarding helicopters are still very low. She believes we have done as much as we can do to address this issue. She would like to see what happens during the busy time of the year so we can see how many correlated helicopter complaints there are and who the operators are. Tschohl noted the larger number of complaints made in September and October appears to be gone but he would expect the numbers to increase with warmer weather. Larsen agreed with the way Ms Lewis would like to proceed. He thought there was a high probability that the Nelsons and others in their neighborhood will contact us numerous times in the future wanting to tweak things. He said we have made an effort to try to deal with the concerns they brought to us. He would like to see how this goes and get some sense of what the results are,based on the data we get in the future. He noted we will have a different situation if we start hearing from other operators about increased costs or inconvenient use because of the changes made. He said he appreciated the efforts that everyone concerned has made in this. Regarding the Stage 2 Operations Report, Ms Lewis said they have not received a response from the operator who conducted the operation in October. Wilson said he will check his email for that. C. ONGOING DEVELOPMENTS AT FCM 1. MAC Development Parcels Wilson said there are no changes regarding the development parcels. 2. New Hangar Areas Wilson said they have six or seven hangar requests, one of which has been approved. Larsen asked how tall the hangar on the west end will be and if it will create a sight problem for the tower. Wilson said they have to be able to see the taxiway and runway, so it should not be a line of sight issue. Larsen asked why these requests are coming now. Wilson said for a while they were not sure anyone was going over there but now others are taking that area. Sutila asked if the requests are corporate. Wilson said two are corporate and the others are private. Sutila asked what they see happening to the FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION MINUTES January 8, 2015 Page 5 summer air show as these hangars develop. Wilson said he thought they could accommodate those. McQuillan thought they could probably go back to the area in front of Executive. 3. New Observation Area Wilson said they will be discussing this subject more in the next year. They have a goal to do more evaluation of the airports to see where we could possibly place such areas. He suggested revisiting the issue next fall. D. 2015 WORK PLAN 1. Review Draft 2. City Council Presentation (January 20, 2015) Larsen said the Council wants a brief interaction with the Commission about our plans for 2015 at a meeting on January 20. Tschohl distributed copies of a draft for Commission members to review. He said the draft is similar to the format used last year and includes an update of the work plan and a list of the accomplishments for 2014. He reviewed the accomplishments and the proposed goals for 2015. Larsen suggested we highlight that we had specific discussions with several residents of Eden Prairie about the noise situation,particularly in regard to noise from helicopters. It would be good to advise the City Council that we are interacting with members of the public to explain and educate them as to what is being done about noise. We have met several times with frequent complainants in order to alleviate concern on the part of the residents. He suggested stating that a letter of agreement was put together by the airport manager and the tower to modify the status quo regarding helicopter operations after complaints were received from residents. Wilson suggested the December 11 agreement be included in the major accomplishments for the year. Regarding the general goal about reducing nighttime noise, Ms Lewis said they do not have a way to measure night-time noise. Tschohl said we might be able to reduce resident's dissatisfaction about noise even though we don't reduce the noise. Ms Lewis suggested adding something about the placement of a noise monitor that will be used to investigate maintenance run-ups. She pointed out the proposed location of the monitor on the map and noted it will be a measuring tool to see if a run-up occurred. She said it will be elevated and is part of the monitoring process for the Final Agreement. Wilson noted there had been a monitor at that location but this one will be more permanent. Tschohl said he could put it in as a specific goal for 2015 and FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION MINUTES January 8, 2015 Page 6 asked if it will be used to gauge general noise levels. Ms Lewis said it will be set to record events that exceed three minutes. It will run on solar and battery power which will be a limitation. She thought we might install something more permanent if this one works out. Tschohl asked if they have ever done any community level monitoring around Flying Cloud or at the other airports. Ms Lewis said the St. Paul airport has a program to do a noise monitoring study once a year. The study is used to correlate noise to flights at the St. Paul airport. She said they also did monitoring in Eden Prairie in 2009 when they conducted the noise monitoring of residences in the area. Tschohl asked what happens to the data collected by the program in St. Paul. Ms Lewis replied they conduct the monitoring so they can compare the data from year to year. The reports from that program are on the website and summarize all the noise data collected. She thought they might be able to evaluate the program to see if it could be used in this community. Larsen suggested Mr. Tschohl make the changes discussed tonight and then present the report to the City Council. He noted all Commission members are welcome to attend the meeting,but only one person will present the report. E. EXPIRING COMMISSIONER TERMS (MARCH 2O15) 1. Jeffrey Larsen -- Community Rep 2. Joseph Sutila -- Community Rep 3. Ben McQuillan -- Business Rep Larsen noted there are three Commission members whose terms expire in March 2015. He suggested the Commission might like to have another meeting prior to April 1 when the new Commission is seated as there are some details that have not been resolved. He said a meeting on March 12 would give the Commission time to clear up some of the details such as cleaning up the website. There is outdated information on the website and not a lot of current information. The limited number of meetings the Commission has scheduled makes it very easy to not deal with everything. Tschohl said he would prefer to stay on the regular schedule. The website has been a continuing topic for over a year. He noted we have not had much feedback from the changes to the helicopter operations. Wilson asked when the new Commission members would be brought in. Larsen said the next term starts April 1, and the Council will assign the Chair and Vice Chair positions. Sutila said he planned to apply to stay on the Commission for another term. McQuillan said he now has additional jobs and won't stay on the FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION MINUTES January 8, 2015 Page 7 Commission, but he has discussed some ideas for another Business Representative with Mr. Esbensen. VI. EDUCATIONAL ITEMS - Airport Tour with Student Reps and Other Interested Commissioners Tschohl said he would like to get the new Commission members and the students on the airport tour. Wilson said he would prefer to schedule it in May. Tschohl suggested discussing it at the next meeting. VII. NOISE ABATEMENT/AIRCRAFT INCIDENTS VIII. NEW BUSINESS A. AIRPORT AND COMMISSION WEBSITE UPDATES Tschohl said, after talking to Mr. Esbensen at the November meeting, he will take an action to go through the website and discuss it with City staff. He would like to see if there is anything we can do to streamline the website and to cut down on the number of old reports. IX. OTHER BUSINESS A. Next Commission Meeting--April 9, 2015 The consensus was to keep the next meeting on April 9. Tschohl thanked Mr. Larsen and Mr. McQuillan for their years of service on the Commission. Wilson said there is a project on Taxiway Alpha coming up next year. They will award bids in February and will start construction in August. Construction will be done in four phases, and the north parallel runway will have to be closed for a total of 23 days during the construction. It is a simple project to reconstruct the pavement. Tschohl asked if there are any hangar tear-downs planned for the 2016 phase. Wilson said they are in negotiations with the FAA about funding for the project. Wilson said there are some equipment purchases planned for the reliever airports this year. FCA will be getting a new snow-blower in 2015, at a cost of almost$700,000. There will be new plow trucks and additional funds for SUVs and tractors. III. ADJOURNMENT MOTION: McQuillan moved, seconded by Tschohl, to adjourn the meeting. Motion carried 5-0. Chair Larsen adjourned the meeting at 9:02 PM.