Video Description:
Airport Advisory Board – July 2023
Read along below:
Speaker 1 0:00
Good evening, everyone. Welcome to our Thursday, July 13 2023. Airport Advisory Board meeting. We have a quorum, but just to confirm it, Lauren, would you mind calling the roll for us, please? Jefferson Harrison. VICE CHAIRPERSON, board member, Tallis. Board Member Rainier.
Speaker 1 0:29
Thank you. First item on our agenda is our first public invited to be heard. I have three on the list. I can tell you how manly you’re on the first on the list. First Public invited to be heard that better. Can you hear me now? All right. I was first on the list and I apologize. I’ll call the other two. But handwriting’s a little tough for me to read. So I’ll if you can start with your name and address have Levi turn on the mic for you. And you have five minutes.
Speaker 2 1:03
Hi, Al manly 940 Rangeview Lane 80501. Just a request, there was a meeting with the letter went out to the city council members, six weeks or so ago requesting a meeting with the county assessor’s office. And I did exchange emails with Phil Greenwald about this. And we were the local members were curious about the outcome of the meeting the attendees, the tenor of the meeting, etc. And we would just like to leave I was there and we just like to have the date the specifics of the meeting, if possible. So that’s it. Thank you.
Speaker 1 2:03
Thank you. And I will have the reminder, we’re not being rude, but we can’t talk back and there is time in the meeting that we can address things later on. Next on the list, I It’s Bob and I can’t read the last name and I’m very sorry.
Speaker 3 2:22
Bob liner 1233, wagon wheel, court berth ID and we have a business out of the airport. And my question, I have a question as to whether we are getting protection from for the airport with navigation easements and point of sale disclosures with all the developments that are off, particularly the East End. And then the second question is, I guess really by and that’s Do we have a oil collection facility on the airport now or is that gone by the wayside? Because that used to be a we give the we dump the oil at the FBO and then the Public Works use the oil for heating. Thank you. Thank you
Unknown Speaker 3:17
last one on my list right now. Carol
Speaker 4 3:24
Carol Winder 1233, wagon wheel court, Bertha, and I own a business at the at the airport and been there now for 22 years. And I have to say the appearance of the airport is worse this year than I’ve ever seen it in those 22 years. There are weeds along the road going to the main parking area that are two and three feet high. And they really should be taken down. They make it hard to get to the mailboxes. And the other thing it makes it hard to get to the mailbox is the boxes on a concrete pad up this hole. If you try to drive up, you have to drive up over the edge of the pad to reach your mailbox. If you walk up and it’s snowy, or there’s been a lot of rain, there’s a puddle, the steep in front of that pad and you can it’s just makes it very difficult. That’s all I have to say. Thank you.
Speaker 1 4:28
Thank you. It was really all only three that were on my list. However, if anyone else would like the chance we’ll have the opportunity otherwise there is the final public invited to be heard at the end of the meeting as well. So seeing no one else I will close the public invited to be heard and we’ll move on to approval of the May 2023 And June 2023 minutes. Did anyone have any changes or corrections to the minutes I have one On page two, I’m sorry, this is the May 11 2023 minutes. Page two line one says Garber engineering. It’s Garver GA R V. Er. That’s the only thing I noticed.
Speaker 5 5:15
And then I had one of you online. So page three line 25. should leave, I said it would be more beneficial for the FBO to be city owned, it should be FBO. Building to be city owned, not necessarily for the city to own that business. Got it?
Speaker 1 5:37
If anyone else has anything, otherwise, maybe a motion to approve with the corrections. Sorry, you can second. Mr. Dean.
Unknown Speaker 5:45
I’ll make a motion to approve them. Correction.
Speaker 1 5:48
Is there a second? Thank you moved and seconded. Any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. I’m sorry, that was May, June minutes. We didn’t really have a meeting. I don’t think there were any corrections. Motion to approve that one as well.
Unknown Speaker 6:09
I’ll make a motion to approve.
Speaker 1 6:11
Is there a second? Second again? Moved and seconded. Discussion. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Leave our updates from the airport manager updates.
Speaker 5 6:26
I guess number one item would be to welcome Reiner, our new board member here to the airport advisory board. This is his first meeting. So just say welcome to him. Glad to have you on board. I
Speaker 1 6:36
think I do. Render Do you want a chance to introduce yourself quickly? Do you mind? Sure. Sorry, Lisa.
Speaker 6 6:45
Hey, welcome everyone. My name is Reiner gets I live on Clarendon drive east side of the town. I was 20 years Air Force 16 years FAA all over the place all over the world. As you can gather with the Air Force. I was been retired from the FAA for about a year. And I was looking for something to do because I was getting pretty bored at home after being retired for a year. And disfigured. Let me volunteer and I came across a Facebook ad for volunteering. And everything was like and then I saw airport I was like, wow, cool. Aviation. Yeah. So that’s, that’s where my passion lies. I’m just here to help any way I can. And, you know, give my time to volunteer. That’s all I love Longmont, I’m gonna stay here pretty much forever. And that’s about it. Unless my wife changes that of course.
Speaker 1 7:43
Thank you, Rana. It’s really we’re glad to have you here with us and appreciate you signing up and volunteering. Absolutely. I’ll turn it back to you, Levi.
Speaker 5 7:50
Alright, sounds good. Airport updates, just in general I items. Air Show status. Just give you a quick update on that talked with Melinda a couple of weeks ago. And there was a tentative plan to get a meeting out on the previous Thursday, actually, that won’t have not happening. I think maybe she got a little busy. And kind of under the gun from all the stuff she’s going on this summer. So not a whole lot of movement yet on that land survey work. As we’ve covered in previous meetings or so to be having a whole survey done in the airport this year. That was originally planned on being completed in June, the surveyor that has been doing that has kind of been pushing things back, I assume he’s getting kind of busy. So as of yet that work has not started on the airport that of course being important for making sure we get really accurate, you know, partials and stuff like that. So as you move forward with leases, we got good legal documents, stuff like that. board recruitment has concluded as we’ve just discovered, let’s see other things. I have a real quick update on wildlife management, the airport radar control. We have seen over the last two weeks a pretty big spike and prey dog activity on the airport. So that’s just to put on your guys’s radar, something that we’re dealing with I did put in a request when we were going through the budget process for additional funds to help make sure that we’re staying within federal requirements. And that department to my understanding the city wildlife crew has also put in a similar request for budget monies for the entire city. They’re seeing the issues, not only at the airport, but other areas in the city that are you know, causing concern. So that is being dealt with other items on can we got
Speaker 1 9:47
a second lever? Was that quick question on that when we bring on Mr. Dean?
Speaker 7 9:51
Yes. Do we? Are we good to spend additional money you’re budgeting for wildlife or prairie dog removal. At this point,
Speaker 5 9:57
I put in a request for additional budget dollars. for that, and so did the wildlife facility or the department here at the city? So though I’m sure those two will kind of get merged into the same consideration when they’re doing budget approval. But it is something that’s been brought up and hopefully we’ll we’ll see additional resources. But that way, do you
Unknown Speaker 10:18
have any idea of what do you think that will cost right now?
Speaker 5 10:23
No. So last year to give us some perspective, porthole airport treatment, to bring us back into FAA standards, it wound up costing $20,000. That’s could be worse. Originally, we were figuring about $40,000. Based on what the estimates we were getting and stuff like that, we it turned out that that was less, my thought process is moving forward, hopefully would be that much as long as we stay on top of it. So I put in my request for at least $2,000 in additional funding per year, or I could do at least a single treatment or something like it out there. The wildlife crew I know is put additional thought into their budget and stuff like that they’re considering the airport also. Thank you.
Speaker 1 11:03
So leave I just continuing on that. Because you did have the people come out you spent the 20 Grand are we thinking you’re gonna have to call a contractor back out or is the city crews can handle what’s happening right now
Speaker 5 11:14
it’s currently being discussed, the original idea was the city crew could handle it if we got a heads up on it. However, so just for example, I’m I’m monitoring very closely I’m monitoring course holdup are very closely monitoring an area on the south end of the runway, this is approximately 400 feet by 60 feet, a square patch of mowed area. Two weeks ago, there were two prairie dog holes and Liesa. There was 21 prey dog holes in it. So that’s a huge bike. So I’ve started that dialogue with City guys said, hey, you know, you said we’re going to be priority, we’re gonna be priority. And they essentially said yes, your priority, but we’re under the gun. Here’s the resources that we have. And we’re currently, you know, shooting ideas out back and forth on how we can make sure you know, we stay ahead of it now. And then hopefully we’ll get as mentioned those additional resources in the future to make sure that this is a non issue.
Unknown Speaker 12:07
Councilmember Martin?
Speaker 8 12:08
Yeah, just a little local color. When we were fighting the prairie dog fight. In 2018 2019, what we learned was in a wet year, all the prairie dog cubs survive. And so they’re just tumbling all over the streets everywhere. Yeah,
Speaker 5 12:25
that’s that’s kind of what the wildlife guys were kind of echoing is that, you know, we had a rough year? Yes. Last year, for some reason that was that way you’re in this year, we had a wet year, and then just made it, you know, they’re all over the place. So I’m actually noticing that the most of the ones that seem to be on the airfield now or not the larger, older ones, there are their little half sized prey dogs all over the part. So what I think we got some of that parent pushed out, is finding its way to the airport.
Unknown Speaker 12:56
Mr. Solomon?
Speaker 5 12:58
Yeah. I just had a question about, you know, continually doing this type of mitigation versus finding a longer term solution. Like totally anecdotal. But when I’m doing a raised bed, I put Carpenter’s cloth underneath of it. You know, there are, there are other options. So there’s prairie dog fences. Unfortunately, that’s not there. It actually was a prairie dog fence on the airport before as to my understanding only a couple years, and it essentially did nothing. So they actually went back in and tore it all out. From what I’ve in my research and my kind of interviews with industry, professional professionals, everyone says, they exist if you want to do home, but if you got any expansive area, they say it’s kind of pointless. So that’s less of an option. Yeah, putting barrier down over, you know, the whole airports, not a particular option. Yeah, we’re continuing are open for ideas. Like, hmm, it may not be, you know, feasible unless you think about it in like 10 year terms. If you’re paying $20,000 a year for mitigation, then very quickly, that adds up. Yeah, and it’s true, but to my understanding, there’s no product that’s that kind of exists that it’s like that. So we have kind of run the gamut on what products are out there. And we’ve tried most of the I think all of the ones that the county is is willing to, to allow us to try. Thank you. Yep. All right. Any more parade all questions. That’s the big things have a meeting next week with the FAA regarding some potential grant issues with a development off the east end of the runway. So that’s kind of on our radar to we’ll have that discussion. They wrote a letter to the city concern that an apartment complex on that end might be a violation of grant assurances So we’ll be having that discussion. That’s kind of in the beginning stages of we’re having that meeting with the FAA to kind of see what their concern is. So not a whole lot of data on that yet.
Speaker 1 15:12
Can you talk more broadly about that in the context of navigation easements as well?
Speaker 5 15:16
Yes, absolutely. Thank you. Excellent. So planning development around the run. The airport area, particularly in the airport influence area, is something that I’ve been pushing for a while to get make sure we’re getting good navigation easements on particularly after all the litigation that occurred around Broomfield in the big court case that they lost down there. Nothing wrong with you know, trying to mitigate some Oh, so in KB, JC Broomfield, Colorado, the airport was successfully sued by trying to think the city can’t think of the city. There was a rock creek anyway, they successfully sued by a city for noise issues. Even though they they had aggregation easements around the area, they found a loophole and navigation easement essentially, successfully sue them. And it also kind of opening up the door for more future court cases that they’re having to deal with. So big headache, big, big, big expenses for the airport this year. Something of course, we always want to try to mitigate, try to get a head on is actually one of my first items that actually did when I got to this position was I reached out to the city’s attorney’s office and said, Hey, can we start moving on some language or application easements, wrote some stuff, we’ve actually reached out to consultants, also to get additional information back on kind of what they think the navigation is going to be. So he has some really good drafts written up for that. Last I saw, it’s pretty much in his completed form. Really, what we need to do now is just making sure that we’re following the correct procedure, and making sure we’re applying these. We’re getting these applied to the areas that we want to have controlled. And the last conversation we had probably about two weeks ago about that. It’s just kind of where, and what the example, excuse me, exact steps that we need to do to make sure through the city system that we’re getting those approved by the council and stuff like that makes sure we can kind of move forward with putting abrogation easements around the airport. But we they are actually written. I’ve been through them several times. They look pretty solid, that lawyers go through and they look pretty solid.
Unknown Speaker 17:40
Councilmember Martin?
Speaker 8 17:42
Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. The we granted the navigation easement for mountain Brook development in 2018. Slash 19.
Speaker 5 17:53
Yes. So I’ve read that one. So that one of the the items came up when the previous meetings was like, hey, over the years, we’ve used actually cup few different navigation easements in the area, it was kind of brought up as, hey, we’re kind of applying these ad hoc here and there was, you know, have a standard navigation easement and we apply it in this area, and stuff like that. So that’s kind of where that whole process is right now. So it’s actually the process is actually pretty far, far along. We just got to get, you know, make sure we get the thumbs up from the city that makes sure that they can we can get all those in those developments and stuff like that. Thanks.
Unknown Speaker 18:34
Mr. Ellis,
Speaker 6 18:36
I just wanted to excuse me, I just want to share a personal example. When I moved into my first house out of the air force in Frederick, Maryland, I had exactly that. And, and it was, I was like, I think three miles from Frederick airport, which is a fairly busy airport because it serves over the national DC area and such. And when I bought my house, I had to sign a piece of paper that says, Hey, you are aware that there’s an airport here. And you know, you shouldn’t expect to sue the state or any any public entity down the road, because you knowingly moved to an area where you knew there was an airport. To me, I thought it was a positive thing because it was like, yeah, it doesn’t bother me. Of course, I lived on an Air Force base with fighters. So that’s, you know, that’s a bit different. But I am a proponent of those and I think they would if nothing else helped reduce the amount of plain they may not stop them completely, but I think they will reduce the overall noise noise abatement noise complaint, the level of you know how many you get,
Speaker 5 19:42
and that you know, as we move forward that might be an item that would be an excellent for this board would be we might want to let her to make sure you’re communicating with the City Council say hey, these this is really important to us. We would like to make sure that we’re doing all the correct steps to make sure that these are being applied.
Speaker 1 20:01
Do you have an approximate timeline when you think that might come up just
Speaker 5 20:05
since we’re so that no documents are complete? So honestly, we could start having that conversation anytime I think I would just want to check, of course with, you know, the planning crew and stuff like that and making sure that, you know, there’s no obstacles that I’m thinking of at the
Speaker 1 20:20
moment, could we plan to add it on next month agenda? And that sounds like it needs to push we push it, but let’s do them make. That way. It can be an action item, and we can have a full discussion about it. Okay. Thank you. Did you have any other items leave? I
Speaker 5 20:35
that was kind of the last item I had on mine list.
Speaker 1 20:40
Can Can I ask you to do the debrief that Mr. Manley requested about the? Yeah, the meeting,
Speaker 5 20:47
the meeting itself was was pretty short. And to the point, in fact, I actually made a request for if I get a copy of the minutes from it, and apparently the meeting was done. Do you know, some background information, there was a meeting that was held by the county of Boulder, they’re the ones that called invite everyone, stuff like that. And we expressed our, our interest to talk about it, they set up the meeting. Apparently, they didn’t record the meeting, and no one took notes on it. So that was a little bit surprising to me. So there were no minutes that they were allowed to or could share with us. The basic kind of tone of the meeting was they didn’t think it was necessarily a mistake, the way the taxes were applied. And then they said that we we ask is like, well, how are we just going to flush out? How are we going to address this? And the answer was the formal complaint process, which pretty much everyone at the airport applied for, as they said, they said at that point, you know, that’s the pre setup waived, you know, flushing us all out or just going to follow it. That was what they said.
Speaker 1 21:54
Are there any other discussions that you know of that will happen or should be happening?
Unknown Speaker 22:00
Not more, we
Unknown Speaker 22:00
kind of waiting a little bit for the assessors? Yeah.
Speaker 5 22:02
Now we’re, it seems like we’re kind of waiting for the assessor’s office. I mean, we kind of, you know, at the end of the meeting, we, I asked like, hey, you know, here’s the concern are the tenants. What are our options? And that was kind of the one option is like, you know, we’ve got a process set up to handle it, put it through that process.
Speaker 1 22:25
Like to just keep on that. I mean, obviously, we, we asked the city to have that meeting, and a play. So I’m glad that I’m glad the city manager took the recommendation of the board now, based on the comments we got. But we’d like to see that progress beyond just the one meeting. And that’s not you, that’s the county and everybody else but would really like us to keep engaged on this. Anyone else have anything for levy on updates right now? Do we have any information items are not tonight?
Speaker 5 22:58
information items? Not that I had in my notes.
Speaker 1 23:04
When the only action item we have here is to approve the annual report. So under our bylaws under the city charter, we have to provide a report to council every year. Our bylaws say we do it in the first half of the year. So we’re we’re close. We brought this originally in March, we discussed and talked about trying to add some more into it. We asked for more feedback from anybody. There was no other input, no other feedback came in. So this is the exact same version that we had in March. So unless anyone wants to, you know, suggest anything that we can read line, literally while we sit here. I would certainly suggest we approve it but very open any discussion from anyone on the board right now? Then I’d entertain a motion. Vice Chair Dean,
Unknown Speaker 23:57
I’ll make a motion to approve.
Speaker 1 24:01
There a Second. Moved and seconded. Any further discussion? All those in favor of approving the annual report say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Great. Thank you. We’re moving quickly on I guess we’re on our final public invited to be heard here. Would anyone who didn’t? Anyone who spoke at the beginning or who didn’t speak at the beginning is welcome to come up and make any comments tonight. Come on down.
Speaker 3 24:36
real short, Bob liner again. Ron burthen. My question is have you reached out to a LPA with the aggregation easement question and the and the wording. Reason is a LPA deals with it nationwide and they cover monitor all litigate ation and conflicts across the country, they should be able to give you the best advice as to what is likely to work in the legal system and provide the best protection for the airport. Thank you. Thank you
Speaker 9 25:28
My name is Keith Griffith 7066, Johnson circle and nyuad. And I do own hangars at the airport. I want to talk about the prairie dog issue. This is something that the airport has confronted for literally decades. And it’s I’m surprised that we don’t have a contractor on call. When you see two prairie dog holes, you know that in a month, there’s going to be 20 of them. And now the problem is 10 times as bad and the cost is 10 times as much. So it’s like being surprised that spring came in the grass grew. Of course, you have to control the prairie dogs it happens every year. It has happened for decades. And the fact that we don’t have a system set up a contract or on call and a way to handle this is just kind of pitiful, pathetic.
Speaker 2 26:31
La Liga 940 Rangeview lane, it’ll find one. Just thank you for the minutes from the meeting and the timer. Much appreciated. Thank you. Thank you.
Speaker 9 27:00
John Dorsey 335 Pratt street Longmont, I have a hangar at the airport also. It’s really kind of sad to hear that. They’re still talking about navigation easements. I recall back when I was on the board, even a little prior to this lawsuit with Mile High skydiving and quiet skies, that there was talk about all the development around the airport. And I happened to be passing by Centennial airport at the time. And I took a photograph of a sign that is along Arapaho road that says that you’re entering the airport influence zone. And that time, I was working with a previous airport manager, Tim Barth. And we went and looked around the airport influence zone here in Longmont. And we found about 10 locations, some in the county, some in the city, where a sign could be posted that said you are in the airport influence zone that that got accepted by the board to be presented to the city council. And it was presented to the city council along with the photographs. And that was an election year. And they all agreed this is a wonderful idea. And then all that detail just went right into the trashcan. And nothing ever happened. But it would be a waste to have certainly had people become aware that they were living in an airport zone. I think the concern back then was that the housing values would be depressed by people knowing they were in an airport influenced owner trying to sell a house in that zone. The reality is that didn’t happen. Prices just went up. The discussion was carried to the cities legal group who some of those people I think are still there. And they were working on the navigation easement. And I think it was stated that when a person buys a property within the airport zone now there is some document that gets signed that they recognize they’re in that area. But putting together maybe a better document is the way to go. However, it’s pretty depressing to hear that we’re back on this topic. 10 years later. Thanks. Thank you
Speaker 10 29:37
Oh, my name is Steve Kirk, one to five Fairbanks Street. I actually work for the county of Boulder and I do prairie dog removal for them. My suggestion for barrier fencing option is we do chicken wire fencing the six foot chicken wire and you put an apron on the bottom and like a wrap on the top. So the prairie dogs can’t get over or under. And I know the city has Park machines, we’ve actually borrowed some of their park machines. And if there’s just 20 holes 20 holes can be treated in like an hour. So that’s my suggestion period, the prairie dogs can be removed fairly quickly, in my opinion. So just throwing that out there. Thank you. Thank you very much.
Speaker 1 30:29
I think pretty much everyone had a chance, but I’ll do a last call anyway, here. I’ll close the final public invited to be heard and move on to board Council and our staff comments starting with board members. Vice Chair Dean
Speaker 7 30:43
for leave, I noticed the other day leaving my EAA meeting that the gate to is really really rusty and took a while to open the chain is extremely rusty and looks like it could use some some tender loving care on the mechanism itself.
Speaker 5 30:57
Okay, I’ll put it on my list check out there.
Unknown Speaker 31:00
It opened very slowly when I tried to leave. So
Speaker 5 31:03
as you proceed as opening quicker in the past, yes. Okay.
Speaker 7 31:07
And you could hear it, I have my windows down, you could hear the screeching and the chain kind of binding. So.
Unknown Speaker 31:18
Other comments?
Speaker 5 31:21
I had one item I forgot to cover in the update, go for it place. Just real quick on mowing, because if we had a concern was brought up on that. So this year, we do have new mowers and it’s been a a communication battle, if you will, to make sure that they’re mowing what they need to mow. So that is an ongoing process to make sure that they’re they’re getting everything they need. We’ve had recall about four or five times now and they are still some communication that needs to occur. So But learning experience
Unknown Speaker 31:55
by studying so with
Unknown Speaker 31:56
the new mowers we have a estimate on price or whether it’s going to cost
Speaker 5 31:59
Lee Yeah, it they estimated approximately $40,000 a year for mowing, which was also something that I put in for the budget for next year. That seems really high to me. To my understanding, we’ve had the Hazel bushes on the airfield here, Mo parts of our fields and stuff like that for hay, which is completely kosher as far as the FAA is concerned and everyone else’s. Right now I am in the middle of trying to get some, some actual plans on paper, if you will, it’s seems to be something that was just always kind of, you know, done with a handshake and knowledge. So I’m just kind of trying to get that all lined out to make sure that we’re staying within, you know, FAA guidance, and also, you know, getting that taken care of. Okay, thank you.
Speaker 1 32:50
Does that mowing include the weeds that were brought up earlier as well?
Speaker 5 32:54
As opposed to so that was an issue? So yeah, the first thing was like, the biggest thing is that go into like the FBO. Like, there’s that guardrail, it’s off to your right, and you’re coming in. So they didn’t even touch that. And there was like five foot tall leads. So that was on the first thing we call them back on, was that and they were supposed to cut that. And they were supposed to cut the mailboxes and didn’t come to the mailboxes. So it’s back and forth, back and forth. Kind of thing with them. So we’ll see.
Speaker 1 33:21
live on air show. Recognize that. There was talk of doing fly in this year, and a real Expo next year. Are we on track at all for even a flying this year? Because it feels like that’s the planning seems to have stalled a little bit from my perspective, and is please someone correct me if I’m wrong,
Speaker 5 33:40
it does seem to stall a little bit and kind of the crew Melinda was kind of heading that up. And last time we talked, I said again, was probably two or three weeks ago now. And we had this plan to do a meeting and she’s all right Olson then indicted for it. She asked if I’d be available on a Thursday night and I said yeah, sure. Let’s do the Thursday night. And she said she’s gonna send a meeting invite out and it didn’t her. So the air show boards kind of busy at the moment. So I think that maybe things just kind of got pushed back because what’s going on
Speaker 1 34:21
anyone else have anything? I’m stalling for a second because there’s something else I was gonna ask you Levi that I blanked on. Oh, but I’ll come back to it if I need him. Alright. So leave any comments from you for staff.
Speaker 5 34:34
The only other thing that kind of popped up in my mind and maybe Marcia can comment on this too is you know, prairie dogs definitely concern of mine also. So I’m not sure if maybe it would be prudent or appropriate for the airport advisory board to put something together to send a counselor saying hey, you know, this is this is important to us. To stay on top of
Speaker 1 34:59
the thought I would ask Councillor Martin, if there was any, any action that the council would need to take at this point or if it’s kind of just staff doing staffs thing?
Speaker 8 35:09
Yeah, it really is more staff doing staff thing. You could come to council and and talk about it. And I, the gentleman back in the back who spoke about prairie dog control. The city of Longmont uses carbon monoxide. Only for prairie dog control on city lands, were allowed to make an exception to that which we did when they you know, had giant infestation right. To us. It’s it’s called nip something toxin. Boss toxin, okay, yeah. But we don’t have that equipment ourselves. So you’re taught, I don’t know what the trade off is between getting a contractor to come out and exterminate them with poison, or getting the city to come out and use carbon monoxide, which is cleaner and safer for people. But we don’t really care about safer for people out there because people don’t walk around out there. I assume? No, it certainly no daycare centers or anything are out there. But that’s that’s what that’s what the trade off is. And, and so it’d be a question for you to ask Levi’s, whether they can use the equipment that the city owns. When it’s, you know, under 20, holes or whatever. Okay. Leave add,
Speaker 1 36:50
just add to that. If you need us to make a recommendation on something, please do. Don’t feel like you have to wait for us. Okay, and just move forward. But if you need us, we’ll we’ll have a discussion. Alright. Sounds good. The enemy is going to ask you about his budget, or next year? Okay. I know we’re in the planning cycle. In previous years, when the airport has made a request that is substantially different than in past years, we’ve written a letter to council to kind of explain that request, why it was happening and recommend a course of action? Is there something this year in the request that would be prudent for us to do something similar on
Speaker 5 37:27
potentially our mowing costs went from $9,000 to $40,000. So there was a big chunk of change. And fortunately, that’s a jump from a gentleman who’s been mowing for, you know, half his life out there and charging us that rate, the lowest quote that we got for the the new people after you retired. So there was a big jump item there. There was also a big jump item and snow removal and additional $10,000 for that. And that’s just plain. We had a reduced. Well, we had more snow last year’s or the previous so we just we kind of guessed what it would be and it just didn’t work out. So there’s that item. I’ve already been having kind of discussions with the finance department here at City. They’re asking me to kind of just take all that money from my repair and maintenance budget, because they said I didn’t use it last year. I said, Well, it’s true. I said, but that was my first year here, we were pretty much figuring out what was going on what needed to be repaired maintenance. So this year, really I kind of have all those dollars earmarked on various projects, bollard, installation around the fire hydrants and gas mains that for some reason were never accomplished to bring us up to fire code regrading and improvement of the airport perimeter road, it’s you know, looks like a four wheel drive trail out there. So pretty much all those dollars are kind of already spent. And I kind of tried to explain that to them. But yeah, that’s there’s some potential there and that certainly would be a benefit, not a detriment. Councilmember Martin.
Speaker 8 39:07
Thank you. I I’m not sure entirely how the budget works. But we have had conversations with Joanie Marsh about the building buildings up on the airport that could be repurposed, owned by the airport, specifically for remodel for an FBO. If I understand it correctly, does that go in your budget or does that go in her budget?
Speaker 5 39:35
That’s yeah, it’s not even touched by our budget. I think what she’s talking about there’s, there’s a couple potential things that I haven’t we talked a little bit about at the last meeting about what’s going on at the FBO and stuff like that. One of the items that brought up was and we corrected in the minutes actually is perhaps it would be more beneficial for the city to own the FPO building. So that’s currently kind of in the middle. I should have done an update on that. I do have a gentleman who is doing an appraisal on the building in the middle of that. So after we get that appraisal back, that’ll kind of take wherever that it’s going into and another direction for the city, whether it’s something that we can potentially, you know, acquire or not repurpose, I assume she’s, she’s talking about potentially repurposing the current hangar I’m in the FAA has been talking about potentially, them wanting us to have us know, or removal equipment. building. That building certainly repurposed for that, if need be. The building itself is one of the oldest ones on the airfield says value of the hangar, of course, all hangers are valuable. But that’s something that’s kind of come up, that would probably include some dollars just to make sure we’re bringing it up to whatever safety standard, you know, usability point that we need to do. None of that is in my budget, all that came to pass kind of after I was allowed to submit stuff for the budget. So there was nothing really
Speaker 8 41:05
okay, well, I’m, you know, I’m just because because we, not you and I, but we other people who push on the airport and use me to advocate for them, I guess. We’re we’re talking about taking control of the FBO situation by applying for grants. And Joanie said, we don’t need grants to take control of the FBO situation because she’s got money. So that my interpretation of that is, well before it’s too late. If if Let’s not miss a window, if that needs if that activity needs to go in somebody’s budget, let’s make sure we understand how it works. Okay. So again, for me, talking to Joanie is like talking to the wizard. You know, he’s I don’t always know what she’s saying. But there it is, I wouldn’t want to miss an opportunity on that,
Speaker 5 42:13
as kind of what was discussed with Johnny was she says, Well, we’ve got the money kind of sitting in the fund. Like if we needed to acquire this building, we could just go ahead and do it as long as it’s the right step moving forward. And that’s what got us to getting the appraisal
Speaker 8 42:24
done on the good, good. All right, so you’re traveling down the road. Yep. Thank you.
Speaker 1 42:31
I just asked, we have budget as an kind of standing info item for the next couple of months. I can’t remember the timeline for when, when votes happened on that. And that way, we’re tracking it at least if we need to
Speaker 5 42:41
as things kind of going on. Exactly. Yeah.
Speaker 1 42:50
Councilmember Martin, I skipped you for just general comments. I think you shook your head at me. So are you good, or do you have any other comments? Wonderful. Last call for board members or city staff on any comments. All right, then we’ll adjourn our meeting. Thank you, everyone. Thanks.
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