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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1997-02-13 Airport Commission Summary KENAI AIRPORT COMMISSION Kenai City Council Chambers Chairman Tom Thibodeau February 13, 1997 at 7 p.m. ***AGENDA*** 1. Roll Call 2. Elections 3.. Approval of Agenda 4. Approval of Minutes January 9, 1997 5. Persons Present Scheduled to be Heard a. Lori Davey, Director of Marketing, ACCI* b. Jonathan Koll* *Regarding placing calling card vending machine in the terminal. 5. Old Business a. Car Rental Proposal 6. New Business 7. Airport Manager's Report 8. Commission Comments and Questions 9. Persons Present Not Scheduled To Be Heard 10. Information Items a. City Council Agenda (1/8/97 and 1/1 5/97) b. Airport Commission Roster c. Seminar Information d. Update--Fire Training Center 11. Adjournment Agenda Feb. 13.doc KENAI AIRPORT COMMISSION February 13, 1997 ***MINUTES*** 1. Roll Call Members present' Members absent' Others present' Bonnie Koerber, Tom Thibodeau, Henry Knackstedt, Sandra Hudson Ron Holloway, Barbara Edwards, James Bielefeld Airport Manager Randy Ernst, Administrative Assistant Marilyn Kebschull 2. Elections KNACKSTEDT MOVED TO RETAIN THIBODEAU AS CHAIRMAN. KOERBER SECONDED THE MOTION. HUDSON MOVED TO NOMINATE KNACKSTEDT AS VICE-CHAIR. MOTION SECONDED BY KOERBER. ELECTIONS APPROVED BY UNANIMOUS CONSENT. 3. Approval of Agenda KNACKSTEDT MOVED FOR APPROVAL OF AGENDA. HUDSON SECONDED THE MOTION. APPROVED BY UNANIMOUS CONSENT. 4. Approval of Minutes January 9, 1997 KNACKSTEDT MOVED TO APPROVE THE MINUTES OF JANUARY 9, 1997. KOERBER SECONDED THE MOTION. APPROVED BY UNANIMOUS CONSENT. 5. Persons Present Scheduled to be Heard a. 'Lori Davey, Director of Marketing, ACCI Ms. Davey provided packets of information to Commission members. Lori Davey stated she works with Alaska Call Connection. Davey explained they are a prepaid calling card company based in Anchorage. Davey stated they are asking the Commission to consider putting a prepaid calling card machine at the Kenai airport. Davey stated the first letter in the packet provides information about the machine noting there are pictures of machines included. Davey stated they offer $10 and $20 cards. Davey stated these cards are 40 cents a minute but added that by February 27th they will be offering new cards which will be 33 cents a minute. Airport Commission Minutes Page 2 February 13, 1997 Davey continued noting they offer good international rates and gave examples of Mexico as $.96 per minute and Japan is $.75 per minute. Davey commented that there are a lot of travelers in Alaska in the summer who use the cards. Davey noted they have a machine at the Anchorage Convention and Visitor's Bureau and they have a lot of international travelers who use the cards. Davey stated they are easy to use, economical, and easy to budget. Davey noted some people use them in place of long distant calling cards. Davey explained that a $10 card could be used for 30-1 minute calls. Davey stated that when you dial a number, you are told how many minutes are left on the card and added that cards are debited in one minute increments. Davey stated the important things for the Commission to consider is that they are state certified with the APUC. Davey stated this is important because there are fly by night businesses, who have purchased minutes, sold them, never paid the long distance carrier, and then left with consumers holding worthless cards. Davey stated, the cards are only worth the value of the card so if lost or stolen you only lose the value of the card. Davey explained that the APUC regulates all telecommunications in Alaska. Davey stated the other factor is the EKKA (?) charges which they do not currently pay. EKKA charges, Davey explained, are used to subsidize communities who cannot support communications. Davey explained that if companies aren't certified that a lot of money leaves Alaska that should be a part of that source. Davey noted they are bonded as a requirement through the APUC. Davey stated she had included a copy of the company's certification and a copy of the contract. Davey noted they pay 15 percent commissions on revenue. Davey noted the only other airport machine their company has is in the Juneau airport. Davey stated she put a copy of Juneau's revenue sheet from last year in the packet. Davey stated ACCI maintains the machines. Davey stated Juneau makes about $200 a month. Davey stated the airport will only provide space and a plug in. Davey stated she included a copy of ACCI's insurance policy and noted they can add the Kenai Airport to their policy. Hudson, noting she understood revenue would be different than at the airport, asked how well the Three Bears and mall machines did. Davey stated that the Three Bears didn't do too well noting they had gone out of business which probably indicated that traffic hadn't been too well there. Davey stated she expects Kenai Airport to be seasonal adding she felt revenue would come from fisherman, tourists, and business people. Davey noted this is the same market as the Juneau airport. Davey stated that fisherman seem to be cash people who like using the calling cards. Davey stated it is hard to say how well it will do, but if it doesn't do well, they will remove it. Davey explained the contract is for a 90 day trial basis and is a 2 year contract but can be removed with 30 day notice from either party. Knackstedt asked about Anchorage and Fairbanks airports and why they don't have the machines in those locations. Davey stated Fairbanks had been difficult to deal Airport Commission Minutes Page 3 February 13, 1997 with but they are working on it. copy of that in the packet also. Davey noted they are a DBE noting she had put a Knackstedt asked why Fairbanks would be so strict? Davey stated she wasn't sure noting that last time they just said they didn't want it. Anchorage has stated they put it under their concession and unless they can deal with the concessionaire (W.H. Smith), they don't want to deal with it. Davey commented it is a good public service. Davey noted that travelers from outside find out that their cards don't work here so their phone cards provide a service for them. ,, Thibodeau stated he was wondering who would actually use the cards in Kenai, noting most are sport fisherman, oil businessmen, reiterating he was not sure who would use the card. Thibodeau stated he wondered about people who would want to use the calls as a non-traceable method and not sure he wants to encourage that. Davey stated they are traceable somewhat. Davey noted she has not seen a problem with that. Davey added that they are speculating who is buying the cards based upon the area wherein they are bought. Davey noted they have one machine in the Tok grocery store that does really well, especially in the summer, and holds it's own in the winter. Koerber asked Ernst if he could see any detriments. Ernst stated he thought they would have to go out to bid. Ernst noted they would need to discuss it with the attorney and put it out for bid. Ernst noted he used one of the cards that Ms. Davey had,given him to try noting he found it quite convenient. Davey stated the Commission is welcome to call the Juneau Airport noting they did it through the DBE without going out to bid. Ernst stated he felt the only way they got around the bid process was by not limiting it to one agency. Ernst stated there is an advantage to having a DBE. Thibodeau stated he would like to take a further look at this before they make a recommendation on the matter. Knackstedt asked Ernst to see what the attorney had to say about the proposal. b. Jonathan Koll Not present. 6. Old Business a. Car Rental Proposal Thibodeau noted that the Council had decided it would be okay if the area was divided into three areas and to see how the agencies wanted to do that and come Airport Commission Minutes Page 4 February 13, 1997 up with a plan. Thibodeau noted there were car rental representatives in the audience and stated if there is a plan the Commission would like to see it. Dan Van Zee of Hertz represented the agencies. Van Zee stated he spent a couple hours .with Ernst's assistant, Holland, looking at what would be the most economical way to divide the space. Van Zee noted they looked at several scenarios. Van Zee stated the most feasible way, noting all agencies are in agreement, was to remove three partitions. Van Zee explained, the partition between Budget and what used to be National would be removed to 12 to 1 8 inches from the back wall. Van Zee noted there is plumbing that feeds the hot water heat, that would be left with a stub wall. Van Zee stated they would fill in the space that is in the existing front counter and make it match the rest of the counter. Van Zee noted that space would become Budget and would essentially double that space. Van Zee stated they then move down one partition. Van Zee noted there is a partition between.Avis and Hertz. Van Zee explained they would be doing basically the same thing there, remove that one partition and fill in the counter as stated above. That would become the Avis space, doubling that space. Van Zee explained moving down to the last partition, drawing attention to the small counter section at the end that was a booking agency last summer, they would remove the partition between the old Payless space and the small counter and that would become the Hertz space. Van Zee noted the spaces wouldn't be divided equally, Hertz would be about 15 feet long and the others about 20 feet. Van Zee noted he would gain more counter space because it is "L" shaped. Van Zee explained this proposal would involve moving only three partitions and noted it wouldn't involve any electrical or plumbing. Van Zee did note there was one electrical conduit which was surface mounted on the Hertz partition between Budget and National that can be removed very easily. Van Zee stated this proposal is suitable to all the agencies and would suit their needs. Van Zee stated they feel that this wouldn't be cost prohibitive and they · would be willing to absorb the cost. Ernst stated the next step would be to get something on paper showing what it will look like when complete so the council and commission would have something to look at. Ernst stated he doesn't have a problem with the concept noting everything could be put back if they chose to in the future. Ernst noted that since the agencies have expressed an interest in doing the work at their expense that he didn't know how that will work. Ernst explained that if the city decided to go back to the four spaces he didn't know if they would lose their investment. Van Zee stated they would like to see the leases be renewed for five years. Thibodeau noted that if at the end of the five years the council determined that Airport Commission Minutes Page 5 February 13, 1997 they wanted it back to four spaces, that could be done. Thibodeau stated he understood that they would be leasing three spaces, not the five for the five years. Van Zee stated that was his understanding adding they understOod they may lose their investment in the future. Ernst noted they would be responsible for the additional space in their lease. Ernst noted they needed to get something on paper showing how it would look adding the council is concerned about ascetics. Thibodeau stated he agreed they need some kind of drawings to go forward with and some cost estimates. Ernst stated they still have Payless in limbo adding probably until June when their lease expires. Van Zee noted they have looked at how the modifications could be made without much interruption of business. Van Zee stated that Holland had stated there were some drawings of the airport and asked if they could possibly get copies of those. Ernst stated they have drawings which they could get copies of. Ernst stated that he would suggest that they be prepared for the next Airport Commission meeting. Thibodeau asked what the date was for the Payless lease, the end or beginning of June. Ernst stated he would have to check. Knackstedt asked if modifications could be done before the end of June. Ernst stated he didn't feel they could make any changes until the lease expires. Van Zee asked if the city's position was to let the lease expire. Ernst stated the city doesn't have a choice because they cannot find him to serve notice which is required by law. Van Zee noted that if that were to take place, it could be vacated earlier. Ernst stated all they need is a signature. Van Zee stated they understand it is contingent on the space being available. Thibodeau stated he felt they were on the right track. Thibodeau asked about how they will combine the counters and if they will have two openings. Van Zee stated they will add counter top to make it look like a continuous counter. Ernst stated the plans would have to be approved. Thibodeau asked for drawings and an explanation of how they propose to complete the work so they will have something to pass onto council. Gary Zimmerman of AVIS asked if they should as a group of concessionaires put together a proposal for council. Ernst stated proposals should go to the Airport Commission who would make the recommendation to council. Knackstedt asked about the city having requirements for contractors. Ernst stated there are guidelines they must follow. Knackstedt asked if they can contract with someone to do the work or if the city will have to do that. Ernst stated that they could have someone do the work as long as they had the necessary insurance. Zimmerman asked if there was a dollar figure that they get into trouble with the RFP. Ernst stated that since they will be doing it, it shouldn't involve the city. Airport Commission Minutes Page 6 February 13, 1997 Ernst stated the city will need to see the plans and approve them. will check and clarify this with the city attorney. Ernst noted he 7. New Business 8. Airport Manager's Report Ernst drew attention to the information he included in the packet and explained that the pie chart in the packet was corrected from the information provided last month. Ernst stated he has a rendering of the fire training center proposed for Marathon Road and the layout for the floor plan. Ernst added he has the engineer's drawing for the proposed taxiway extension and the grass, i.e. gravel strip. Ernst stated they may be interested in reviewing these after the meeting. Ernst noted they have rough figures at $2.3 million at this time. Knackstedt asked if this includes an extension on the float pond and asked about the fill. Ernst stated they opted not to take fill from the float plane basin to extend it. Ernst stated they ran into some problems with the environmental. Ernst they found it wasn't feasible to use the fill noting it simplified the project by not having to include that area in the environmental. Ernst stated the environmental for the fire training center is complete. Ernst advised the budget will be turned in tomorrow to finance. Ernst stated one of the projects that may interest the Commission is crack sealing noting the last time it was done was in 1 992. Ernst noted this will include the three main taxiways and the main ramp. Ernst stated city employees will seal the secondary taxiways. Ernst stated they are estimating that project at $1 35,000. Ernst stated they had the Part 1 39 Airport Certification Inspection the last three days and came through with flying colors with the exception of the ACM which needs updated. Ernst stated that with all manuals, there are pages that need updated. Ernst stated they plan to get with FAA and they may change the format of the ACM. Ernst gave credit for this to Holland noting he was busy with the budget. Hudson asked when they would do the crack sealing. Ernst stated he assumed toward the end of July after fish haul season. Ernst stated there is a whole diagram of how the airport is closed at different sections to facilitate the work. Ernst noted that last time it was a seven day project. Ernst stated that at the next meeting, after the regular meeting, they will go into an information meeting for the master plan. 9. Commission Comments and Questions Airport Commission Minutes 10. Persons Present Not Scheduled To Be Heard Page 7 February 13, 1997 1 1. Information Items a. City Council Agenda (1/8/97 and 1/1 5/97) b. Airport Commission Roster c. Seminar Information d. Update--Fire Training Center Thibodeau stated for the next meeting under Old Business they would discuss the car rental proposal and the phone card proposal. Thibodeau drew attention to the Seminar information in the packet. Koerber stated she had visited with the fire chief when he had the Russians with him. Koerber noted how excited he was and that she was impressed with the project. Ernst stated the project is at about $10.6 million. Thibodeau asked if there is an estimate of how many people it will bring in for training. Ernst stated there are 37 certified airports in the state which are mandated by FAA to have live fire training every year. Ernst stated they initially started with between 200 and 300 per year but anticipate it growing. 1 2. Adjournment Meeting adjourned at approximately 7'50 p.m. Respectfully submitted: Ma~ilyn Kebschull Administrative Assistant