Pittsfield Municipal Airport Commission Meeting Minutes Wednesday, November 1, 2017 7:00 pm Commission Members Present: Chris Pedersen (Chairman), Chris Farrell, Gloria Bouillon, David Keator, Tom Sakshaug, Ned Kirchner, Gail Molari, Ashley Persip Not Present: Proceedings: Meeting called to order at 7:00 pm Audio Recordings For PCTV & meeting minutes Roll Call Taken Quorum present Public Comment Period: Laura Kenna, from McFarland Johnson came to introduce herself and learn more about the airport. Chris F asked who McFarland Johnson is. Laura stated that McFarland Johnson is a local engineering facility that designs environmental projects. Chris F asked if they do airport work and she stated that they do. Approval of Meeting Minutes: Chris P. verified all members received the minutes. Gail Molari moved to accept the minutes Tom Sakshaug seconded. So moved, favored, and passed. Status Update: Chris noted that Ned would be leaving the meeting early after the discussion on the Hazard Beacon. South Mountain Hazard Beacon: Jim of Stantec as well as Dick Nadeau (Stantec s electrical engineer), and Mark O Neil from KOBO were present to answer questions. Mark was responsible for ordering the Beacons, although his brother Kevin who owns the company was the Project Manager. Jim had a sixty-six page report to distribute. He noticed the hazard beacon was flashing red when they left last month s meeting and it has been operating properly for about a month. Dick has talked to the manufacturer about the fix possibly being a reset. Chris F asked that since Ned must leave early, that we get right to the questions he sent over to Stantec. Dick reviewed the questions Ned sent over, and said that there is a potential for RF interference from the nearby radio/television tower. Ned asked if the Beacons also operate at other airports. Dick confirmed they are. Ned said that it should be RF compatible since they are typically operating near airports, and that it should be RF protected. He is also concerned that while it is working now, there have been several failures in the past. He wanted to know what are we doing to avoid this. Chris P asked how many failures we ve had. They responded that it has happened three times at this same site. Some upgrades were made and then it was operating in fail safe
mode. Ned asked if it is computer controlled. Dick said he did not design it, but that there is an electronic circuit board. Mark from KOBO said he believes it is Solid State. When they reached out to the manufacturer, they d never heard of one that stopped working and then corrected itself again. Ned mentioned we had requested both pole and beacon measurements. Jim said they are not getting readings there. Ned expressed his disappointment since this was a direct request from the commission. Dick said the three beacons are the same design. All three are fed from different utility circuits. Chris mentioned that Yokun Seat has failed and now this one has failed repeatedly (three times). Chris F asked if the manufacturer should be called in to see if there is an inherent defect. Mark said the manufacturer is surprised that it has failed. They usually get tech support calls, but not failures. David said if the product is fine, and the installation is fine, what else is there. Mark said the feed that goes up to the meter, which is where they are checking the voltage, has been relatively normal. David asked if that meant he felt this is a line problem. Jim said they started out in May with KOBO to try to resolve the issue by having KOBO install the meter. Ned asked where the meter is in relation to the beacon. Mark said the meter is at the last pole then up to the beacon. Dick said there is a transformer near the last home. Chris asked how far the cables are at the other beacons. They stated they re more than 1,000 feet. David asked why the entire line hasn t been checked. Jim said they initially had Cobo put a meter on it and consulted their engineers, which led them to believe it was the power source. KOBO called the power company who checked it and said it was good, although it could be a bad insulator further down the road. David added that perhaps when they tested the line they might have fixed it. Chris F asked if there is now documentation of failures, indicating the document he distributed. Dick gave Ned a document showing specifics of their readings. Ned asked to have further explanation to determine overall power and deficiencies. Ned noted 4 amps are now being drawn and he feels they did not address it until Ned pointed it out to them. Ned feels that the report is stating it is working now, so there is no problem and he has an issue with that. Dick said that he only received some of this information this afternoon and hadn t had time to relay the findings to him. Ned asked if the supplier did a root cause analysis. The report distributed says they thought vs concrete answers. Mark said he has not had a deep analysis because things were corrected. Ned reiterated that there is a feeling that they don t seem dedicated to answering the airport s concerns. Jim said he did not have all the results until recently. Ned asked more specific questions about power consumption, and again, Dick said he believes it s +/- 5%. Again, Ned said he feels that since he emailed his questions over well in advance, why do they not have the answers. Ned asked if it is calibrated to NIST standards. Mark said it is. Chris F said that since it s a safety beacon, the manufacturer should be here to get to the bottom of it. Chris P asked what the path is going forward. Jim said they re leaving the calibrated fluke meter out there for another few weeks to see if they can get some correlation with weather pattern and voltage. They will continue to monitor it. They do not see evidence of tampering. David asked if there s a warranty on it. Jim said it is typically a year, and they usually last three years. Chris F said that he recognizes they ve been working on it since May and considering it is a safety concern, they don t have the time to continually address this. Jim said he understands the concern and they don t feel the airport has been in jeopardy. Chris asked if the manufacturer has seen this report. Jim said they only received the data yesterday, so the manufacturer has not seen it. Ned said he still does not feel that Stantec has a sense of urgency. Chris F said they should give the supplier a deadline, just as he gave Stantec a deadline 30 days ago. Mark said that when they received the raw data, it takes a week or so to translate it. Jim said that they are in the airport business at Stantec and they understand the liability. In its current failure it was not a safety issue because it was lit at night with a lower intensity back up light, which is supposed to happen. He assures that
he wants to solve the problem and will continue conversations with the manufacturer. He said it is possible that the power company did something to the line between when Gloria called, and Dick contacted them a couple of months ago. David asked if it failed at all after their last visit. Jim said it has not and that it is working properly, leading him to believe that it is possible that they corrected the issue and didn t tell them because if they admitted it, they would have to reimburse KOBO the cost of two beacons, $10,000. Chris P reviewed the plan to keep the monitor in place for a few more weeks, and if the monitor turns up nothing, we cross our fingers and hope it goes well? He asked what the resolution is. Jim said we need to get better clarification and have the manufacturer out. Chris P asked if the manufacturer has seen Stantec s data. Jim said they have not because he just got it yesterday. Chris P said he assumes that part of the discussion is to get this data to the manufacturer and asking if these fluctuations would be causing the problems with their product. Jim agreed, but noted these are not big variations with the voltage. Ned stated the voltage is good, the current draw is what is confusing. He is still unhappy about the lack of urgency. Mark explained that the original raw data had to be translated which took some time. Chris F asked if we can set a timeline of one week to demand the answers to Ned s questions. Jim said they ll do the best they can. Ned asked if they could get a manufacturers rep here for next meeting. Jim said he will try to. Mark has spoken to the sales rep quite a few times and will call him again tomorrow. Chris P said we expect an answer from the rep and Stantec one week from today. Security Fence Repairs: Jim from Stantec said the project is complete and the issue with the remote controls is now resolved. All the gates will be getting new remotes and Mass DOT is paying for it. They will be distributing 25 new remotes to all emergency services, etc. as necessary. Berkshire Fence has been asked to move forward with this and order the remotes. Chris F asked if Gloria is satisfied. She has not received the change order yet, but Mass DOT has confirmed it is coming. Brian said they ll try to have them in by the end of the week. Chris P asked if Berkshire Fence has been paid. Gloria stated they just have the retainage and once the remotes are received, it will be released. Chris asked to be updated if Gloria and Brian aren t happy. Capital Improvement Plan Update: Jim, Gloria and Brian attended the meeting last week with FAA and Mass DOT, and Chris F participated via phone. They were happy to see so much commission participation. Bottom line is that they are supporting the Master Plan for 2018. Gloria said they ll need to move very quickly on the grant. David asked if it s a one-year project. Gloria said it could be 1 2 years, likely 1.5 years. She expects it to start prior to the solar project. Jim said they will scope the work and fee is approved, the grant application will go in. They may not have the funding in place until later in the spring. David asked about the manpower necessary to handle these three projects at once. Chris P said that Gloria s work on it as a manager is going to be different that her work as a consultant. She agrees, and said that s why we have consultants, but was just stating that it is a huge undertaking. Lisa at FAA has put the hammer down on Master Plans, but they now seem to be onboard. Chris P asked if Jim could review the timeline. Jim said in 2017 the runway project, of which they ve received both grants. Maximillian has been notified today that they got the contract. Snow Removal equipment was on the 2017 plan. 2018 is the Master Plan and 2019 (potentially 2020) is the Capital Improvement Plan. David asked if there was a new terminal. Gloria said it is going to be paid for by Mass DOT at 95%. Jim continued that in 2020 they will be realigning taxiway. Chris F thought they had backed away from that on the call. Jim said that was a new guy who was mistaken. Jim continued that in 2021 there is another Snow Removal Equipment purchase. Chris P learned that the FAA ranks things differently for each region, when they were on the call.
Chris F asked if there are large snow removal equipment items on the Government Surplus Equipment. Brian said that they the city asked him not to seek equipment there. Chris F asked Brian and Gloria to identify who in the city put the end to it and if they can restart their search. Brian said they need to educate the city and commission on how the GSE works. Chris F asked if we can do more research and bring the information to the next meeting. Jim said that you ll need to justify the equipment to the state as part of the Master Plan. Jim continued that in 2022 there will be the reconstruction of the parking apron, and 2023 would be MALSF Approach Light System. Chris F said that they are moving towards Satellite GPS navigation. David asked if we could be a Beta Test for that program. Chris P thanked Chris F, Gloria & Brian for going out to Boston for this important meeting. Mass DOT Aeronautics Grant; Runway Reconstruction: Gloria said, this year per the capital plan for the city, a couple items were discussed such as payload tires, the master plan and the terminal. In that capital appropriation, the city match had been tentatively approved for that year. In the CIP meeting with MassDot, some of the preliminary designs from Lyon will help determine where the terminal would be. They are in Phase 3 and are expecting terminal construction in 2020 2023. Mass Dot requested some of the preliminary designs prior to the master plan. The terminal layout plan will be part of the Master Plan and they will be seeing more about this in the next seven months or so. Chris pointed out that the state refers to it as an Administrative building and said that the state has a design preference for it. Jim added that they ve been working on one in Southbridge due to a hurricane. They had already started on a building, so they combined this with the prototype that the state prefers. Chris P said that about five years ago, the state assessed all airports based on the fact they are all gateways to the communities they are in. David asked if it would make a difference that we are classified as a Gateway City. Gloria said that administrative buildings are hardly ever funded, so this is an incredible opportunity. Project / Committee Chair Discussion: Chris F said that we have a lot of projects in flux, so it is an opportunity that commissioners to become more engaged in projects that they have particular interests in. Chris P came up with the four initial projects listed below. He asked members to state their preferences. Tom asked if the Beacon Project would also encompass conservation issues there. He has interest in serving there. Chris P asked if members felt they could attach themselves to a project. Tom said that while it makes sense to have a focus on a particular project, they should all have a say in each of them. Tom wants to be on the Beacon Project with Ned. Chris P and Chris F, along with David would be on the Lyon project. Ashley, Tom, and David would be on the Solar Project. Gail and Chris P would be on the Personnel sub-committee. Chris F, Ashley, and Tom would like to be on Engineering and Planning. Gloria asked how it would work in terms of logistics, and who should be CC d on these issues. David said they need to be careful of violating open meetings. He felt that if everybody was emailed, but only those that are on the sub-committees would respond directly to Gloria. Chris P said we can t have discussion, but Gloria can disseminate. Then it all comes out for discussion at group meetings. Chris F said there will be a learning curve with this. Gail said that it s never been a fair distribution of effort, and most of the work goes to the Chair and the Manager. Engineering & Planning Review Committee: Beacon Project Ned has a special interest in this area. Lyon Discussion to envelope all of Lyon s leases. Solar Project
Personnel Manager s Report: FY 17 Budget: Gloria relayed that they ve expended $44,000 and encumbered $193,000+/- and they have $107,000 available. Just prior to this meeting, they had a brief meeting to discuss a partial power outage recently. This is their second time experiencing it and they do not have a back-up generator they can use. Chris P asked why they can t use the generator they have. Gloria said it needs some repair, and they are considering what it will cost to fix it vs. buying another one. David asked if this is the generator they acquired through the surplus and Gloria confirmed that it is. It is an ongoing discussion and she hopes to have resolution prior to winter. FY 17 Revenues: The revenues she sent out last week have been updated last night and this morning. The lease payments from Lyon have not been reflected yet. They will be issued tomorrow. Other landing fees came in last night, which reflects the discrepancy. Transit landing fees were up. IFB # 18-020 Engineering Services for Airport Projects: The engineering services committee will need to be formed to review proposals and she asked if all interested members could send dates for the week of the 13 th to meet to review the applicants. David asked her to explain the process. Gloria said they need to form a committee and review the proposals (7-8 of them) then begin the selection process to rank for interviews. Chris F asked if these interviews are held in executive session. Chris P said he ll have to look into it. Tom asked if we will have to do them in open meetings. Chris P said he believes they should be. Gloria will send out a doodle poll to determine the meeting date. Chris P said they will need the data, and evaluation tool, and regroup to assess. Tom will get the evaluation tool they used in the past. Chris P asked if they have a date when the current contract is up. She said it expired one day ago. Chris P said they re under contract for the project, but we are now looking for an On Call Engineering & Planning firm. Adjournment: Motion made by Chris F to adjourn, seconded by Gail, so moved, favored, and passed. Motions Pittsfield Municipal Airport Commission Meeting Wednesday, November 1, 2017 1. Gail moved to accept the minutes Tom seconded, so moved, favored, and passed. 2. Chris F made a motion to adjourn. Gail seconded, so moved, favored, and passed.