Alva Review-Courier -

Other than approval of minutes, the Alva Airport Commission didn’t take any action during their meeting Monday. However, they heard reports from the city and from the airport manager.

Chairman Dale Logsdon opened the meeting with members Paul Kinzie, Terry Cline and Mayor Kelly Parker present. Calleb Mosburg was absent.

Financials

Parker gave a brief financial report. He said airport revenue in July was greater than one-twelfth of the year’s budgeted revenue, but expenses were also higher than budgeted. For the month, the airport had more expenses than revenue. The city’s pool cash account had a little over $61,000 of airport money at the end of July after starting with $100,000. The airport separate checking account has a balance of about $1.2 million and certificates of deposit total almost $450,000.

The reason the first month of the fiscal year (July) came in a little lopsided is because there were two fuel deliveries during the month.

City Council Report

Parker said the city is working on multiple projects. Bids have been received for synthetic turf on all the ballfields at the Alva Recreation Center. The Parks and Recreation Board scheduled a meeting Thursday afternoon to consider the bids. Parker said the artificial turf will prevent rain delays of games. He mentioned the economic impact to Alva of all the visitors who come for games.

The mayor said the city is almost ready to advertise for bids on the swimming pool.

The waterline project south of Alva is about 37 percent complete despite rain delays.

A crew from Core and Main has been replacing water meters around Alva. Unfortunately, the number of valves broken in the process caused the city to stop installation. They sent that crew back and asked for new workers. On the bright side, the water meter project is about six months ahead of schedule because the meters weren’t predicted to arrive until much later.

Regarding the Oklahoma Department of Transportation (ODOT) project to widen US-281 south, Parker said they have limited the scope of the impact on city utilities. That means they won’t be replacing water and sewer lines as first planned. Parker expressed disappointment since the city won’t be getting new lines.

ODOT Lease

ODOT has been leasing an area of airport land on the northeast corner for the area highway department. The lease expired some time ago and charged only one dollar a year. City Business Manager Steve Ford said he contacted the Highway Department regional office in Buffalo to see what they are paying but has not received a reply. He looked at airport agriculture leases and determined an average of $58.45 per acre. The leased area is 4.2 acres which comes out to about $250 per year.

Kinzie asked Ford if he had contacted the City of Buffalo to get information on the lease. He said no and made a note to do so. Logsdon also suggested he contact the Oklahoma Aeronautic Commission to see if they had any information on leases.

The airport commission is trying to come up with a more equitable rate, which is encouraged by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

Airport Manager’s Report

The airport collected $25,307.07 in July from sales of fuel and oil. This is lower than the $39,190.18 revenue in July 2022 but higher than June 2023’s sales of $14,746.89. During July the airport sold 2,304.12 gallons of 100LL fuel for $10,757.52 and 3,251 gallons of Jet-A for $14,125.65. Courson said sales would have been a lot better but some pilots changed their flight plans due to high winds and storms in the area.

Having the AWOS (automatic weather observation station) down also contributed to decreased sales because pilots couldn’t access local Alva weather. At least the AWOS renovation is in place and operating now. Airport traffic continues to be hampered by the absence of working runway lights.

With continuing rain, mowing at the airport is “pretty much all the time,” Courson said. With all the mowing, he said blade and oil changes are scheduled every 30 days on the mowers.

The Jet-A fuel truck had a belt problem that turned out to be a pulley problem. It has now been repaired. While the truck was inoperable, a couple of aircraft were able to fuel off the pump.

The Oklahoma Corporation Commission had two inspections a couple of weeks apart. The airport passed both Avgas and Jet-A inspections with no problems.

The airport commission authorized ordering a Fuelmaster system to replace the aging and unreliable credit card fueling system at the airport. Last month, Courson said Fuelmaster and Phillips 66 (the airport’s fuel supplier) have been unable to come to an agreement. This month, there doesn’t seem to be any progress. However, Courson learned that ASAP who delivers fuel to the airport is a dealer for the QT pod system. El Reno and Woodward airports installed that system and are happy with it. Next month, Courson expects to have a quote for the QT system but was told it would probably be around $17,000 to $18,000.

Courson said he did the airport billing this month instead of the city office doing it. Some payments have already been made. He said he’d tried to find a current airport policy on charging fuel. Kinzie told him a new one was approved recently. Parker asked Heather Bonham, who keeps the minutes, to check city office files for the policy which includes penalties for late payment.

Courson said he purchased a DGI mini 30 drone for the airport which he hopes to use to take pictures and video to document progress on airport projects and use for posting on social media. The drone cost $658, and Courson doesn’t need a license to operate it below 400 feet. He said he can also use it if the EAA Young Eagles program is able to come here in October.

Northwest Electric is looking at the hay barn to price changing the lighting to LED. It’s used for equipment storage and has dark areas. Parker said the city might be able to include that in a future grant application.

Other Discussion

At the end of the meeting, commission members asked questions and made remarks. Kinzie asked if there was a start date yet on the runway lighting project. Apparently there was some miscommunication between different levels at the FAA, Parker said. That’s been resolved and the process is back on track.

Kinzie asked if concrete dumped at the fairgrounds lease had been resolved. Ford said it has not been removed, but they were able to prevent more being dumped. He said the city has “a ton” of concrete at the transfer site, and they are looking for someone to pick it up.

Logsdon said he noticed the light was out on top of the water tower. The light marks the tower for pilots. Logsdon said it’s important that it work for helicopters coming in for medical flights. He said the lights on the wind sock are also out. Courson talked about how difficult it is to replace the water tower light. Then he remembered some breakers were turned off during the AWOS installation so that could be the problem.

A video of the meeting may be viewed at http://www.AlvaReviewCourier.com