[Music] first Lake Airport commission uh Mr Schmidt would you please call the role yes Mr husnik liazon from the city council I'm here Mr Lynch present Mr mson here Mr Steeler here and John Schmidt is here Mr GM is not he is a uh possible airport commissioner candidate we have a quorum all righty uh do we have a motion to approve the minutes from the August 7th meeting I'll I'll make a motion to approve them I've read them I believe they're true is rather correct is written therefore I'll move to accept them as written is there a second I'll support that Mr Schmid seconds uh all in favor of approving the minutes say I I I any opposed any extensions I we have one extension Mr Monson all right we will move on to item number four the Delong SE plane sea ski plane base on Lake number one let me scroll forward to is there any way to get that on the big screen and if if Noah was the answer that's fine we've all got it up here we have a very small audience there's no reason to push this but I'm thinking about possible viewers at home but that's um and if no was the answer we'll just not worry about it we could have in advance okay that's fine let's Mr ER Erica come on up here yeah if you could introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about perfect what we're looking at all right thank you for uh putting us on the agenda my name is Erica dong uh this is my spouse Paula uh we're both Pilots um been a resident of the Forest Lake area for 51 years now uh took my very first lesson out in Forest Lake in 1992 um have been an aircraft owner the entire time uh we currently live I grew up on the south side of first Lake um and first started utilizing the lake in 1992 uh with uh winter flying off of the lake um at that time uh there was a sea plane base out there called waldruff um um that was located on the North side um it's been uh Wald SEO BL had uh been there my entire life uh looking back it's hard to find exactly when it was uh started there but I'm going to say mid 60s maybe 70s Sam husnik may know um just being in the community uh it was uh the waldruff SE plane base uh up until about 200 um2 2004 at which point it became the Madson SE plane base serving the Forest Lake Community uh SE plane Pilots uh utilizing the North End of Lake number one about two and a half years ago um I applied um as I have a SE plane myself and I live on the North side of first actually two doors down from the old Waldorf uh SE plane hanger that's currently still there unlike one um two doors down I applied for a private SE plane based license from the state of Minnesota um found out a couple things one um they didn't have a problem with issuing me a license uh they actually came out and did a site investigation took some measurements with the GPS took some photos of the beaching area my wind sock and the general area um from mindat Minnesota Department of Aeronautics I also did learn that about three weeks prior to my phone call that the uh Matt mat Masson uh SE plane base had been um terminated um it was due to um per mad a brutal divorce in which the uh one person was a pilot the other person was not um and uh they canceled the C plane base uh because of that um so what I did is I uh app I asked if I could just change the uh overlay to the dong seae base and they said unfortunately due to it being expired and not um renewed um that I needed to apply for the process of a SE plane base over again uh about a year and a half ago I applied uh via snail mail and was uh told that apparently the FAA does not um really work via the mail even though I filled out their form did exactly what they said so I worked with the state of Minnesota and they put me in touch with the person at the Min or uh at fso and I electronically filed um what I did is I submitted a packet um to miss Christina um and that has the application along with the the correspondence um as far as that so my goal here is to just reconnect and reestablish the base that's been there for the last 45 years um it doesn't change any operations at the Forest Lake Airport doesn't change the pattern doesn't change any frequencies what it does do though is it puts the the SE plane base back on the map as a boat anchor on a sectional it also has um airport uh directory information that would be available as well um depicting the pattern the altitude contact number and things like that along with GPS locations it's also going to um uh put the lake on the same frequency as the uh airport um and that is uh one of the things that the FAA had suggested because we are in such close proximity uh to each other um that we' be monitoring the one 122 decimal 7 frequency um when I originally applied with the FAA um they didn't really look at the loc um application that closely um they applied as if I had a a pave strip or a land strip they didn't understand didn't look at the application close enough to realize it was on the water so their ask was they wanted a tetrahedron at the airport out in the lake I can't provide that um I uh um I have a wind sock on my dock the the mot wanted that so I did that the other thing that they wanted to do they didn't uh didn't realize that I had already designated uh a modified traffic pattern so that there would not be conflict amongst the the two airports and I had also um already submitted the 1227 so I called the guy I'm like what do I need to do to get this and he uh he was kind of embarrassed he says I need you to do this at least um I sent out a letter um at least get the 1227 that you're talking on the same frequency I said um the alignment of the runway it's a lake I can come in whatever Direction you need me to um because it is a private air strip uh or privately a private SE plane basee so and uh the light bulb went on in his head I said normally we fly over the water we set up for landing and then we land into the wind we could be 5 degrees this way 10 degrees this way but in general um the pattern is designed um to go away from town and away from the Forest Lake airport so what I'm proposing is the letter of agreement between the Forest Lake airport and uh the Forest Lake SE plane base uh which will be called The Dong SE and ski so it'll be also in the winter time the letter of agreement was actually a cut cut and paste from the FAA that they suggested here it is here's the blanks I transposed it to you uh to you and filled in the information if you look on um um you guys did they give you the packet that I gave to Christina yes okay so if you look on attachment one one it's page 133 of our PDF 13 out of 36 is attachment one thank you and is attachment one showing just so like let me see your head right here so attachment one uh is going to be a um non-standard pattern on the left side of uh where all the writing is on attachment one would be town and it would move all the FL traffic to the east away from town uh 36 uh heading to the north be right traffic um for one 18 water uh to the South would be left-hand traffic if you look on attachment number two attachment number two has the current uh leftand traffic at the Forest Lake Airport as far as that and then I also have an uh attachment three is the two uh traffic patterns um with each other um and if you look on the way that the lake is set up on attachment 3 it keeps the traffic over the water away from the houses gives you the the safest uh most neighborly way to fly um that's very very very important and then once you do take off it it goes to the least uh populated area the midfield downwind for the Forest Lake um SE plane base is actually a um very open area with a dairy farm as far as that um the next is actually my license issued by the state of Minnesota I'm recognized as a uh C plane base already so really it's more of just a procedural um got to dot a couple eyes cross a couple T's um as far far as that so I'm not anticipating any change it's private it's at my home um I'm not selling any fuel I'm not giving any flight instruction but with it being a spot on the lake it's also a um can increase some safety as well there's a contact on the lake I've got a place if somebody needs to pull an airplane up to shore they can punch it in their GPS come on over and uh pull up to the my dock or my Shore I'm up for airplanes so um right now we only have uh one C plane we're not anticipating any more I don't even keep it normally at my house I keep it over at the surfite sea plane base but for a handful of times a year um it'd be nice to have it over at our house so um what I'm my ask is is that um the representative from the airport um and I believe it's Miss Christina I'm asking for her signature um for this this is the same signature that that Mr mson um or Mr Madison needed himself uh when I was on the airport commission um it was actually signed off um at the commission meeting I don't see her today but uh I asked for a unanimous vote um on this uh on this issue does anyone have any questions for I yeah first concern is when I see airport uh C plane base I just think of like fuel pumps and docks and storage areas and uh I mean what what is the benefit of having a personal uh plane base so it's private it's designated as private and the the FAA doesn't allow that and neither does the state of Minnesota so my uh license does not allow me to use it for commercial purposes at all um and it doesn't even allow me to do flight instruction out of there so it's literally just putting the base on the map so they can navigate and they can have a contact for someone on the lake okay I mean my other concern is that uh when I took my Pilot's uh training or whatnot that was designated there and I was just curious why it was there um I mean there's no restrictions right now for a SE plane not be able to land on first second or third no there is no restrictions whatsoever so I'm just having a tough time getting my arms around why we need it okay um one is it puts a radio frequency out there for the SE planes it'll actually put 1227 in there just like we do at the Forest Lake Airport two it allows us to provide support to some of the other SE planes I could put out a NM if I needed to I have could be a contact for that that that spot of water three it also uh by designating it an actual base someone could put that into their GPS fly straight to it and then have a safe harbor a known area as you go around all these Lakes if you're not familiar with it you don't know uh you don't know where you can stop you don't know where you can call ahead to drop someone off if you need to it's very very limited so it just puts a marker on there um and my contact information would be that and then the other concern I've got too is the reason for objection from the FAA was the overlapping traffic patterns yes and did you did you correct it by doing the right traffic on three it was already right traffic he missed that point and then also he realized as well that my traffic pattern is is down low over the water and uh he didn't have a problem with that he was more concerned his biggest concern on the phone was that we were just talking to each other 22.7 I've got no other questions I guess anyone else have any questions do you think this will affect I have a couple of questions do you think this will affect the sea plane traffic on the lake that might currently be there do you think um it'll be increased numbers or or anything like that got a pretty good feel of what's going on right now over at Surf Side since I'm based over there I think what it'll actually do is bring a little more organization it'll allow um people that are not talking on the radio currently operating around the local area um to be on the 1227 frequency it will also give a point um the forest when you say I'm on the water uh to the north and east of Forest Lake there's lots of water out here but if you say I'm on the I'm on I'm departing the dong SE plane base in Forest Lake they can any pilot any GA pilot can look at the map and and see that that area where that area is and it's also the largest area um on the lake and it's actually the least busiest um because I live there I I see that um I wouldn't want to increase the traffic in front of my own house and I don't think that's going to do it it's actually going to bring um I don't think it's going to change the traffic but it may organize people to be a little more uh uh fly friendly and then I also read in that backet too that uh we can only make a recommendation for the letter letter of agreement um but it sounds like the mayor would have to sign off on it because there is no Airport Manager you may not be aware of that there's some interim things going that specific question and I said Can the chair or the um interm person do it and they were okay with that yeah it'll actually be the mayor that would sign off on it in this case um so but yeah and then would the mayor sign off on it without any legal councel they I I would imagine the mayor would contact the legal people of the city um I don't know if she has any other questions on it she'd bring them forward she didn't bring any forward in in the paperwork here so Mr chair if I could just provide a little context here um because the airport commission is an advisory commission the recommendation would be to move this over to the city council for the mayor's signature and approval so it would have to go onto a council agenda and then the mayor would be able to sign off on it after the city council reviews and approves it now part of that process is usually that our City attorney is taking a look at what is being submitted for Council approval she will get eyes on this and if she has any concerns we'll discuss those concerns bring those forward we'll chat with you folks about that as well if needed um but that would be the process at this point okay thank you anything else I'd be happy to talk about it too if they have any questions later on so oh yeah there's a recommended Motion in the packet I've changed the wording a little bit because it's not quite as specific as I would like if you look at the motion in the packet it's on page help me out page 10 of 36 page 10 of 36 basically the the way it's set up we're we we have three options one we can recommend the approval of the of agreement as submitted two uh we can identify any amendments we want made to it or or three we can um recommend that it not be approved so what you're saying is with the recommendations of approving you have some changes to the verbiage look at the verbiage in the bold print on page 10 for a moment the verbiage says motion to recommend approval of the letters of agreement that the dongs have submitted replacing the airport manager with the mayor's signature that's not what is meant what is meant is replacing the requirement of the airport manager's signature with the mayor's signature that's what is meant okay we're not replacing the airport manager replacing the airport manager's signature so I of course changed the wording so the wording that I would have is motion to recommend approval of the letters of agreement replacing the requirement of the airport manager's signature with the mayor's signature and then blah blah blah on from there that's what I did would you like to make that motion I I so move can we speak can I speak on of course please absolutely so this is what they had sent me and it in the copy of the letter and it just says signature date oval right manager existing airport thank you I'm I'm sure they'll be f with the May they'll be fine with yeah I I saw that in the packet I'm sure they'll be fine with the mayor's signature yeah is there a second on the motion I'll second there we go we have a second any additional discussion on we have a f a motion in a second all in favor of of the motion as stated say I I I I have three I'll opposed I'll abstain I don't understand the the need for it so Mr Lynch abstains we have a it passes moves on to city council thank you very much thank you um back to our agenda I think silus is next on the list thank you Mr Steeler I just wanted to kind of provide you guys an update on a couple of the construction projects occurring at the airport and then kind of some of the future proposed projects there um so for the taxiway Alpha 3 and taxiway Bravo Construction uh we are kind of substantially complete you know the alpha 3 connector is open available for use I'm not sure if any of the pilots here have utilized that to kind of access the hanger area there um you know with how busy the airport is now what what mindat recommended was an other access point to kind of the the South hanger area to kind of alleviate any traffic either at the fueling area or kind of over by you know the hanger number one location so um and then the taxi LAN Bravo extension uh with utilities is there for you know up to four additional hanger Lots uh to be construction constructed upon um so we're in kind of the punchless phase of the project um you know we need to wait for the oil out of the binus to cure so they can put the pavement markings in the parking lot and then the center line stripes down the uh taxiway uh taxi Lane Bravo and then the taxiway A3 connector um and then just kind of monitoring the landscaping and making sure that that uh comes through fruition um any kind of questions or comments about that project the drainage on the south end is there any issue with that I would Taxi by there the other day and there was a little bit of standing water and some water F in there yeah we're monitoring it because it's supposed to be an infiltration Basin to meet kind of the Rice Creek Watershed District requirements so we put one in on the North side that as you see it's performing as it should and that was an extension of the existing Basin so we're looking at that one on the south I was out out there today before the meeting and considering it hasn't rained for probably 2 3 weeks I was also surprised to see some water standing in there and we have photos of more water in there even during periods so we're looking at it we're talking with the contractor about you know what happened there and why isn't that area draining out through the drain tile system that uh that exists so it is something that's on the punchless U commissioner Steeler and we are monitoring okay any other questions on that for silus all right the other project that's ongoing this week is the the crack repair project for all the the Airfield Pavements uh so the contractor farer asphalt sealers they began on Monday kind of crack sealing uh The Hanger area taxi Lanes um then on Tuesday and today they kind of moved over toh start crack ceiling uh the runway 1331 and then also taxiway Alpha um today they were also able to continue uh crack repair on the entrance Road um and the one taxi Lane uh connector that they had not gotten to on Tuesday um they're right now they're they're ahead of schedule they're anticipating wrapping up tomorrow um you know their schedule said wrapping up on Friday but uh if all goes well tomorrow they should be able to uh remove the traffic control and then reopen the uh the runway for uh for Friday's usage so um and then upon this project being completed uh for Forest Lake is on the state's contract for remarking the Airfield so I believe u the same contractor farer has the state contract for pavement marking and they're scheduled to come in I think either next week or the following to remark the runway of the taxi away and all the uh the Airfield Pavements any questions on that project so they're not going to Mark till next week they're doing crack seal this week correct and and and it's and the runway is complet completely closed all day correct right and so when they're doing the markings it's going to shut down the runways all day as well correct okay do you know Tam that so uh Public Works director Adams issues notm for the airport okay yeah unfortunately we tried to kind of get them scheduled but uh in considering it's the same contractor farer asphalt it's a different crew for them so they want to make sure they're done crack repair and then follow up with pay marking so I understand the the frustration about an additional day of a closure all right and then kind of the the next two projects there so we discussed these kind of at the August 7th airport commission meeting where uh minda did offer uh State funding in state fiscal 2025 for design for the 300t runway and taxiway extension project and their plan is to follow up with the state Grant in 2026 for construction uh and the rationale for menot kind of separating the projects was to kind of uh separate out some of the cost to make it easier uh on them to budget for construction in 2026 uh so with that project as we kind of discussed at the August meeting is that uh the plan would be during construction to displace the threshold of Runway 1331 down to 2100 fet so that the airport can remain open while construction of the extension uh is ongoing so after the airport commission you know made the recommendation to move forward with the projects and accept the state funding at the August 26 city council meeting uh the same recommendation was put forth to the city council and the city council also uh approved the recommendation to uh request State funding for design for the runway and taxway extension project and then similarly kind of the clear Zone acquisition plan so included in your packets are the design proposals from Bolton and M to complete the project um I won't go through it in detail but project cost for design for the runway and taxway extension is estimated at 200 or it is 250,000 95% State share um and then 5% local share and then the estimated construction cost for the project is 1.4 million with the state share um 95% and the local share there um so what uh what we're what I'm looking for is just a recommendation to to move forward with the proposal to for city council um approval at their next meeting have a motion to move forward with the design for the extension and I'll second the motion okay I made the motion and Mr Lynch seconded there you go thank you Mr CH all in favor say I I I'll oppose any extensions okay it passes unanimously thank you and then then the next project it's kind of the clear Zone acquisition plan so it's the name is Mis misleading it's not actually acquisition of the clear zone so off the end of 1331 mindat has a trapezoidal shape that's called the clear Zone which is there for the protection of people and Pilots you know if there's an event that occurs you know either takeoff or Landing it's usually right off the ends of the runway so men. desires that airport sponsors own that trapezoidal shape in fee uh so that you know you can ensure there's not a home or a school or something that's going to congregate people built up there off the end of the runway but mot also understands that it's not always feasible or possible for airports to own that entire trapezoid so off the uh the South End Forest Lake owns the clear Zone in fee and has it kind of cleared of any potential obstacles but off the North End the 13 end Fenway Avenue kind of cuts through the Northwest Quadrant of it um so what but the the issue is that mindat has a scoring prioritization model that you know by not having either a clear clear zone or having an exemption on file with mindat future projects at Forest Lake are losing uh points so it's kind of uh jeopardizing the ability to fund projects uh now where that matters is as you move further away from the runway Center Line scoring for projects gets a little tighter so by completing a clear Zone acquisition plan and requesting and and receiving the exemption from minda to their policy about owning all the land under the clear Zone my belief is that future projects for Forest Lake will score higher and have the better ability to receive state funding so similarly that that project uh you know we discussed at the August 7th airport commission meeting the August 26th city council meeting they recommended moving forward with the project as well and it attached is your in your packet is the Bolton Dem Bank proposal to to complete the clear Zone acquisition plan to request the exemption uh the total fee is $10,000 with the state share 95% and the city share 5% can you tell me which page that's on please 35 thank you and do you need a recommendation from us to for that to go ahead or correct recommendation from airport commission to approve the proposal and then the next steps would it would be going to city council um at at their their next meeting the motion would read something like recommendation to approve the proposal for the clear Zone exemption clear Zone acquisition plan clear Zone acquisition plan thank you were you making that motion Mr Schmid I was okay is there a second I'll second it Mr Lynch seconds it uh all in favor any additional discussion on the motion before we vote there is no additional discussion all in favor I I I unanimous there we go thank you for the time thank you um was uh no that's it for me I don't have anything else on that one anybody else have any other questions or anything for silus while we have him here and silus do you see any need to meet our next meeting would be December the first Wednesday in December and schedule wise with approvals or finances or anything like that there's no need is to meet before then I don't have anything that needs the airport commission discussion by the end of the year so the December the December meeting would be acceptable there's nothing on the agenda that needs to move faster than that and we always Jolie just for your sake we always kind of get concerned about that with budgeting things but U sure okay keep that keep that option open now always yes yeah um yes we don't want to pin we don't want to pin it down to just no oh right right but yeah for right now we don't see a need to meet in November the first Wednesday of November uh the first Wednesday of December would likely be our next meeting uh staff updates that's to you Jolene anything thank you chair uh just as you guys see uh Miss H isn't here this evening the city council on Monday voted to um not renew the contract with her so she's transitioning out of the interim City administrator position I've been appointed as interm City administrator until a permanent City administrator is brought on board hopefully in the near future um so I will be taking on her role at the city in addition to my other duties um I'm going to be relying heavily on silus because this is all new to me um so I just ask for your patience if questions come in I will be reaching out to you folks as well um but reach out to me if there's anything that you need from the city and I will do what I can to get you answers and keep your projects moving forward and if you have questions for me I if you have my cell number if you don't I I will give it to you because if you email me through the city email I kind of check that only sporadically understood so understood um anybody else have any questions for Jolie and comments no we'll move on to our liaison update any updates Sam from just a couple jene just went over one of them uh we're deeply into the search thing again uh for an administrator and and uh uh Christina had um within the last few days had bowed out so she's not being considered anymore so what we're doing is we're our uh search group is looking giving it a couple more days and see if we can get a few more few more people to apply at where we can instead of having two people be interviewed maybe three or four so we have a better choice you know we're hoping that uh we'll have that those names by maybe the end of the week next week we're hoping we just don't know sure hoping but the interviews wouldn't take place until sometime in November and then so then that after that it all depends on their availability and all kinds of things can can get in the way there so but that that's our number one uh issue right now is making that we sure that we could get a permanent administrator in place here as soon as we can this has been going on for oh yeah too long January of last year yeah and so um um the other thing we've been working on of course is um the budget the prelim pre preliminary budget has been set that's set September uh right now it's at 11.54% and we're going to be working hard to see if we can modify that between now and December and uh uh it's one of those deals where you can lower it you can't raise it so we set it at kind of a max amount there the other thing uh at the last meeting uh we looked at some uh preliminary plans uh for some work on Highway 8 coming up here in the next couple years so uh lots of things happening uh our other Bolton and Engineers are working on that and they just presented some preliminary plans on that so other than that I don't have uh much more except to tell uh Jolene how much we appreciate her stepping up to help us out and uh she's got a big job to do because she's already doing her own job you know what I mean yeah so um she can certainly lean on any one of you guys for for answers so incl including me so say I got a quick question as far as the airport manager is that now been shelf it's not been shelf it's just uh necessarily we didn't have anybody apply so I to me you know I've had this conversation 100 times before that um it it's it's something that we've always gotten by with having a staff member do it you know if there has to be a an exchange of money somehow sure but in my mind there's no need for a full-time manager out there I kind of agree with that you know so um and and to spend money needlessly doesn't make sense to me but the thing of it is it no one applied period so sure thank you uh with that part of the meeting concluded we go to open Forum which looks like there is no open Forum unless you have anything online anybody online texting or we have one Observer online but no indication that somebody's mom or it's my wife your wife okay making sure you're here it's my wife hello honey um with that um is there a motion to adjourn so move we have a motion second second all in favor say I I I I we are adjourned at 7:05 did Mr Lynch second that [Music]