Minutes of a Joint Meeting of the
Dukes County Commission
And
The Martha’s Vineyard Airport Commission
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
5 p.m.
Dukes County Administration Building
9 Airport Road, Edgartown, MA
Commissioner Present: Chair Tristan Israel, Vice Chair Melinda Loberg, Les Leland, Tom Hallahan, John Alley and Lenny Jason.
Airport Commissioners: Chair Connie Teixeira, Vice Chair John Coskie, John Alley, James Craig, Norman Perry
County Staff present: Russell H. Smith – County Manager, Martina Thornton – Ex. Assistant to County Manager, Noreen Mavro Flanders – County Treasurer, Carol Grant – Assistant Treasurer, Sean Flynn – Airport Manager, Deborah Potter – Airport Assistant Manager, T. J. Hegarty – Integrated Pest Management, JoAnn Murphy – Veterans Services, Chuck Cotnoir - Emergency Management
*Others: Steve Flecchia, Ceaser Pitta – Jacobs Engineering, Jonathan Snyder – DCC & Tisbury FinCom, Marni Lipke – Recorder of minutes, Joanie Ames - MVTV
* Late arrival or early departure (see * in text)
1. Meeting was called to order at 5:05 PM
The joint meeting of the Dukes County Commission and the Martha’s Vineyard Airport
Commission (MVAC) was called to order at 5:07PM. Introductions were made.
2. Airport Manager’s Report – Sean Flynn
• PCE in Wells - When the new terminal was built in 1996 it was discovered that the previous Laundromat at the Airport had improperly disposed of its dry cleaning chemicals. The process to clean the resultant polluted ground water plume included 13-14 pumps for aeration, permanganate treatments, regular testing, biannual reports, and a recent Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) inspection - attached. Lenny asked about the cost. Sean said it is about $58K per year ($18K reports, $40K treatment). The initial cost was about $1,000,000; of which $600K was covered by a grant from State; Airport paid the remaining $400K. After that the annual cost including consultant fees and extra utility costs was at $60-100,000 per year. The last five quarters of testing showed the ground water to be well within drinking water
standards; however in view of relations with residents across the West Tisbury Road the Airport was continuing to engage the consultants and maintain two pumps ($2,200 per month in electricity). The Island soil is unusually sterile and importing microbial treatment had been suggested. Tristan asked how much longer Sean expects the treatment will be necessary. Sean said about 3-4 years.
• Safety Area Project (September 2009 – December 2010) - In order to conform to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) safety standards Runway 6/24 had been altered taking 300 ft. from one end and adding it to the other, a $7,000,000 project that was finished in September, involving among other things usual environmental impact reports and remediation, relocation of navigational instruments, temporary relocation of secure areas, and renewal of lighting (which is now good for the next 40 years).
• Taxiway & Apron (in front of the Terminal) - The FAA had granted $12 million of the total $13M needed for the project, the remaining $1M came from state and local funding. The taxiway Alpha was offset by 400’ by the business park & safety area. The repaving included the installation of two very large oil separators and one large water recharge to take both runoff and storm-water. Airport Manager Mr. Sean Flynn commended Mr. Steve Flecchia and Caeser Pitta of Jacobs Engineering for their excellent work on both the above projects.
• Les Leland asked if the Runway 6/24 is now good for instrument landing approach. Sean said no but it will be soon available for the Global Positioning Systems (GPS) technology approach (different from ILS approach).
• Melinda asked about very early barging and moving of construction materials and disturbance due to back up alarms. Sean explained that due to the high volume of material needed there was temporary logistical need to do earlier then usual, but complaints were noted and resolved.
• Tristan asked about the ‘useful lifetime’ of a runway. Sean said it was about 20 years depending on how well it was maintained.
• Airport policy was to employ as much local labor as possible on construction projects - currently about 50% (R.M. Packer for barging, White Bros. for paving, local trucking, gate operators…).
• New airlines - JetBlue and Delta will be flying (1-2 per day) from New York City to the Vineyard starting May 26th to Labor Day, bringing competition to Cape Air and US Airways, which already resulted in lower prices.
3. Other Common Projects
Budget -Airport staff would finish the FY2012 budget this week for presentation to the MVAC Finance Subcommittee after which it would come before the full MVAC for approval before presenting it to the County Commission (probably in early April). Even with the Audit completed (received for FY2010 last week) it would take up to March to do projections of next FY revenues, fees, rents and sales and go through the budget process. Sean will work with Tom to amend the County’s Budget Schedule to reflect the Airports’ process.
Grant Assurances for the Airport Project -Grant Assurances were required (and had been voted by the MVAC) for each funded project – see attached. The current Taxiway and Apron project would involve a larger than usual local (Airport) contribution ($313,575) due to the nature of the work. The MVY portion was already approved by the MVAC. The assurance is for the portion funded by MA DOT $284,375. The FAA funds have been received already.
John Alley/Lenny Jason moved for the County Commissioners to authorize the County Treasurer to borrow in anticipation of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Mass. Aeronautic Commissioner (MAC) reimbursements, as may from time to time be required in accordance with MGL c. 90 §51K and c.90 §39G; in addition to authorize the Chairman, with the majority vote of the Commission to sign the Mass. Dept. of Transportation Division of Aeronautics standard state grant assurances. So voted. All in favor. Motion passed unanimously. 6 ayes, 0 nays, 0 abstentions.
• Special thanks went to Representative Delahunt, and Senators Kerry and Brown for their strong advocacy in getting funding for the projects.
Personnel Board Member - The County Commission will appoint two members to the MVAC in March, after which the MVAC would reorganize and appoint a representative to the newly formed Dukes County Personnel Board.
• The County Commission thanked the Airport for their report and great stewardship over the last 10 years.
The MVAC (including John Alley) recessed their meeting at 5:40PM to leave the Dukes County Commission meeting and moved to a separate room where Chair Connie Teixeira reconvened the MVAC meeting at 5:44PM.
7. Manager’s Report
FY2012 Budget – draft
Russell said that the CAB asked for level funded budget. Tom and Jonathan Snyder helped Russell to develop the budget. The big changes are: Parking Clerk’s department started to process tickets in house and raise additional revenue and has also more expenses. Vineyard Health Care Access Program’s budget that is reflected now is just the 1st warrant article. If the 2nd article passes it will be also included in the budget. The Chamber of Commerce asked us to fund project for marketing of local fishing and farming – about $8K. We would like to hook up the generator – about $5.5K. There will be discussion about this at a future meeting. In total the budget is flat, with $8,599 in black. There will be changes to the budget once the Personnel Committee is done with the rating and grading of the
revised job descriptions. Some people might be due for a raise. Tom said that particular questions will be addressed at the next meeting.
*Jonathan Snyder left.
8. Old Business
Les asked about the RFP for the repair of Courthouse windows. Russell said 3 contractors picked up specs. The deadline for proposals is on February 25th. Tristan asked for the project’s timeline.
Noreen said that we do not have a vault space to store all files according to the legal requirement. We have files stored at the Courthouse and in the cellar at the Admin. Building. We could build a room downstairs and it would be wise to put it on the list of capital expense projects. Lenny said that Winn Davis was looking into building off site storage that could be also used by other island towns. Tristan asked Russell to look into it and report back within the next month.
Melinda said that the Personnel Committee reviewed the form for evaluation of the County Manager and included a 1-5 rating scale, which is used for evaluation of employees. The forms and who interviews who list will be distributed on February 14th. They would like to have one evaluation form for the manager and the employees and will be seeking opinions from the dept. heads to see if this new form will work for them. The deadline for interviews and evaluations to be done by commissioners is February 28th. The whole process should be completed by March 9th.
Chuck Cotnoir received an award from the Medical Reserve Corps for his helping with the flu clinic for several years now. Chuck informed the Commissioners that on February 19th there will be a Incident Command System 100 and 700 given at the High School as well as shorter course for the executives.
9. Correspondence
Invitation to a meeting with representatives from the Exec. Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs regarding the Offshore Wind Development Process on February 17th at the Oak Bluffs Library. 3-4.30pm for commercial fishermen, 5-7pm for general public. There will be two areas discussed: Area of Mutual Interest between MV and RI and second area is south for MV.
Tom said that the Vineyard Power has meeting tomorrow at the Katherine Cornell’s Theatre to identify specific area for placement of their wind turbines.
Tristan said he would like to see a small portion of one of the commercial blocks to be set aside for future island community development. Chuck also said that another benefit we could ask for is for them to run the wire to the island so we can benefit from it in case of power outage.
Next meeting will be on February 23rd. The CAB meeting is on February 11th.
Adjournment:
Tom/Lenny moved to adjourn the meeting at 6:12 p.m. All in favor.
Respectfully Submitted by:
______________________________
JOSEPH E. SOLLITTO JR., Clerk of the Courts
Documents presented at the meeting and part of the official records:
- Agenda
- DEP Notice of audit findings – remedial system inspection
- Airport Stuff Summary on grant assurances – bond & signing authorization
- Draft FY2012 Budget
- Action List
- ICS-402 invitation
- Coast2Coast Rx Card Report
- Invitation to meeting on Offshore Wind Development Process
| 
