Delta Heritage Air Park

Delta Heritage Air Park Operating Committee (DapCom)

Meeting 177 Date: May 29, 2013

Call to Order: by Chair, Trevor Skillen Call to Order: 19:30

Members and Guests Attending:

Trevor Skillen, Tom Boulanger, Gerard Van Dijk, Ron Zeleschuk, John Stewart,tDave Askey, Ginny Ivanicki, Jim Niessen, Peggy Gordon, Gerald Ohm, James Smith, Cyril Henderson

Corrections or Additions to Minutes: Nil

Correspondence: The Delta Leader article on the air park was picked up by Peace Arch newspaper. We’ve had good feedback and they provide a good profile for the air park. Any media contacts are helpful. BCTV might come out before the bi-plane fly-in. Trevor is trying to get attention for the annual fly-in as well but BCTV is more interested in the bi-plane fly-in as something special. We are trying to keep a profile in the minds and hearts of residents of Delta. GVRD may not be responsible for regional parks soon so it’s good to get to know the municipality.

Metro Vancouver Parks/Management Committee: We will be discussing the lasting memorial for Mary further after the totals are in. The possibilities are a perpetual bursary or a statue. Mitch seemed more in favour of statuary than an awning so Parks should be ok if we go that route. He thought a mounted propeller would be acceptable and would rather have it not fixed, as in digging a hole for concrete, etc, If it sat on the surface, it should be ok. An educational fund at BCIT will also be discussed. Anyone with any ideas can contribute.

Budget, Revenues and Expenses: An accountant is still going through the numbers regarding the food shortages, about $100. short this month from the incoming revenues after the inventories.
The honour system continues to not work so we may need to go with vending machines. Machines could be kept where the book cases are behind the fridge. One would need a water supply which could be arranged as the bathroom plumbing is near that area. A mixed vending machine with about 20 items, coffee (cappuccino, hot chocolate) and pop machines at Trevor’s business cost $5000. Gerald suggested DAPCOM could loan the money and the coffee shop pay it back out of the revenues. Prices could be raised to help pay it off. The coffee shop would be operating as it’s own entity and help fund other events. If Metro took it over, they’d want 30% of the revenues. Another option is to bring in a company to take care of the machines and stock it. We could try that out for a year. It would be trouble free and then no one needs to stock the machines. However, Gerald is agreeable to look after stocking. All machines at Jim’s school will take credit cards as well but that would entail having a DAPCOM banking system. Coin operated would be simpler. The manual coffee machines we have can still be used for functions. Trevor will get firm quotes for next month and we’ll vote on it.

Embree Heritage House Project: How can we move this project forward? Trevor will meet with the new Parks representative tomorrow and will ask him. It’s been two years and it was supposed to be done this year. The whole interior has to be gutted but could contain asbestos, etc. We’re paying for half of it. We have 90,000. set aside but as costs go up, that may not be enough.

We also want to formalize the situation with the caretaker and so need to have a permanent residence in order to formalize the Caretakers Agreement. Trevor has a sample one year agreement that covers all aspects of the relationship – duties, etc. Services are described as well as worker’s comp and CPP. Wendy was in favour of us having an agreement in place regarding liability, etc. In case of injury, he’s not covered. Trevor will send a copy of the agreement out to everyone. We’ll weigh the positives and the negatives and perhaps have an email discussion about it. We would like to be on the Parks selection committee or have input as it would have to go to tender with people able to apply through Parks. Trevor will talk it over with the new Parks person tomorrow and will ask parks how to implement the agreement.

Mr. Lebreche is taking Wendy’s place. Tom heard that we’ll be paying for half of everything such as caretaker and half of house costs. Right now Gerard’s accommodation is paid by parks. Heating and light is paid by DAPCOM.

Our contract is up on July 15th, 2014. We have to give them our intention to renew 6 months before. ****** January 15******* notice has to be served to Parks for another five year term.

Buildings/Hangars: Tom has been going over the hangar rules with Bruce. Tom is incorporating some of the input and will have a draft and circulate it for discussion next month.

Jim wonders if there is a way to increase volunteerism with a volunteer fee. The tenants would pay $50. a year – if they volunteer for something, their cheques are not cashed. But then we would need someone to manage collecting money, ticking off the proper volunteer jobs etc. The question is how formalized do we want this to be – who does what, etc.

John’s idea, about letting people know about cutting their grass or he would do it, didn’t work. Gerard went out and did some weed-eater cutting around the aircraft. There are some things a volunteer should do and some that the caretaker should do. Someone who is paid should do jobs that have to be done. Volunteers should be used for things not needed on a schedule.

When volunteers come out, equipment should be properly maintained and available. Grass cutting is the major thing. If using the mowers anyone finds the gas cans are empty, just purchase the gas and you will be compensated. Gerald has outlined a volunteer/caretaker division of duties and responsibilities. Space around your hangar is your space to keep up. Grass cutting on large areas should be the caretaker’s job. James suggested setting some standards of cutting the grass so that we all agreed and it is uniform throughout. Parks doesn’t want us to bag grass. Cut it three times a week to avoid having to bag it. Gerard says it takes 16 hours to mow/trim all the grass which would be too work intensive for volunteers. Gerald did a large area in 2 hours a week. The grass is the main thing visitors would notice.

Cutting frequently can’t be done with the cutters we have. A used proper cutter is $15,000. minimum. We need a larger, self propelled mower (14’ minimum cutting ability) with enclosed cab, lights and VHF for Gerard while he’s doing the runway and able to cut wet or dry. Used units are very used once they’re being sold. Cost could be between 20-40 grand for a good one. Maybe a low time mower could be found from someone who trades it in for a larger model. We could spend the Embree money as they’re not going to build it this year. The John Deere is not meant for so much use.

We need someone to handle managing and organizing volunteers and a task list. Gerald will think about doing the job.

We could ask the RAA to cut the grass around their area. Charging $50. could be part of the volunteer manager’s responsibility. John Macready (in absentia) was voted in for the job, but he may object! Raymond suggests just sending an invoice of $100. a year to those not cutting the grass around the airplanes and give it to Gerard to cut the grass. That could be added to the tie down agreement and have a sign off , re liability, so that we can move the aircraft if need be. We won’t bill the people that take care of their area. We give back the money if someone does come out and take care of it. Someone would have to be the judge of what is proper care, though.

Cyril will notify people who need to cut their grass to discuss an agreement about not keeping their area cut. Perhaps a blanket email first that states the issue, then target specific non-compliers.

Runway, Grounds, Tie Downs: Is there anything in the agreement regarding derelict aircraft ? It says you have to own the airplane and you should be able to fly it. So we may be able to approach people on that basis. We haven’t enforced it but could start with the one airplane on field (8 years without flying) that is the worst case. Cyril will contact him with a letter and/or talk to him. The letter can ask for a plan of action and put a time limit on compliance. Cyril believes people can be agreeable if approached the right way.

Charging more for tie-downs was discussed - not market rate as the field is unusable at night and parts of the year. Suggested rate was $75. to dissuade people letting their airplanes go to derelict state. The rate could be increased in graduated steps –up to $50. first and in a year, increase again. Boundary Bay charges $105. but if they could afford BB, they would be there. The people that are here are here because of finances. Tenants may also expect more if the rates are raised. Ron mentioned that it was always more important at Delta to keep the rents low. RAA rents were lower than DAPCOM so they are being raised to get them to the same level. Tie downs were more for RAA – 12% more. It was decided we should meet near end of year when rents would be raised to discuss further.

About 5 planes need to be addressed with one really bad one. We will first try handling that one and see how that goes. We could also move the worst planes out of view behind the hangar as we can designate where they tie down, but that would just hide the problem. Better to have them gone completely.

Farmer - $1000 to plow, harrow, roll and level the taxiway and seed it. Will be under $2000. to cover it all. The job takes about 2 hours. Parks will be doing blackberries on the west side and will take out some on the south side so best to do that first. The taxiway will be an experiment to see how it turns out before doing the runway. The RV6 owners will not land at Delta, claiming it is too rough. Others seem to be fine with it and tenants will be consulted about how much of a problem they feel it is. Trevor agreed we should do the taxiway. We need to talk to parks about the hedge and Raymond and John Stewart can get together on that discussion.

Flight Operations: James will file NOTAM for 10-3 on Sunday, June 2nd. James will pick up tent pegs for the X’s. NOTAMS will go up Friday morning. James will manage the radio.

Fuel Management : James and Raymond will present to Parks about having Mogas here, probably for next year. It’s estimated we would have a 50/50 chance of having them agree to it. Their issue was liability if someone used the wrong gas. We can sit down with Mitch or Mr.Lereche and ask what would Parks need to be satisfied. There are other airports selling it. The octane level decays after a month. We would have a1000 liters minimum delivery with August being the last load, due to less use in winter. Then we can calculate the fuel burn all year to have a better idea of use. If we have 300 or more liters left, what can be done with it? It shouldn’t be mixed with other gas. Perhaps we can just leave it in the tank for the winter as consumption of 100LL drops in winter too so one tank should be enough. Almost everyone would use it. There is a discount with purchase of more than 1000 liters. James will send info to Trevor.

Environment Protection and Enhancement: Parks are having recycle bins made for Centennial Beach so Raymond has asked if we could have some similar ones made for Delta.

Coffee Shop Operation : Sue will come in the evening of Saturday to clean for Mary’s event. The new ‘Mary’s Place’ coffee shop sign is in place.

Breakfast: June 9th

Events Calendar: Delta Fly-In – Saturday, June 29th

Bi-Plane Fly0In – Saturday, August 24th

Motion to adjourn: Raymond Colley Adjourned: 21:40

Seconded: Gerard Van Dijk