RENO STEAD AIRPORT ASSOCIATION Meeting Minutes
June 14, 2016
The Reno Stead Airport Association (RSAA) monthly meeting was called to order at 5:15p at the Reno Stead Terminal Conference Room, Tuesday, June 14, 2016 as follows:
1. Welcome and Attendance: Tom Hall, President, Ken Wiegand, Vice-President, Dave Miller, Treasurer, and Dan Ross, Secretary. Board Members: Tracy Rhodes, IT Manager, Mike Dikun, Stead Airport Manager, Mike Walsh, and Don Osborne. Board Member(s) absent: Terry Matter, RARA Representative, Lin Manning, Alby Redick, Aviation Classics, and Lew Gage. Guests/Members: Bill Eck, RTAA Trustee and RSAA Liaison, Jack Buchold, Bob McLaughlin, Operations Officer CAF, Steve Katzmann, Glen Graves, Dennis Koehl, and Wes Waltenspiel. Special Guest(s): Ken Moen, RTAA GA Property Specialist.
2. Minutes of Last Meeting: Approval of the Minutes of May 10, 2016 meetings was unanimous.
3. Financial Report: Cash on hand: $2804.83. Dave asked that all members be reminded that we are now in the new membership year with dues now payable. The new membership year has changed. The new membership year begins Jan 1, 2016 and ends December 31, 2016, dues are $20 per year. Dues can be paid: check or cash by mail at:
Reno Stead Airport Association
5499 Alpha Avenue
Reno, NV 89506
or PayPal from the Website (www.steadusers.org), or cash/check to Dave Miller at the Miller Speed Sports hangar.
4. Membership Report: Currently there are 110 members; several members have not yet renewed their membership for the current fiscal year.
5. RTS Manager’s Report: NASA-Ames UAV’s will continue to increase operations/testing at Stead during the timeframe of June 28-30, 9:00am to 2:00pm, wx permitting. These operations are expected to have little or no impact on Stead users, but when drones are flying, runway 14/32 will be closed. If the winds require 14/32 to be open the drone testing will be canx. Please check NOTAMS and AWOS for days and hours of Stead UAV flight ops. On-going pavement maintenance begins immediately, again weather permitting. There were 5620 operations last month. Help improve the traffic count, GO FLY. The annual hangar fire inspection is progressing nicely. If you haven’t scheduled your fire inspection, please do at your earliest convenience. The fire inspector’s scheduled availability is normally from 0800-1200am 3 to 4 days a week and subject to manpower constraints at the Fire Station. Read that as possible unscheduled cancellations, so please don’t wait until the last minute to schedule your hangar inspection, allow time for possible rescheduling.
During normal business hours, both the mission planning room and associated bathroom are accessible from the flight line side. The flight lounge available after hours by card lock (the same card issued to tenants) or using a code posted as previously located. There also will be an EXIT ONLY door from the mission planning room to the south side front parking lot. Open WiFi is available. The Terminal Building is available during and after hours for training, seminars, and other activities. Contact Patty at the Airport Manager’s Office at 775-328-6570 or pedgington@renoairport.com for details.
6. Guest Speakers: Mike Clark, Washoe County Assessor introduced himself as a “former Tax Protestor” who decided to do something about Washoe County Property Taxes and ran for the office of Tax Assessor. He said he quickly learned that the problem with increasing taxation rates is the not the Counties but the State’s veracious appetite for more and more revenue. He briefed his concern that a proposal to increase aircraft personal property taxes up to 300% was nearing approval in Nevada. He was the only one of sixteen county assessors to oppose the measure. Mr. Clark contacted aircraft owners and airport associations in Clark and Washoe counties through phone calls, emails and letters asking them to attend the public hearing on the proposal at the Capitol in Carson City. He contacted Tom Hall of Stead’s RSAA and Bob Muerer of Reno Tahoe Airport’s RTAG to generate support. The Capitol hearing room was full and many more from Las Vegas via televised conference. Both Mike Clark and Tom Hall wanted to thank all who attended and especially those who spoke. Both Mike and Tom agreed that the presentation given by one of the aircraft owners was credited, in their opinions, with swaying the hearing members to table the proposal indefinitely. That aircraft owner was one of our own, Gwen Linde who owns and flies a very nice Husky. Thank you Gwen Linde, and thank you Tom Hall and a special thank you to Mike Clark.
Ken Moen briefed that Stacy Huggins is leaving her position at the RTAA. Ken noted that she will be missed. The Commercial Standards Committee had it first meeting, organizational in nature.
7. RTAA Trustee Liaison Report: Mr. Eck said he and Marily Mora, RTAA CEO, briefed the Sparks City Council on RTAA ongoing and future operations. Bill said that some of the C-130s at Reno Tahoe were being equipped and preparing for state firefighting missions Previously Bill said if anyone wanted to contact him, his email address is Bill.Eck@sbcglobal.net
For more information about the Board of Trustees and their bios, go to www.renoairport.com/airport-authority/board-trustees).
8. RARA Trustee Liaison Report: Terry Matter was absent due to his duties at PRS. Mike Dikun said there will be 2 TFRs in place during flight days starting Wednesday and ending Saturday, roughly overlaid over each other, one surface to 9.5K and the second surface to 10.5K. Mike said his office has distributed the schedule via email. If you have given Patty your email address, you should have received the schedule. If you didn’t please contact Patty. Mike said all tenants should try to limit their operations to before and after PRS operations, but if you need to depart or arrive during PRS ops, please contact Mike with your request, the earlier the better.
9. Webmaster Report: Tracy’s Stats: He published 4 articles, deleted 1150 spam attempts to access the site, and updated the website software 7 times. There were 346 visits by 291 users with a 1:34 minute average duration, viewing 4.9 average pages. 133 (38%) of those visits were by mobile devices. Tracy said there were 1681 pages visited with the most visited pages: Home Page 292, For Sale 562, Calendar of Events 53, Airport Businesses 57, fuel prices 24, Aviation Medical Examiners 67, about 45, Contacts 22, and PRS Procedures 56.
Tracy is now in the Web Hosting business, if you need web site assistance or a new web site developed, please give Tracy a call.
10. WiFi Status: Current Stead_Users_West Password is: Jan2015-SteadU. The Stead Users internet transmitter is intended to be Ramp Access WiFi Only and coverage is not expected to extend to hangars located south of the parking apron. If you experience your navigation devices timing out before download is complete, please contact the secretary, RSAA.
For those desiring their own personal high speed internet connection, please contact Robert Andrews at: robert@avantwireless.com.
11. RTAG Report: President absent, no report.
12. Next General Meeting: President Hall gave a special thanks to Mike Clark, Washoe County Tax Assessor, and Ken Moen, GA Specialist, RTIA, for taking valuable time from their schedules to attend, and to all for attending the RSAA Meeting and extended an open invitation to the entire Airport Authority Management Team.
President Hall reported that Director Mike Walsh has tendered his resignation from the Board. A qualified replacement on the Board will be sought at the July 12th meeting. All members are welcome to apply to any existing Board member. The next General Meeting is scheduled for 5:15p July 12, 2016 at the Freedom Center (Terminal Building) Conference Room located upstairs.
13. Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at approximately 6:07p.
________________________
Herman D. Ross, Secretary
RENO STEAD AIRPORT ASSOCIATION (RSAA) MISSION STATEMENT
To represent the interests of all Tenants on the Reno-Stead Airport including Aircraft Owners, Fixed Base Operators, Aircraft Repair Facilities, United States Government Agencies and all parties of interest;
To ensure that all Tenants have the opportunity to speak with a united voice to the Reno Tahoe Airport Authority (owner of the airfield facility), the Federal Aviation Administration and the Local Governments relative to safe and affordable flying in Northern Nevada;
To enrich and promote the reputation of General Aviation within our community; and
To promote a “Good Neighbor” policy with the Nevada National Guard, support facility improvements that enhance the Tenant experience and encourage affordable services, fuel prices and hangar rentals from all service providers operating at the Reno Stead Facility.