Know where to turn
Airport Commission reviews ALP, CIP and extra employees
The Mammoth Lakes Airport Commission continues to closely follow the Draft Airport Layout Plan (ALP) Update Narrative. The most recent update, which commissioners received at their Tuesday meeting from Town Associate Planner Jen Daugherty, was that consultants Mead and Hunt were contracted to respond to the technical comments on the ALP presented by members of the community.
Coinciding with the ALP update is the Town’s 5-Year Capital Improvement Program and Proposed Prioritization Criteria list.
Public Works Director Ray Jarvis presented the Commission with a working table showing potential Airport Capital Improvements for 2012-2021.
“The list will very easily change with the final ALP,” Jarvis said.
Two items on the list caught the Commissioner’s eyes.
First, commissioners weren’t so sure that terminal work should come before runway work and were concerned that the runway wasn’t even addressed until 2017.
“If the FAA [Federal Aviation Administration] doesn’t fund the terminal, maybe they’d fund the runway and it would move up on the list,” stated Airport Director Bill Manning.
Commissioners also had questions relating to the abandonment of the Green Church, which had also made the list.
Manning explained to The Sheet that the abandonment of the building would only be necessary if the airport went from B3 to C3 status. At C3 status, public meetings would not be allowed that close to the airport, Manning said. He clarified that the building, however, would not be destroyed.
“There would be no demolishing; people wouldn’t know where to turn,” he said of the landmark building many in the Eastern Sierra use for directional navigation (and science lectures!)
According to Manning, partners that use the Green Church for public meetings such as the Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Laboratory (SNARL) were not against moving their meetings out of that location if necessary.
Results from Mead and Hunt will be available Feb. 13 according to Daugherty. Mead and Hunt representatives will be present at the Commission’s Feb. 28 meeting to discuss comments. Manning said the Commission could also expect more comments from the FAA before the ALP was finalized.
During Tuesday’s meeting Manning also updated commissioners on the airport’s budget.
“[Town] Finance is projecting a $1-2 million shortfall for next year’s [overall] budget and the MLLA settlement is still in the air,” Manning said. However, the airport wants to go from four full-time employees and one temp, to five full-time employees.
“The number of flights are really taking their toll,” Manning said. “We want consistency in staff.”
Commission Chair Pam Murphy asked what the fifth employee would end up doing during the summer when there is only one flight per day.
“A lot of stuff we’ve been putting off,” Manning said. “But we are a long way from getting it [extra employee] approved.”
