MORE ON THE RUNWAY

MORE ON THE RUNWAY

MORE PROPPELLER DAMAGE

The latest incident was on Monday.

To date there has been 4 events that have involved propeller damage at the St. Clair regional Airport in the last several years.   Two have been minor, one involved replacement of the propeller blades, and one required factory repairs.   This will probably continue, and end up costing the city money due to an increase in insurance premiums.  The city seems to be reluctant to do any repairs to the taxiway; after all they are going to close the airport, right?  We heard this in 06, eight years ago.   The city still has to come with a workable plan, and according to the FAA people in K.C. the plan that they think they can go with, has “no support” in the entire FAA organization.  As the city continues to drag this out, the damage to aircraft will continue, and the insurance will continue to cost the city money.  Propellers are extremely expensive, and rock strikes are extremely hazardous, they operate at supersonic speeds during takeoff.  Replacement cost of two of the propellers on the field could be as high as $15,000. 

The city can ignore this as long as they want, but propellers on other aircraft that have used St. Clair in the last couple of years, cost in excesses of $30,000.   Not to mention a jet engine sucking up a rock.  

Airfield Appears to Be In Good Repair

This is from the MoDOT safety inspection that was done prior to the FAA suspending its consideration of the St. Clair closure request.  This was not done in response to the complaint filed by the tenants.  The remark “Airfield Appears to Be In Good Repair” refers to the airside portion of the development, which is everything on the runway side of the hold short line.  This does not refer to the landside portion of the airport property.  The one major item in the report, one of the very few, is the condition of the common use taxiway.  This taxiway is in horrible condition, and is causing damage to aircraft, for which the city is responsible.    

City financial records will show that no money has been spent on airport taxiway maintenance.  City financial records will also show that the city has not spent any money on the removal of trees from the approaches, which has been an item on three previous MoDOT inspections.

City financial records also show that approximately $70,000 to $80,000 of depreciation expense being charged to the airport.  The city was asked for the information on this, including the asset that was being depreciated, the date the asset was acquired, and the value of the asset.  The response was that they did not know, but it appeared that it was being charge towards a 1.6 million runway in the 90’s. 

The city financial records from the mid 90’s do not show any improvements made to the airport for 1.6 million dollars.  

The city financial records show that the city is charging the airport for %5 of the city insurance cost, when asked for the documentation to show this cost, the city stated that this documentation does not exist.  

LACK OF MAINTENANCE

After a request from an aircraft owner, the city has cleaned the secondary taxiway.   The debris on the taxiways led to propeller damage to a tenant’s aircraft.  This was not the first incident involving propeller damage.   The condition of the taxiways was listed in the inspection completed by the state aviation department , and was listed in the things the city needed to address in order for the FAA to continue to address the city’s attempt to close the airport.   Maintenance of federally funded projects is a requirement of the grant assurances that accompany federal funding.   Maintenance of the airway structures has been ignored by the city since 2006.  The runway has started to develop cracks that if left un addressed, will cause early deterioration of the runway.

FRANKLIN COUNTY PERSONAL PROPERTY TAXES

If you own an aircraft in Franklin County, and it is worth less than $60.200, and it is older than 25 years, and flies less than 50 hours per year, you have been over charged on your personal property taxes for years.   Before this year Franklin County has appraised all aircraft in Franklin county at $10,000, and assed them at 33%.  They should have been valued at the market value, and assed at .05%.   There are 59 aircraft on the FAA registry, and 6 are not older than 25 years.  Two of which are balloons.   If the average value of these aircraft is $30,000, the county has over taxed the owners by approximately $53,000 in the last ten years.  If you are the owner of an older aircraft in Franklin County, check your tax bill, you might be due a refund.  One owner walked out of the assessor’s office with a $300 check.  

AND NOW WE HAVE PROPELLER DAMAGE

The city it seems is liable for propeller damage from FOD damage at the airport.  The city’s insurance people told the owner of the propeller to “send us the bill”.  This is not the first case of propeller damage, other tenants have also had claims filed with MIRMA, but MIRMA refused to pay them.  The propeller that was damaged recently was brand new out of the box, and had not even made it into the air, before it was damaged in two places.  The repairs are estimated to be around $1000.  In the previous claim that MIRMA did not pay, the repairs were estimated at $4500.  The city was cited by MODOT for poor taxiway conditions in the last safety inspection of the airport.  As of date, the city has done nothing to eliminate the FOD or the poor conditions of the airport pavement.  

GET OUT OF THE AIRPORT BUSINESS

  It has been discovered in preparing this article, that after the first July meeting of 2013, you can no longer high light and copy the city minuets on the city website.
The following comments are from the recipient of the St. Clair business of the month.  He added them to the public comment section at the end of the meeting.
Mr. Marty Hinterlong commented the airport was never run as a business except for the gentleman about 15 years ago. He often pondered when the regional districts say an airport is one of the better assets why we would have an airport with no gas. Mr. Hinterlong said he would love to see the City let the airport be run as a business and see where it can go. Mayor Blum asked Mr. Hinterlong for suggestions. Mr. Hinterlong said he suggested we advertise as a business opportunity for someone. Then the City could say to the Airport Authorities we really tried. Mayor Blum replied he feels it has been tried several times. Fifty years has been spent on that facility, and if we spend another five years and the economy turns around, we may miss out on another opportunity.
This highlighted sentence made by Blum, along with other comments on the airport, give the impression that Ron Blum is trying to implicate that the airport is to blame for it present situation.  He is trying to implicate others for the failure that has been spawned by the city.  This airport has been abused by the city ever since Fred Atkinson left.  The city is the airport.  Is Ron Blum really going to try and throw off on someone else what he has done to the airport??
Citizens like Mr. Hinterlong need to become more involved with the city and its operations and find out what is really going on.  They need to look into the audits and ask questions.  They need to ask why the St. Clair Water and Sewer department, and the airport have been funding 45% of the city’s insurance cost.  If someone would look at the numbers, they would see that the W/S department make up 20% of the payroll.
Look at the rest of the paragraph above.  Retail is not coming to St. Clair as was promised.  This was stated over and over and long after the retail boom was long gone.  It has been a mantra for Ron Blum to justify the Gestapo tactics used to destroy the airport.
This is where it strands as the tenants see it.  The city has no FAA acceptable plan.  The amendment did not work, and by going the amendment route, the city has shown that they do not intend to follow the law.  It is time for the city to get out of the airport business and find another sponsor for the facility.  

AIREVAC

Another St. Clair based business is leaving town.  What is really sad about AirEvac leaving is that the city spent a lot of money to put Airevac on the field.  They built a hangar with publically donated and city funds.  This hangar came to about $22,000.    Then the city spent somewhere in the neighborhood of $30,000 to make airport improvements, in order for AirEvac to build its new maintenance facility.   If you add the $100 a month that it takes to provide free water and sewer services, add another $10,000.  (The $10,000, for water and sewer cost, has been put into to operating expenses of the airport, and has been subsidized by the fixed wing tenants.)

In nine years, the AirEvac Rent would be $32,000, about half of the city’s investment in the AirEvac Project. 

What happened to the idea that AirEvac was going to stay on site?  We will find a place for AirEvac in the city, no matter what the FAA says. 

The AirEvac project was put together before Blum, and would have eventually made a profit for the airport.   This was done with the thinking that AirEvac was here for the long term.  Now we are looking at a huge operating loss for the airport, due to mis-management by the city.  But what we are looking at is premeditated mismanagement by the city, just to satisfy Ron Blum’s personal vengeance against the airport.  

Without AirEvac's rent, and their only being five tenants, Ron Blum has finally after six years, sent the airport into the red.  

MILLIONS

According to an FAA official, the city has been informed with how much they would be required to pay back the Federal Government for the airport.  The FAA official that stated this, could not recall the exact number, but stated that he would find out what that number was, but it is in the MILLIONS.   The city has led the public to believe that they can sell the land for $550,000, and pay back the grant with the sale proceeds, and it is over. 

As soon as we find out the number the Feds have quoted, it will appear here.  This is the real situation, even if the McCaskill amendment were to pass, which does not seem likely, the city would have to come up with the difference between the appraised value, and what the Feds say the airport is worth.  No one would pay the Feds price for this property, so the city will be on the hook for the difference.  The appraisal has evidence of city influence, $6800 an acre, really!!  What is obvious here but not really surprising, is that the city thinks that no one would notice,  TEN YEARS AGO, a large parcel just down the interstate, maybe a mile, went for $8000 an acre on the same day it was listed.   Not a fair comparison????   We are looking at prime retail development property here, LOCATION-LOCATION-LOCATION.   What appears here is that someone is trying to influence the appraisal, thinking that the property would be easier to obtain if the appraised price were lower than market conditions.   The appraisal is really not the issue, the Feds will set the price.                       

AIRPORTS IN TROUBLE

Heard from johngalt57 today.  He said out blog was at the top of the list in the search engines.  We discussed airport issues and decided that a national organization to protect airports was an excellent idea.  We will be running this by AOPA, EAA, NBAA, and every aviation organization we can think of.   I think the response to the crooks that want to close airports, would be stronger if more than one airport at a time was voicing their problems.   Kind of like “MESS WITH ONE AIRPORT, YOU MESS WITH ALL OF THEM.”    Johngalt57 was telling how the local airport is run by a county commission, and they are using St. Clair as an example as how to close an airport.