City of Santa Fe Airport Advisory Board met Nov. 9.
Here are the minutes provided by the committee:
1. CALL TO ORDER
Meeting was called to order at 4:29 p.m.
2. ROLL CALL
Members Present:
Councilor Chris Rivera
Member Rosemary Thompson
Member Randal Limbacher
Member Troy Padilla
Members Excused:
Member Len Rand
Member Gabriel Martinez
Member Jyl DeHaven
Others Attending:
None
3. APPROVAL OF AGENDA
MOTION: Councilor Rivera moved, seconded by Member Padilla, to approve the agenda as presented.
VOTE: The motion was approved on the following Roll Call vote:
For: Councilor Rivera, Member Thompson, Member Limbacher, Member Padilla
Against: None
Abstain: None
4. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
a. Approval of amended September 14th , 2023 Minutes
MOTION: Member Thompson moved, seconded by Member Padilla, to approval of the amended September 14th minutes as presented.
VOTE: The motion was approved on the following Roll Call vote:
For: Councilor Rivera, Member Thompson, Member Limbacher, Member Padilla
Against: None
Abstain: None
b. Approval of October 12th , 2023 Minutes
MOTION: Member Thompson moved, seconded by Member Padilla,to approval of the October 12th minutes as presented.
VOTE: The motion was approved on the following Roll Call vote:
For: Councilor Rivera, Member Thompson, Member Limbacher, Member Padilla
Against: None
Abstain: None
5. COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE PUBLIC
a. Public Comment will be limited to three minutes per speaker. No communication from the public
6. OLD BUSINESS
a. Project Updates. (James Harris, Airport Manager, jcharris@santafenm.gov, 505-955-6740)
• James Garduno provided a construction update; the parking lot water has been started but the water department is waiting on further plans from our architect to complete this portion. With the new roundabout for the parking lot, we are postponing the construction for that until early January. We did get our boilers installed and we have heat running through the terminal.
• We had the contractor work on the weeds along the fence line as well as directional signage, we are unable to change the brightness of the current lighting. We are now looking into alternatives to upgrade once we have situated the entire project.
• We have a Leidos contract that we are working on for the TSA equipment machine because we must move it into another room. TSA requires us to use Vortex and Leidos and those are the only companies we can use so we reached out to Vortex. Vortex provided plans that have not been finalized yet. Next part of the plans is to move it and Leidos is supposed to have a contract to have this up and running, contract is still pending. We reached out to legal to make a new contract and extended it out to the end of January therefore the completion date is now pending.
• James Harris has identified a few items that were left out of our plan that we are now going to include and fix; our contractor has identified some electrical issues in the terminal that could be potentially hazardous because of how old the building is, we are going to have them run new power lines and some additional upgrades to guarantee that it will be running smoothly.
• A contract is going to be sent out to finance for American fence company and this is going to take care of all secure fencing which will include new motors for gates that we are having issues with, lowering the gates to ensure no crawl space at the bottom and adding any additional gates as needed; to be in compliance with TSA. The contract is for $367,000 for these fencing upgrades etc.
• Additional projects are in the process such as running fiber out into our fire station and then we will be able to get the maintenance shop online. We are trying to run fiber along each gate along 121 Aviation so each gate will be hardwired with cameras.
• FAA heater stopped working and we contacted multiple contractors and waited for multiple quotes.
• Mr. Harris has requested two federal grants that fall under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for phases two and three. $14 Million for relocating the aircraft controller tower and then another $500,000 to refurbish our current tower.
• Grand opening has been moved and is subject to change. Councilor Chris Rivera will request December 26 from the mayor and city manager.
• One of our concerns on the operations side is our airfield markings. We have some discrepancies with the FAA, and we have a December 1st deadline. We have a contractor onsite, and we are waiting for the purchase order so we can get them started on the work. We are in the process of scheduling the time and days they are allowed to paint.
• Employee update- We have one shuttle driver who is currently picking up those early shifts and we just interviewed for another driver. With those two we will be able to provide the service morning and evenings. We also interviewed for a maintenance position and a heavy equipment mechanic.
• Before the airport was working with very limited staff, we have gone from 5 full-time staff to 22 openings now. We are getting ready to bring security in house and the first scheduled meeting is with the finance committee. By bringing security in-house, we will be saving $160,000 a year.
7. MATTERS FROM STAFF
8. MATTERS FROM THE COMMITTEE
• Member Rosemary Thompson has requested additional stop signs.
• Member Rosemary Thompson introduced her new idea to collect each board member’s five top priorities, five top concerns and any gratitude’s anyone would like to share, and she will compile them all together. With this information we would be able to pass it on to anyone new or for future meetings etc.
9. MATTERS FROM THE CHAIR
10. NEXT MEETING: December 07 2023
11. ADJOURN
Meeting was adjourned at 5:33 p.m.
https://santafe.primegov.com/public/portal
