Based on the context provided and the introductory remarks in the transcript, here is the formatted transcript with speaker names assigned: [0:00] **Tom Fitz Henry:** hey good afternoon everyone uh this is the meeting for the airlake airport advisory commission I'm the co-chair Tom Fitz Henry on the user side John burmel is uh Missing as the other co-chair but we have a another representative from Lakeville here so what I'll do is uh we'll go around the credenza and let everybody introduce yourself we'll start this way [0:21] **Dan Wolter:** I'm Dan Wolter on the Lakeville City Council standing in for council member bermel uh Dan Wolter I'm a user I'm a pilot and own part of a hanger at the airport [0:37] **Tina Goodroad:** I'm Tina Goodroad community development director for the City Lakeville [0:45] **Pat Moan:** and I'm Pat Moan I'm a hanger owner and a pilot and a user of the airlake airport [0:58] **Tom Fitz Henry:** okay Jennifer would we see who is online today [1:06] **Jennifer Lewis:** we have um David Moret would you like to introduce yourself [1:15] **Jennifer Lewis:** David I'm sorry we can't hear you [1:33] **David Moret:** I us okay go ahead okay go ahead okay [1:42] **David Moret:** ahead are you able to hear me now you can hear me right yes we can yes we can yes we can I David I'm the assistant director of marketing for the mac and uh recent um recent Edition at the Mac so I'm joining to come up speed on the reliever airports so glad to be a part [2:19] **Dakota County Planning Manager:** today I'm representing Dakota County I'm the planning manager I am here uh in place of Aon [2:35] **Tom Fitz Henry:** and Adam and Adam and Adam [2:39] **Adam Garenberg:** hello everyone this is Adam Garenberg representing Aloft Aviation [2:49] **Tom Fitz Henry:** Donovan Palmquist [3:02] **Tom Fitz Henry:** Christopher Gardner [3:06] **Chris Gardner:** Christopher chop thanks Jennifer Chris Gardner with Bolton & Menk on behalf of that Council [3:21] **Jennifer Lewis:** so um with that Mr chair we do have a quorum [3:26] **Tom Fitz Henry:** thank you and thank those uh does anybody in the audience wish to be recognized okay we'll move forward then uh we'll go ahead with the agenda as far as the discussion um I'm making a uh suggestion that we postpone item six which is the airport 101 value of the airport and the community I think it's a great topic to share when we have more people from the community here to hear that and uh so I like to just pull the rest of the uh credenza here anybody disagree with that [4:07] **Tom Fitz Henry:** or okay it looks like we will do that then so we will postpone item number six uh approval of the minutes for June 13 2024 uh does anybody want to make a motion to approve [4:28] **Tina Goodroad:** so moved [4:30] **Tom Fitz Henry:** Tina made a motion to approve are you seconding that [4:34] **Pat Moan:** okay [4:36] **Tom Fitz Henry:** all in favor say I (I) any opposed minutes are approved okay this is time where we have time for public comment uh I'll first pull the seats in the audience anybody in the audience wishing to have time [4:45] **Jennifer Lewis:** Mr chair we do have another set of minutes to approve September [4:50] **Tom Fitz Henry:** oh okay oh I forgot let let's go let's go back sorry I didn't catch that looked like one item so again again uh we got another September 12th 2024 again that's the minutes from that uh need a motion to approve [5:10] **Dan Wolter:** motion to approve [5:13] **Pat Moan:** second [5:15] **Tom Fitz Henry:** okay any discussion all in favor say I (I) any opposed motion passed thank you sorry about that now we'll go to public comments uh nobody in the audience has indicated that how about online if you can raise your hand if you wish to online or whatever to indicate [5:54] **Jennifer Lewis:** I'm not showing anybody indicate [6:04] **Tom Fitz Henry:** okay well see you none we'll move forward so uh we'll go ahead with Michelle for the environmental assessment status [6:08] **Michelle Ross:** Michelle thank you thank you chair Commissioners my name is Michelle Ross I Am the director of stakeholder engagement at the Metropolitan airports commission and I'm going to give just a little update on the status of the runway construction project uh and the environmental assessment that's required for that project so I just wanted to share that we are continuing to work on the faa's requirements for the pipeline encumbrances um on the Airfield which are required to complete the the environmental assessment and ultimately then the runway project I really want to start off recognizing that this process has taken much longer than we anticipated much longer than than this body anticipated much longer than the attendants anticipated and so I really want to thank you for your patience as we continue to find a way forward we understand that improving the runway is important and that it's really critical to all of us to in supporting um our tenants and the aircraft operations at airlake airport since the project began in 2022 to start the environmental review the Metropolitan airports commission has regularly convened and negotiated with the FAA and the utility companies over the access and maintenance of those non- aeronautical uh utilities that intersect our runways and taxiways the utility companies as as you are aware or may be aware they have existing agreements that predate the max ownership of the airport which occurred in in 1981 and the FAA is requiring that those uh pre-existing agreements be updated to meet faa's current standards this has been a process and we've been taking uh the necessary steps to move this process forward and that's led us to where we are now which is with Mac senior leadership taking a very active uh approach to find a new um way forward with the pipeline companies and the FAA that's an approach that would you know hopefully work best for for both of those entities with the senior staff we're having conversations with pipeline companies just this afternoon um so we're we're seeing those conversations happening um at and and that active engagement with senior leadership we do not have a a time frame unfortunately for when the agreements with the pipeline companies will happen um we hope to have resolution as soon as possible so that the environmental assessment can resume and the project can continue forward once the process resumes there are several steps that are necessary in order to uh prepare and and uh begin the environmental assessment a new so it has been several years since the initiation of the project so there's additional uh coordination that will need to to happen there will be updates of documents that were um completed in 2022 that will need to be updated with with new information um so we are trying to factor in as much um as possible in order to keep moving things forward there are going to be potentially additional unforeseen things that will come up as we go so we're going to try and just keep you as updated as possible as we continue to find this path forward um as I've shared in the past once the environmental assessment does move forward that's at least a 12 month um process for for preparing that documentation again we know you've been waiting for this project for a very long time and we're eager to get it started uh we'll continue to share progress with you regularly and hope to have uh more updates soon and and just really thank you for your continued patience as we we move this project forward I'm happy to take any questions [9:49] **Tom Fitz Henry:** thank you Michelle uh any members on the board wish to have any questions Dan [9:53] **Dan Wolter:** Michelle I don't know if you're able to address the issues that are impediments but can you give us any specifics in terms of what uh the negotiations involve [10:14] **Michelle Ross:** not specifics but I can tell you that you know we're looking for Creative Solutions to make a um to to find a path forward that is amendable to the pipeline companies and the FAA to keep those conversations going um nothing specific to share at this time [10:33] **Dan Wolter:** um is it to a point where it would make sense to have a mediator [10:38] **Michelle Ross:** no at this point we're the conversations have been um very collaborative and and positive and and we're you we want to keep moving forward with this approach [10:52] **Dan Wolter:** is there an incentive for the pipeline Executives to make an agreement with the FAA at this time [10:58] **Michelle Ross:** they're we're trying to make it as least disincentivized as possible I'll put it that way [11:06] **Dan Wolter:** the reason I asked the question is this has been going on for years um and what you're outlining is a process that and I understand you have to be vague but it is vague then we still have to have the environmental assessment and then 12 months so if I'm doing the math correctly we're what two or three years away from any kind of improvements which is two or three years ago we were talking about having Improvement so that's five to six years from the onset of this discussion is that accurate [11:58] **Michelle Ross:** that's correct yeah it would be in addition to the environmental review there's design work that needs to be to be done additional coordination with FAA so I think three years would be once the once the project initiates is a realist is a potential timeline it it it could be longer [12:04] **Dan Wolter:** I guess the follow-up question I'd have is is there any sense of urgency because as a user there's a sense of urgency I just don't sense that on uh the part of the other parties [12:15] **Michelle Ross:** chair and and member uh I I can appreciate that that it could definitely feel that way um there is a very concerted effort and a lot of intent and um internal work that's being done to and external work with the with the FAA with the pipeline companies to move this forward um we are as I had shared in the past like we do feel like this positive collaborative approach finding a creative solution that's going to be um best suited to all parties is is the right course forward we are reassessing that on a regular basis so um we are trying to move it forward as as quickly as possible without you know sacrificing the path forward [12:56] **Dan Wolter:** um I ask another question you B with that here [12:58] **Tom Fitz Henry:** yeah if we could wrap it up though [13:00] **Dan Wolter:** yeah well I'm curious to know um if part of the the problem with this is who owns the land [13:01] **Michelle Ross:** chair um so the the the Mac owns the airport we purchase the airport using federal funds which is why we are required to to adhere to Federal Regulations um but the agreements that the pipeline companies had that that predate that purchase they do indicate a an an access and a form of ownership that for the pipeline companies to be able to access you know like a RightWay or an encumbrance of those um areas over the pipelines so that's the language that we're trying to so like negotiate with the pipeline companies just to to change the language of those agreements to um meet those federal regulations that require th those documents to indicate our ownership okay thanks or our or our rights to access [14:03] **Tom Fitz Henry:** thank you okay are there any questions online I'm assuming Adam might have [14:15] **Jennifer Lewis:** Donovan Palmquist um seems like he has a question no oh no question question okay [14:21] **Donovan Palmquist:** no question okay [14:23] **Tom Fitz Henry:** here uh any other questions from the board okay uh then I think we'll go ahead and move forward uh we are skipping item number six and delaying it to another meeting the next one is Airport Manager update and Sam you're on Deck [14:39] **Sam Feld:** okay hello everybody Sam Feld Airport Manager uh thanks for letting me say a few words here I just want to say as we're obviously moved into winter we we do have uh the assistance of a temporary uh 67 day temp employee who um is the same temp from last year if you guys any of your users got to meet him Mike MCN he's uh retired as of last year from from Minneapolis maintenance so he uh he's coming down for his second year and uh excited to be back at back uh inside of loader uh for these last couple mini events that we've had P so um looking forward to uh 67 another 67 days with Mike uh helping out John for the snow removal um I'd just like to review uh some of the projects we did do in 2024 uh the taxiway Bravo LED lighting project was completed um it did get delayed a little bit as we all remember the heavy range that we were having uh a two week project turned into about a 4 week project and then uh some delays with getting it seated and everything waiting for good weather but we do have those LED lights on the south taxiway additionally uh we did replace we were having issues with the wind sock the lighted wind sock and it was out of service for you know about a month over the summer uh we we got new conduit an electrical line uh boarded in to that wind sock so it's uh in addition to having a nice brand new orange wind sock it's out there and and uh looking really good and then we graded the South um well east of the South aoft hanger parking lot to allow for for better drainage there on the South Side those are the three projects we got done next summer um we did oh we also did get the design for a new um renovated office building for our Mac uh equipment storage we have the office connected to it for for John and uh we got the design done this year next year uh this spring will be the actual construction of renovating that building and then I wanted to cover uh a little bit on the CTAF frequency change so um to this point I I guess I'd like to outline the overall process to do that that we're we're going through and then an update on the status of where we are with that so I guess step one would be the FCC approval there's no true timeline on how long this should take AOPA the aircraft owners Pilots Association uh recommend or advises that it should only take about 30 to 60 days for the approval process there and after the FCC approves it and we get our uh station license then it's the FAA coordination and that has to do with the chart changes which have you know occur every 56 days and uh getting the new frequency up in the the VFR IFR sectionals airport facility directories those type of things and then following that once we settle on a date it would be the communication part of the process which I think the should be the the most important part of the process so everybody knows that there's a frequency change um the the main components there for me would be the NOTAM that's just broadly issued for for a long amount of time as the frequency because there there are pilots out there who just have things memorized and have it set in their radio all the time um even transient Pilots may have our frequency memorized and uh we want to make sure that those NOTAMs are issued in addition um broadcasting over the weather frequency over the AWOS as a comment uh in addition to a couple of the other comments that are um you know currently on play there and then uh we have some other just standard ideas like putting up signs at the airport entrances uh newsletter uh putting in a little bit in in the newsletters door magnets door hangers you know little hangers on the door knobs of every hanger that type of thing you know short of driving around telling everybody that's out at their hanger but um the communication part will be necessary part of the process currently um after we talked about it over the summer here in this group uh I I did a survey of of all of the uncontrolled airport frequencies within a 75 mile radius that's how we came uh to settle on 122.975 as a good frequency which there's only one other airport uh within that 75 mile range that um is New Richmond up in the Northeast side and then uh we initially figured out who is going to do the the leg work on this um as an organization we we settled in Mac it with an individual there that has dealt with FCC uh station Licensing in his capacity in other situations at Mac and he put that initial application in in September um as he waited for a response uh FCC got back and he had to clarify a few things and add a few things into the application and then it was accepted again uh on November 6th and that's where we stand right now is um that it has not been uh finalized and approved yet by the FCC So currently in the queue um his update as of yesterday he uh he put a ticket in to get an update of of where the status is and and the update is that it's in the queue and they didn't indicate any further timeline of how long it would take so um that's all I have for now any questions from from the group [21:10] **Tom Fitz Henry:** I was going to mention to you on the fa website they already got your call sign and that in there but probably haven't released it to you yet I mean the FCC website rather [21:28] **Sam Feld:** right I I've seen that from uh Mr Modders sent that to me maybe two months ago um that it's it's in there and locked in but um still waiting on the official process you got it in hand soon [21:40] **Tom Fitz Henry:** any other questions from the board go ahead Dan [21:44] **Dan Wolter:** um on the communication part I agree I think it's going to be critical you know with the NOTAMs are you going to do anything to like pre-sell the fact that it's going to change or will it be like a date certain and then there's a NOTAM saying it's a changed frequency here [21:58] **Sam Feld:** I think that's the way to go um until a coordinated date is set with the FAA uh I wouldn't feel comfortable putting a NOTAM out for that that way that that date hopefully can be in the NOTAM I've never written a NOTAM like that but I'm sure I'll be able to free form it in there to be nice and clear on a specific date for the change over [22:18] **Dan Wolter:** my question is who's going to be there at midnight the day you change it to make sure our lights work because you got to change the you know the the airport lighting the [22:28] **Sam Feld:** oh in that case this isn't a joke but Mac electrical will be out there for that yeah because you don't want to be arriving that night and go nothing happening here yeah good point I'm going to put that in my notes actually just so I don't forget it'd be good [22:42] **Tom Fitz Henry:** uh anybody online got questions go ahead Jennifer [22:46] **Jennifer Lewis:** we have a question from Christopher Gardner have the equipment requirements for the frequency change and PCL been coordinated for the pilot controlled lighting [22:58] **Sam Feld:** um I I don't know of any communication at this point right now but as far as the pilot control lighting is concerned that that would be a Mac electrical question uh I don't touch the electrical volt in my current capacity at Mac but I will now that we're talking about it just do a little pre-coordination with uh with Padraic who's our our Mac electrical for the reliever airport system thank you [23:32] **Tom Fitz Henry:** any other questions anybody in the audience okay seeing none are we good to move forward okay so the next item uh will be talking about aircraft noise complaints and operations summary for quarter 3 2024 Jennifer Lewis on Deck [23:51] **Jennifer Lewis:** as a reminder um the Mac does collect flight tracking data and and we publish all of our data through this tool macnoms.com it's the source of data that we use for our quarterly reports when we are reporting the numbers of operations at the airport but we also use that flight tracking data to correlate with aircraft noise complaints so first we'll cover the operations levels and I'll just cover the numbers here we had um 15,117 operations in quarter three this year and 426 of those operations occurred during nighttime hours nighttime is from 10 p.m. until 6:59 a.m. um last year we did have uh 12,422 operations so this year we're seeing about a 3,000 shortly less than 3,000 um number of operations greater and even the nighttime numbers are greater um just about 120 or so 150 of those um nighttime operations are I'm sorry there's 150 more operations this year during nighttime hours than last year during nighttime hours and I will point out that if you look at the the column chart the green columns do represent the current year the brown um columns represent last year and and the blue columns represent um 2022 so if you take a look month over month for 2024 you can see that we have had an increase at airlake airport each month this year um except for in June June is fairly flat but there actually was a slight decrease and do you want to add anything to that Sam [25:56] **Sam Feld:** oh yeah uh this pie chart isn't on the slideshow I don't believe but I'd just like to point out that air Lake represented 13.1% of of all of the aircraft operations for the six reliever airports which is third on the list behind uh Flying Cloud and Anoka [26:17] **Jennifer Lewis:** the pie chart that he's referring to is in your packet where you have the full quarterly report for aircraft operations and noise complaints for all the Mac reliever airports so the pie chart shows on the front page of that quarterly report and it does a comparison of um the numbers of um operations at the Mac airports and as and the um other chart shows the number or the percentages of the complaints at the Mac reliever airports just so you have a comparison across our Mac system if there's um no questions about operations um we can move on to noise complaints [27:03] **Tom Fitz Henry:** any questions from the board any online I'm not seeing any go ahead and move forward [27:10] **Jennifer Lewis:** the complaints that the Mac receives about aircraft operations can be received through email can be received through a phone line um we basically any way that anyone wants to communicate complaints we take that information we document it and then we try to match it up with specific flight operations that relate to what's being expressed to us and um again we use our macoms data to try and match up the complaints with aircraft operations and in quarter three for airlake airport we had three complaints from three different locations in the report that I just mentioned um if you look at the map there normally the map will show you yellow squares that represent the location of where complaints were received from in the case of this third quarter the map looks empty and the reason the map looks the map looks empty is because the complaints we received were from outside of the air Lake Airport area we had um one of these complaints came from Woodbury one complaint came from Apple Valley and another complaint came from Mounds View and again we do use our flight tracking data to make sure that those operation that those complaints are tagged to the correct airport and in these cases we we we found two of the complaints um did match up with a flight track that did originate at air Lake airport and the third complaint we don't have a flight track from airlake airport at that time but we also recognize that our flight tracking data isn't perfect um it does um have some data that doesn't come to us because it's been filtered out from the third party that we subscribe to either because it is um military or law enforcement or some other reason um that it's sensitive in nature so um we we still accepted this complaint and we still tagged it to airlake airport because that is what the customer um reported to us as the airport um and it that was the Apple Valley complaint so um um that one I I don't have a an aircraft to tell you about but in the other two complaint examples we did have a flight of um we had a a Yak and an Nanchang that did a formation flight over Woodbury and that's what was um generating the complaint um in Woodbury and then the um there was a jet that departed from airlake that flew North and up over Mounds View and that um generated that complaint in Mounds View at this point I'll take any questions [30:11] **Tom Fitz Henry:** are there any questions for Jennifer online any questions I'm not seeing any any audience members have questions okay we can move forward [30:20] **Jennifer Lewis:** I'll just make one more note about our um full reports are available on the um Mac website and um there is more detail available when you view our complaint and operations reports through our website what you have in front of you is sort of the overview paper copy but if you wanted to drill down a little bit more you could um visit our website and get more detail about the operations and noise complaints thank you [30:48] **Tom Fitz Henry:** so we'll go ahead and move on uh so upcoming events does anybody under credenza have anything to say uh Pat do you know about Tree of Hope is that done or [30:57] **Pat Moan:** okay [31:05] **Tom Fitz Henry:** anybody else got anything you want to mention how about uh Mac staff do you have anything [31:18] **Jennifer Lewis:** I think we might have one out here but nothing from mac staff [31:22] **Tom Fitz Henry:** did you have something sir to say okay I thought I saw you raise your hand okay anybody online I'm not seeing anyone good okay well there's a lot of events that are happening but probably not at the airport okay uh any member comments I'll go around the table starting with Tina anything [31:46] **Tina Goodroad:** and this [31:48] **Dan Wolter:** Dan I have nothing to add [31:51] **Pat Moan:** okay we have nothing from the members [31:54] **Tom Fitz Henry:** unless online you want to check with them please [31:58] **Jennifer Lewis:** it doesn't appear so [32:03] **Tom Fitz Henry:** okay and then so we're down to announcements uh I have really nothing to announce uh other than I'm looking forward to the frequency change that'll be interesting and uh I think Lake Elmo can thank our notorious Nick Modders they're getting one too so uh it's good to good to hear Lake Elmo and I'll be on isolated frequencies and we won't have to listen to five different airports to figure out who's going in so um then we'll go ahead if nobody else has any announcements let's look at our schedule and I turn to remember through this course is probably the last page or I'm trying to find it on my sheet well we'll look right up I got it on the screen can you find it on your sheet so will March 13th is one date we have there's no conflicts in that anybody have problems with that okay hearing none we'll go ahead and lock in March 13th it's not St Patty's Day so I'm fine with that in June uh the 12th is our normal meeting but uh Mac has several meetings that week and they prefer that we choose the 19th or 26th does anybody have preference [33:29] **Dan Wolter:** June 19th is Juneteenth so it's a holiday state holiday okay thank you for bringing that up we'll be closed and yeah okay [33:40] **Tom Fitz Henry:** so I think we're dropping down to the 26th anybody have issues to the 26th [33:50] **Tina Goodroad:** because of the Juneteenth holiday we have to move our um Planning Commission meeting that takes place in this room at 6:00 so I don't think it's a conflict we just got to make sure you know this you know wraps up by you know 5:30 at the latest so that we can transition to Planning Commission and we haven't decided location yet neither so there's an opportunity maybe we could switch locations in June to the airport to one of the facilities there if it's a conflict so please let us know then [34:20] **Tom Fitz Henry:** we we might start planning that if if we already know that they're going to have a meeting at night that make sense [34:25] **Tina Goodroad:** that makes sense yeah we I just need to be back here for Planning Commission [34:30] **Tom Fitz Henry:** okay well we'll we'll try to make it short like but we'll have everybody show up this time uh September 11th is the the date for September anybody have issues with that and then uh looking at December we normally have it the 11th and as we know as of today not many members show up we we're lucky to have a quorum but would anybody be opposed to moving it into November and possibly picking November 20th as that date [35:10] **Tina Goodroad:** we'll just have the same Planning Commission conflict but you know as long as we wrap up and can transition to that other meeting it's just fine okay so note that they have a you know we have to be out of here find another location so [35:28] **Tom Fitz Henry:** okay then uh any other discussion on those dates well then I guess I move to approve what we just discussed do we need a vote on that no okay I thought so okay so hearing none and nothing left on the agenda will make it record time here I'll take a motion to adjourn even though we don't need one so everybody's happy we [35:46] **Dan Wolter:** so moved [35:50] **Pat Moan:** second [35:52] **Tom Fitz Henry:** okay we are adjourned thanks