MEET­ING MINUTES

PANA­MA CITY — BAY COUN­TY AIR­PORT AND INDUS­TRI­AL DISTRICT

Open­ing:

The Board Meet­ing of the Pana­ma City-Bay Coun­ty Air­port and Indus­tri­al Dis­trict was called to order at 9:00 a.m., March 23, 2022 by Chair Glen McDonald.

The Invo­ca­tion was giv­en by Mr. Will Cramer.

The Pledge of Alle­giance was led by Mr. Les McFatter.

Chair McDon­ald asked if there were any pub­lic com­ments. There were no pub­lic comments.

Exec­u­tive Admin­is­tra­tive Assis­tant, Lisa Brady, called the roll and Board Mem­bers present were May­or Mark Shel­don, Mr. Will Cramer, Mr. James John­son, Mr. Les McFat­ter and Chair­man McDonald.

Board Mem­bers not present were Mr. Jason Cut­shaw and Vice Chair Hol­ly Melzer.

Air­port Reports:

Exec­u­tive Direc­tor Park­er McClel­lan pre­sent­ed the Activ­i­ty Reports. We now have more than 12 con­sec­u­tive months of con­tin­ued dou­ble-dig­it growth. We antic­i­pate that Spring Break, based on what we have seen at the Air­port, that our num­bers will con­tin­ue to be on the rise, and we think that will con­tin­ue to work toward our suc­cess. He shared slides that reflect­ed our con­tin­ued growth through­out the last 12 months, and our region­al comparisons.

Direc­tor of Finance and Admin­is­tra­tion, Dar­lene Gor­don pre­sent­ed our Finan­cial State­ments. She said that we have done an addi­tion­al grant draw from the COVID Relief Grant Fund to reim­burse for some cap­i­tal expen­di­tures as we had bud­get­ed, mak­ing our total COVID annu­al grant draws just under $1.6 mil­lion. Rev­enues are strong and con­tin­ue to exceed bud­get. Ter­mi­nal Con­ces­sions, specif­i­cal­ly park­ing, air­line land­ing fees and car rental rev­enue con­tin­ue to be high due to the increase in pas­sen­gers as Mr. McClel­lan point­ed out on the Activ­i­ty Report. She said that com­pared to last year the Air­line Land­ing Weight is up 20%, Rental Car Con­ces­sions are up 45%, and Park­ing Rev­enues are up 94%. 

She advised we have 5 open employ­ment posi­tions and are still strug­gling to fill them.

She said that we are at 91% of the Gen­er­al Bud­get, and despite being a lit­tle over bud­get for park­ing man­age­ment, and util­i­ties, that over­all the finances so far for the year are very positive.

Con­sent Agenda:

Chair McDon­ald asked for a motion to accept the Con­sent Agen­da for approval.

Motion was made to approve con­sent agen­da by Mr. James John­son, sec­ond­ed by May­or Mark Sheldon.

There were no pub­lic com­ments, passed unanimously.

Busi­ness Items:

1. Approve ZHA Task Order 42-C-Over­flow Park­ing Expansion

Mr. McClel­lan explained the Task Order 42‑C designed a grav­el park­ing lot for the over­flow park­ing with a paved road down the mid­dle for our over­flow park­ing. It was meant to be a tem­po­rary solu­tion. Instead, pipe between the over­flow park­ing and West Bay Park­way, fill that in and pave that lot. We are ask­ing for pri­or approval, so that when the time comes to do the project, the fund­ing will already be avail­able so that the project will be ready to go.

Motion was made to approve the Task Order by Mr. Will Cramer and sec­ond­ed by Mr. Les McFatter.

There were no pub­lic com­ments. Roll was called, passed unanimously

1. Accep­tance of Rental Car Vac­u­um Bid

Richard McConnell went over the Rental Vac­u­um Bid. He explained that in the past few months there have been sev­er­al meet­ings with the Rental Car Part­ners. The need was iden­ti­fied for addi­tion­al vac­u­ums at the Quick Turn­around Facil­i­ty (QTA).

The cost of replace­ment would come from a restrict­ed CFC fund. The request is for fund­ing to be approved to be able to replace the 5 wash racks as quick­ly as pos­si­ble. Mr. Will Cramer asked how much mon­ey there was in the CFC Fund. Ms. Gor­don advised there is approx­i­mate­ly $6 mil­lion in the Fund.

Motion was made to approve item by Mr. Will Cramer and sec­ond­ed by Mr. Les McFatter.

There were no pub­lic com­ments. Roll was called.

1. Accep­tance of Rental Car Wash Bid 

Richard McConnell went over the Rental Car Wash Bid. He explained that in the past few months there have been sev­er­al meet­ings with the Rental Car Part­ners. The rental car agen­cies here at the Air­port use a dri­ve through car wash to clean the rental cars to get them ready for the next rental car cus­tomer. Over the last 10 to 11 years, the exten­sive use of the car wash has tak­en its toll and the cost of main­te­nance and repair to the car wash has reached the point where the car rental com­pa­nies have request­ed that the car wash be replaced. 

The cost of replace­ment would come from a restrict­ed CFC fund. The request is for fund­ing to be approved to be able to replace the 5 wash racks as quick­ly as possible.

Motion was made to approve item by Mr. Will Cramer and sec­ond­ed by Mr. Les McFatter.

There were no pub­lic com­ments. Roll was called.

1. Approve Res­o­lu­tion with FDOT Grant Real­lo­ca­tion-Project #428363 – 8

Mr. McConnell explained that FDOT requires us to put togeth­er a 5‑year finan­cial plan. These projects were placed in the Mas­ter Project List. These funds are now avail­able, but need to be repur­posed so that we do not lose them. FDOT requires that the Scope of Work has to be changed for an FDOT Grant 1 – 2 years pre­ced­ing the actu­al grant avail­abil­i­ty. These grant funds will be avail­able July 1, 2023, so pri­or to that we will have to change the Scope. We are rec­om­mend­ing that we take one of our upcom­ing projects from the ​“Mas­ter Plan Update” and change the Project Title, Scope, and Deliv­er­ables to ​“Air­port Fuel Farm Expan­sion Design”. It will be includ­ed in the bud­get prepa­ra­tion for this com­ing Fis­cal Year.

Motion was made to approve item by Mr. James John­son and sec­ond­ed by Mr. Will Cramer.

There were no pub­lic com­ments. Roll was called.

1. Approve Res­o­lu­tion with FDOT Perime­ter Road FDOT Project #428363 – 9

Richard McConnell explained this Res­o­lu­tion, also put in the Project List in excess of 5 years ago and needs to be re-scoped in order to align with the cur­rent Mas­ter Plan and the pri­or­i­ties that we cur­rent­ly have. The \Project was orig­i­nal­ly to repave the inte­ri­or perime­ter road, with the cur­rent activ­i­ty it has been deter­mined that it is not nec­es­sary to do right now and that we may have projects that are more of a priority.

The Air­port Oper­a­tions and Main­te­nance equip­ment, as defined in the Mas­ter Plan and the FDOT Project List, based on the pri­or­i­ty lev­els the request is to place the equip­ment for that project in the year 2023 instead of 2026. The equip­ment involved includes emer­gency equip­ment that can be uti­lized in the field, as well as a set of air stairs that we cur­rent­ly need. FDOT has ten­ta­tive­ly approved the scope change. 

Motion was made to approve item by Mr. Les McFat­ter and sec­ond­ed by Mr. Will Cramer.

There were no pub­lic com­ments. Roll was called.

1. Update on Design of Ter­mi­nal Projects — Presentation 

Mr. McClel­lan began the update with an expla­na­tion of the slides that he was about to share. He told the Board that he would share the slides via email after the meet­ing so that every­one could review them lat­er. He remind­ed the Board that the design is relat­ed to the 20-year build­out of the Ter­mi­nal Area to include the Ter­mi­nal, park­ing lots, and asso­ci­at­ed areas. He said that he would like any input that the Board might have. He intro­duced Mr. Rick Mellin to go over the Design. 

Mr. Rick Mellin nar­rat­ed the slides that showed 3 dif­fer­ent build-outs of the Ter­mi­nal that would be options to con­sid­er. All of the designs were relat­ed to expand­ing two or more floors of the Air­port to pro­vide space for growth. Some of the issues to over­come will be to add anoth­er gate, pro­vide more room for TSA, and a new loca­tion for bag­gage claim, as well as adding an addi­tion­al mechan­i­cal room. The last plan allowed for a third floor for future expan­sion as well as more room for con­ces­sions. Mr. McClel­lan remind­ed that the con­sid­er­a­tions of the designs are meant to max­i­mize space for TSA, and the rest of the Air­port in a way that will be mind­ful of the mon­ey spent on the build. Mr. Mellin said that we are should reach capac­i­ty with­in 2 years based on the Plan­ning Activ­i­ty Lev­els (PALs), so it is time to begin plan­ning now because our sea­son­al traf­fic is stretch­ing our capac­i­ty already. He said that sea­son­al growth is not going to stop, and it will not only begin to affect our facil­i­ty, but our rev­enue as well. Mr. McClel­lan added, we are going to hire a con­sul­tant to help with con­ces­sions to deter­mine what type of con­ces­sions we need due to our size and our demo­graph­ics to pro­vide for pas­sen­ger con­ve­nience. He also said that we are design­ing for a build­ing of the future. 

Mr. Mellin talked about the amount of time involve in get­ting approval for the project and Mr. McClel­lan said that we are pur­su­ing every type of fund­ing avail­able. There was a ques­tion about whether or not we will be able to han­dle U.S. Cus­toms in the future and Mr. McClel­lan said that there is a plan to have U.S. Cus­toms in a sep­a­rate build­ing so that it will not impact the design. 

There was also a ques­tion about allow­ing for a shift for tech­nol­o­gy and inno­va­tion updates. Mr. Mellin said that that has been con­sid­ered and Mr. McClel­lan said that the tick­et counter area may evolve into a self check in and self bag­gage check are in the future. He advised, we are lean­ing toward com­mon use/​kiosk areas that will allow flex­i­bil­i­ty to move the air­line areas around as needed. 

May­or Mark Shel­don said that his con­cern is that we are behind the curve and he would like the Board to make the deci­sion to move for­ward with the expan­sion project now instead of revis­it­ing. Chair­man McDon­ald asked what we can do to move for­ward. Mr. Mellin said that he could work on the schemat­ics so that some of the project could be bid on. Chair­man McDon­ald said that the Board would like a sched­ule put out as soon as pos­si­ble with the actions to take to get the Project start­ed on the quick­est time­line as pos­si­ble. Mr. McClel­lan asked which design the Board liked best, the con­sen­sus was to do the last design which incor­po­rat­ed the third level.

Con­struc­tion Updates:

1. Air­port Entrance Round­about and State Road 388 Realignment

Mr. Richard McConnell gave the con­struc­tion updates. The detour for the round­about is in place. Work has begun on the fill and com­paction. The work will be ongo­ing, and the esti­mat­ed com­ple­tion is Spring of 2024. He said that there had to be sig­nif­i­cant work on the bridge pil­ings to be able to hit sta­ble ground and that held up the work significantly.

1. Gate 7 Ramp Repair

The Gate 7 pave­ment has been poured and we are wait­ing 21 days for it to cure com­plete­ly, and then that project will be done and ready to oper­ate on. May­or Mark Shel­don asked about the sta­tus of the esca­la­tors, specif­i­cal­ly the down esca­la­tor. Mr. McClel­lan said that the Gate 6 and 7 esca­la­tors are under review due to it being out­side of the bud­get. Chair­man McDon­ald said that no mat­ter the cost, the need for the esca­la­tors there is a nec­es­sary item.

Bay EDA Update:

No Report

The Moore Agency Update:

Ms. Katie Spill­man gave the adver­tis­ing update. She said that she came across a free­lance writer who was look­ing for experts to weigh in about pan­dem­ic trav­el, so they did a Thought Lead­er­ship piece on the growth of Flori­da as a trav­el hub and des­ti­na­tion, the fore­cast of 2022 – 23, and insights on how air­ports will con­tin­ue to piv­ot as trav­el bounces back. They will pub­lish the glob­al piece in April on a plat­form out of New York called ​“Cheap­ism” as well as MSN. She antic­i­pates that it should get 100 mil­lion views on the web­site dai­ly. For adver­tis­ing plan­ning they are team­ing up with Flori­da State Ath­let­ics to engage the Tal­la­has­see region.

Exec­u­tive Direc­tor Report:

Mr. McClel­lan said that tomor­row Wal­ton Coun­ty will appoint a new Board mem­ber since Mr. Jason Cut­shaw left; that being the rea­son that Wal­ton Coun­ty was not rep­re­sent­ed on the Board today. The Air­port has acquired two busses from Tal­la­has­see to pro­vide a shut­tle for pas­sen­gers between the front of the Ter­mi­nal and the rental car area at peak times because we know that we need­ed them last sum­mer, espe­cial­ly on Saturdays. 

He also addressed the plane crash that hap­pened last month. He said it is being inves­ti­gat­ed by NTSB and that no one should com­ment on it while it is under investigation. 

Adjourn­ment:

The meet­ing was adjourned at 10:02am. by Chair­man Mc Donald

Meet­ing Sched­ule:

The next meet­ing will be on April 20, 2022 at 9:00 a.m.

______________________________ ______________________________

Lisa Brady, Exec­u­tive Assis­tant Glen McDon­ald, Chair