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., Octo­ber 30, 2024 by Chair, Mark Sheldon. 

The Invo­ca­tion was giv­en by Mr. Les McFatter.

The Pledge of Alle­giance was led by Vice Chair Will Cramer. 

Roll was called. In atten­dance were: Ms. Vic­to­ria Williams, Mr. Matt Algar­in, Ms. Hol­ly Melz­er, Mr. Glen McDon­ald, Mr. Les McFat­ter, Vice Chair Will Cramer, and Chair Mark Sheldon.

Pub­lic Comment: 

Chair Shel­don asked if there were any Pub­lic Comments. 

Jeff Switzer from Tail­winds, retail con­ces­sion­aire at the Air­port, was in town for a site vis­it and was appre­cia­tive of the oppor­tu­ni­ty to be here in the Ter­mi­nal and gave insight of increased rev­enues along with con­tin­u­ing to improve pas­sen­ger experience. 

Chair Shel­don asked if there were any addi­tion­al Pub­lic Com­ments. There were no addi­tion­al Pub­lic Comments.

Accep­tance of Agenda:

Chair Shel­don asked if there were any items on the Agen­da, includ­ing the Con­sent Agen­da, that any Board Mem­ber would like to move to a Busi­ness Item for fur­ther dis­cus­sion, and if not, to make a motion to accept the Amend­ed Agenda.

Ms. Melz­er made a motion to accept the Agen­da, and Mr. McFat­ter sec­ond­ed the motion. The vote was tak­en and the motion passed unanimously.

Reports:

Mr. McClel­lan updat­ed the Board on the September’s Activ­i­ty Reports. The month of Sep­tem­ber showed a decrease of 4% growth. The Air­port was up 15% in total pas­sen­gers year to date. The Mar­ket Share was main­tained at 22% for the month. Region­al Com­par­i­son also showed the Air­port had sub­stan­tial growth through­out the year. 

Con­sent Agenda:

  1. Approve Board Meet­ing Min­utes – Sep­tem­ber 25, 2024

This item pro­vides for Board approval of the Sep­tem­ber 25, 2024 Board Meet­ing Minutes.

  1. Approve Men­zies 2025 Budget 

This item pro­vides infor­ma­tion for the Board’s con­sid­er­a­tion of Men­zies FY 2025 budget.

Mr. McDon­ald made a motion to Accept the Con­sent Agen­da, and Mr. Algar­in sec­ond­ed the motion. The vote was tak­en and the motion passed unanimously.

Busi­ness Items:

  1. Approve Space Use Agree­ment with Bay Coun­ty Vet­er­ans Coun­cil for Mil­i­tary Wel­come Center 

Mr. Park­er McClel­lan pro­vid­ed a brief his­to­ry on the loca­tion of the Mil­i­tary Wel­come Cen­ter through­out their years here at the Air­port. Mr. Mike Lozon, Pres­i­dent of the Bay Coun­ty Vet­er­ans Coun­cil spoke of the great part­ner­ship and glad to con­tin­ue the service.

Ms. Williams made a motion to Approve the Space Use Agree­ment with Bay Coun­ty Vet­er­ans Coun­cil for Mil­i­tary Wel­come Cen­ter and Mr. Algar­in sec­ond­ed the motion. The vote was tak­en, and all mem­bers vot­ed ​“Yes”.

  1. Dis­cus­sion – 2025 Air­port Cap­i­tal Improve­ment Program

Mr. Nick Har­well updat­ed the Board con­cern­ing the five-year cap­i­tal improve­ment plan. Begin­ning with fis­cal year 2025 through 2030, projects were dis­cussed. The list of plans spo­ken about includ­ed, but are not lim­it­ed to: ter­mi­nal expan­sion, fuel farm work, air traf­fic con­trol tow­er upgrades, rental car relo­ca­tion, an envi­ron­men­tal assess­ment study, T‑Hangar design, taxi lanes, taxi­ways designs, and equip­ment pur­chas­es. Details were giv­en on FAA and FDOT fund­ing per project, along with BIL and AIP fund­ing as well.

Dis­cus­sion ensued.

Con­struc­tion Updates (Infor­ma­tion Only)

  1. Ter­mi­nal Buildout

Mr. Richard McConnell pre­sent­ed updates on the Ter­mi­nal Build­out, which includes floors being com­plet­ed; car­pet is in, and the elec­tri­cal floor is in. Seat­ing units are con­struct­ed, work­ing on cam­eras, the PA sys­tem, and access points; those are being installed. Final touch­es on the restrooms, once those open up then the tran­si­tion to take out the old ones will begin; it is thir­ty days to com­plete. The last item in this area will be to take the tem­po­rary con­struc­tion tun­nel out of the exit way.

Dis­cus­sion ensued.

  1. Bag Make­up Expansion

Mr. McConnell con­tin­ued his Con­struc­tion Update pre­sen­ta­tion with updates on the Out­bound Bag­gage Claim. Inte­ri­or con­struc­tion of the project has been com­plet­ed. Exte­ri­or con­struc­tion of the project still includes the met­al trim around the edge to be finished. 

Dis­cus­sion ensued.

  1. Ter­mi­nal Ramp Expansion 

Mr. McConnell gave the last Con­struc­tion Update pre­sen­ta­tion updat­ing on the Ter­mi­nal Ramp Expan­sion. Com­plet­ed the pre-con­struc­tion meet­ing. Con­trac­tor would like to mobi­lize around the 1st of Novem­ber, pend­ing com­ple­tion of paper­work to get done on site. Plans are to have the project com­plete in May.

Plan­ning Update (Infor­ma­tion Only)

  1. North Ter­mi­nal Update

Mr. McClel­lan shared that the Air­port is putting togeth­er all the paper­work to move for­ward with gen­er­al expansion. 

  1. Project InSPIRE

Mr. Cole Davis informed the Board about work­ing with the gen­er­al counsel’s office at FSU to work through some risk mit­i­ga­tion issues. A finan­cial oblig­a­tion such as this will have work on how to pro­tect the Air­port. Expect a let­ter of intent in the com­ing weeks. 

Dis­cus­sion ensued.

  1. Rental Car Counter Facil­i­ty Design

Mr. McClel­lan pre­sent­ed the noti­fi­ca­tion on the rental car facil­i­ty from FAA, because it is not avi­a­tion relat­ed, they did not have to pro­vide approval. The Air­port will move for­ward with the NEPA and oth­er permitting.

Dis­cus­sion ensued.

Bay EDA Update (Infor­ma­tion Only)

Ms. Bec­ca Hardin updat­ed the Board on Project Spin­ner. This is a 500-employ­ee project, $107 mil­lion cap­i­tal invest­ment. Updates were also giv­en for the Tri­umph Gulf Coast Grant; Project Opal, (300 job project $1 bil­lion cap­i­tal invest­ment); and Project Express (1,700 jobs $150 mil­lion cap­i­tal invest­ment). Project Horace, which is for­mer­ly Project Goose is a Cana­di­an main­te­nance repair and over­haul com­pa­ny look­ing to build a 100,000 square foot hangar at ECP and oth­er sites as well (300 jobs, $400 mil­lion cap­i­tal invest­ment). Ms. Hardin also gave an update on Project Super­bowl a com­pa­ny that she met again in Barcelona, (150 jobs and $25 mil­lion cap­i­tal invest­ment). Then updat­ed on Project Trail­blaz­er (1,100 jobs, $1 bil­lion cap­i­tal investment). 

Dis­cus­sion ensued.

The Moore Agency Update (Infor­ma­tion Only)

Ms. Katie Spill­man shared her Sep­tem­ber report from the Moore Agency, which includ­ed updates on the hol­i­day issue of the cir­cuit hav­ing a two-page spread. Informed of the adver­tis­ing of the non-stop Delta flights start­ing in March to Austin, and shared con­tent cov­er­age in the past 90 days engag­ing on social media. 

Exec­u­tive Direc­tor Report:

Mr. McClel­lan report­ed the Air­port has been informed from Flori­da Pow­er and Light on a spon­sor­ship for a light­ing upgrad­ed improve­ment. This spon­sor­ship of $15,000 will help imple­ment the con­trol tow­er up light­ing project. The base of the tow­er will now be able to be fes­tive dur­ing the holidays. 

There were no addi­tion­al pub­lic comments. 

Next meet­ing sched­uled: Board Meet­ing: Novem­ber 20, 2024 – 9:00 a.m.

The meet­ing was adjourned at approx­i­mate­ly 10:01 a.m.

_________________________________ ________________________________

Park­er W. McClel­lan, Jr., AAE Mark Shel­don, Chair

Exec­u­tive Director