North Adams Airport Commission to Help Research Galvin Street Flooding
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The Airport Commission will help the Conservation Commission investigate flooding on Galvin Road that may be related to past airport construction.
Conservation Commission Chairman Jason Moran requested some assistance from the commission at its Tuesday meeting in investigating the source of some flooding in the area, specifically on Galvin Road.
"We all know that July was the wettest on record in the state so there has been a lot of water coming out of the sky," Moran said. "I have had multiple calls from people who have not seen water like this before, particularly on Galvin Road.
He said the flooding has affected four or five houses.
"I few of them had to leave their house for a few days," he said. "I am not saying it is the airport's fault it is just right in the middle of it and I am trying to do some research."
Moran said, according to his research, there was a letter sent to the city from the state Department of Environmental Protection in regard to some work done at the airport. He said the letter inquired whether the project was done the way it should have been done.
None of the members were on the Airport Commission during this time so asked the Stantec engineers if they had any idea.
Although Stantec also was not the airport's engineer at the time, a representative said that there was an environmental project in 2012 that required a Wetlands Protection Act variance. They said it included a stormwater management plan.
They said all of the information should be available and the city should have the plans. They added that it was unlikely that then engineer Gale Associates would include a major oversight.
They added that stormwater conditions may have changed near the airport or somewhere else.
Commissioner Dan Caplinger said he would make sure the city gathers this information for the Conservation Commission.
In other business, the commission agreed to send a response to the attorney general in regard to a recent Open Meeting complaint that more than 30 years of meeting minutes were missing.
Commissioner Mark Morandi said he has been busy working with the current and former commission assistants to find these minutes. He said they were able to find minutes from the formation of the commission until about the 1980s.
He said they are still missing minutes from this time until about 2001.
Morandi said the letter indicates that they will continue to locate these minutes and the ones that are truly missing will be recreated.
He said he has been in discussions with former airport managers as well as has been digging through airport documents and newspaper articles to fill in the gaps.
• The Airport Commission voted to take another look at a new lease agreement with Turbo Prop who supplies aviation gas at the airport.
Administrative Officer Angie Ellison said they have come up with a three-year lease that would provide the city with 30 cents per gallon instead of 20 cents.
However, the commissioners wanted a shorter lease. There was the feeling that with so much change currently at the airport and that the city should have flexibility in regard to fuel rights. Fuel could be an important bargaining chip when it comes to bringing in a Fixed Base Operator.
Mark Candiloro of Turbo Prop said he wanted a longer lease but three years was what they negotiated. He went over all of the maintenance work the company does at the airport as well as how long it has operated there.
The commission asked Ellison to draft up an agreement that would be for two years with a possible two-year extension. The agreement would include the fuel increase.
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