Scenic Flight Group Setting Up at North Adams Airport
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The Airport Commission voted to permit Adirondack Aviation to operate out of Harriman and West Airport.
"They have been very interested," Commissioner Marc Morandi said. "They have already put together some marketing material. They are 100 percent want to do business in North Adams."
Morandi told the rest of the commission Tuesday that Adirondack Aviation is expanding operations and will fly in for various appointments. So technically no vote needs to be taken because it isn't physically setting up in North Adams.
He asked for a vote only to "cover all of their bases."
Adirondack Aviation offers flight school, training, instrument and commercial ratings, and scenic flights. Currently, it operates out of airports in Saranac Lake and Lake Placid in New York, Bennington, Vt., and Stow in Massachusetts.
Airport Manager Bruce Goff said he has already started spreading the word about scenic flights.
"I am happy to have their flyers up, and I have been already handing out their information," he said.
In other business, Morandi said the city has to straighten out how they want to operate office space in the city-owned Shamrock Hangar.
He said the space was formally used by Greylock Flying Club, however, they were unable to come to a new lease agreement. The commission voted to give the club 30 days to remove its property from the space.
"We were trying to hammer out lease terms, but they are no longer interested in the office space under any terms," Morandi said. "They are going to vacate the space so this is a non-item at this point. But we have to take another look at that space."
Morandi said the space has been a problem even back when Alex Kelly occupied it. There were concerns about private entities breaking out into public space within the hangar.
"I know it was an issue when Alex Kelly first took over the space because he was utilizing the public space for his business and Greylock Flying Club was utilizing public space for a private club so we have to look at that and get it settled," he said.
He said this is something the city would want to work with the Federal Aviation Administration on before it considers renting the space out again.
Airport user Michael Milazzo said he would be interested using the space over the summer and would vacate it when the commission needed him to.
In Goff's report, he said he still had concerns about electrical issues at the airport including a faulty emergency fuel shutoff switch he brought up at an earlier meeting.
He also proposed some changes to the airport's operation guidelines specifically to derelict airplanes.
He felt instead of looking through airplane logbooks, that hold information about the plane including maintenance information, he felt it would be more respectful of privacy and simpler to just use the eye test to determine airworthiness.
"How do you prove an airplane is not in flyable condition? That is pretty easy to determine if you see a missing wing, an engine missing or a flat tire it is probably not flyable," he said.
He said unless the airplane is in the process of being repaired he will report the incident to the commissioners and they can give a final say on the plane's removal. The owner will then be given an allotted amount of time to remove the plane.
He said extensions can be given as some repair jobs take much time especially when having to order parts
"It is simple and it is straightforward," he said. "It makes sense to me."
Morandi said a subcommittee of the commission will review the operating guidelines that includes recent additions as well as changes made in the summer. It will then be circulated among airport users for review.
Morandi said he will be meeting with people in the restaurant business to discuss the airport's restaurant space request for proposals.
Administrative Officer Kathy Eade said she is working on the RFP for the almost completed North East Hangar and requested technical information from Stantec Engineers.
Engineer Peter Enzien said he is still waiting for the project to be wrapped up and although nearing completion, the building still does not have electricity. Although he hopes to have service in the coming weeks.
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