Meeting Notes : Consultant Screening/Oversight Committee
Committee notes reflect the views and opinions of the committee members and not necessarily those of the Noise Compatibility Study Group, Coordinating Council, Regional Airport Authority of Louisville and Jefferson County, or the Consultant Team.
Pending Committee Approval
Committee members present were:
Tim Chilton, Dorn Crawford, Mary Rose Evans, Mindy Lambert, Denny Rued, Marnie Varela.
Bob Brown, RAA chief engineer was also present at this meeting.
The meeting was held at 6:30 at the RAA Board Room.
The proposed agenda was adopted.
The notes from the previous meeting on Feb. 28, 2000 had been on the web site and print copies were distributed. These notes were approved by consensus.
Bob Brown said that he had come to give information to Marnie about a request she had made for a copy of the INM (Integrated Noise Model) program. He said that Jim DeLong had agreed that the RAA would need a copy of the INM software. RAA will purchase the software and it can be used by someone, from UofL, with whom Marnie has made arrangements to rerun the model.
Committee members agreed that the role of this committee is to monitor the ongoing performance of the consultant team and to address any problems. In bringing committee chairs together to meet this task, the committee has also developed into a communication link among the committee chairs and a communication conduit between the committee chairs and other study principals.
We talked about our role as committee chairs serving at the pleasure of the committees to facilitate committee meetings and tasks.
Dorn reported that the most recent noise study in-process review (IPR) was held on March 6th, including principals of the consulting team (by teleconference), airport staff, RAA Board, and the Study Group. He reported this meeting had covered the Study Group's noise abatement strategies for analysis, consultant reactions, and next steps. The meeting brought out a pressing need for continuing dialogue to insure that measures to be modeled are clearly understood and faithfully represented. A few of the measures the Study Group prescribed are still under development or refinement, and some delay in the study schedule appears necessary to be sure all preparations for modeling are coordinated and complete. The meeting for presentation of these results, shown on the master study timeline for late February/early March, and most recently announced for April 13, will probably occur in late May. Committee members expressed interest in monitoring this process.
The questions and concerns that were mentioned in connection with noise mitigation were about funding. Dorn pointed out that the remedial measure the report calls "Business incentives/acquisitions" was added by the Study Group, because of the proposal by Denny. Everyone agreed that additional sources of funding are needed for mitigation.
We discussed potential responsibilities of the RAA noise office, which is on the RAA Board’s agenda for 3/15. Most of the discussion was about a noise officer’s involvement with the community noise forum, which we anticipate being an ongoing extension of the broad representation and close communications of the Study Group.
Mary Rose reported that a subcommittee of the Consultant Oversight Committee met on Monday, March 6 at the RAA Conference Room. All members of the committee had been notified of the scheduled subcommittee meeting. Those present were Dorn Crawford, Mary Rose Evans, Joe Richardson, Bill Simpson, and Marnie Varela. The subcommittee had formed to discuss noise-based variable landing fees. At that meeting Marnie presented a letter from her attorney about the legality of these fees and Joe presented a portion of the lease agreement between the RAA and the airlines about additional fees. Discussion at this meeting was animated and no conclusion was reached.
Copies of Marnie and Joe’s handouts were available at the committee meeting. Marnie, who had advocated the them, said that she had decided to agree to let noise-based landing fees be "deferred or dropped."
A date for next meeting was not set. A meeting will be arranged and announced when called for.
The meeting adjourned at 9:20.