Commission Meeting of NEW JERSEY GENERAL AVIATION STUDY COMMISSION LOCATION: Committee Room 16 DATE: March 27, 1996 State House Annex 10:00 a.m. Trenton, New Jersey MEMBERS OF COMMISSION PRESENT: John J. McNamara Jr., Esq., Chairman Linda Castner Jack Elliott Philip W. Engle Peter S. Hines ALSO PRESENT: Robert B. Yudin (representing Gualberto Medina) Huntley A. Lawrence (representing Ben DeCosta) Kevin J. Donahue Office of Legislative Services Meeting Recorded and Transcribed by The Office of Legislative Services, Public Information Office, Hearing Unit, State House Annex, CN 068, Trenton, New Jersey TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Dennis Yap DY Consultants representing Trenton-Robbinsville Airport 2 John F. Bickel, P.E. Township Engineer Oldmans Township, New Jersey 24 Kristina Hadinger, Esq. Township Attorney Montgomery Township, New Jersey 40 Donald W. Matthews Mayor Montgomery Township, New Jersey 40 Peter Rayner Township Administrator Montgomery Township, New Jersey 42 Patrick Reilly Curator Aviation Hall of Fame and Museum 109 Ronald Perrine Deputy Mayor Alexandria Township, New Jersey 130 Barry Clark Township Administrator/ Chief Financial Officer Readington Township, New Jersey 156 Benjamin DeCosta General Manager New Jersey Airports Port Authority of New York and New Jersey 212 APPENDIX: TABLE OF CONTENTS (continued) Page “Township of Readington Resolution” submitted by Barry Clark 1x mjz: 1-228 (Internet edition 1997) PHILIP W. ENGLE (Member of Commission): While we are waiting for Jack McNamara, why don’t we call this meeting of the New Jersey General Aviation Study Commission to order. We will have a roll call. Abe Abuchowski? (no response) Assemblyman Richard Bagger? (no response) Linda Castner? (no response) Huntley Lawrence? Oh, he is on the way. Jack Elliott? MR. ELLIOTT: Here. MR. ENGLE: Phil Engle? Here. Senator William Haines? (no response) Pete Hines? MR. HINES: Here. MR. ENGLE: Bob Yudin? MR. YUDIN: Here. MR. ENGLE: Westley Jost? (no response) Jack McNamara? (no response) Suzanne Nagle? (no response) Joseph Odenheimer? (no response) Jack Penn? (no response) Henry Rowan? (no response) Fred Telling? (no response) Okay. There is no correspondence, no Commission reports, and no old business will be considered this date. We will hear testimony, and first on the list is Mr. Dennis Yap, from Trenton-Robbinsville. Mr. Yap? 1 Before we get started, Mr. Yap, do you affirm that the testimony you are about to give is true, in accordance with the perjury laws of the State of New Jersey? D E N N I S Y A P: Yes, I do. MR. ENGLE: Okay. We can show that Mr. Lawrence is here. Do you have prepared testimony, Mr. Yap? MR. YAP: Yes. UNIDENTIFIED MEMBER OF COMMISSION: Excuse me, may I just have the spelling of the name? MR. ENGLE: May we have the spelling of your name, please? MR. YAP: The first name is Dennis, D-E-N-N-I S. Second name, last name, Yap, Y-A-P -- “P” as in Paul. My name is Dennis Yap. I am an Airport Consultant. I was asked to come here on behalf of the Trenton-Robbinsville Airport. I am their engineer. We are planners and designers, specifically, of airports. We work at more than just the Trenton-Robbinsville Airport. We are consultants for the Woodbine Airport, the Camden County Airport, the Flying W Airport, Sky Manor Airport, and the Oldmans Airport. MR. ENGLE: What is the name of your company? MR. YAP: DY Consultants. I have worked at several other airports in the State of New Jersey within the last five years, including Teterboro, on the last runway project. The first thing I would like to say is, since my involvement in airports -- and I have been in it for about 13 years now -- I have experienced 2 one of the biggest changes I have seen with New Jersey DOT, Division of Aeronautics. I think it is important that I say something about that. Especially with the addition of Jack Penn as the Executive Director and the establishment of the Division, I have seen a real change in attitude there. I feel with the additional funds made available through the Division, it has made my job a lot more pleasant, and easier. One example was at Robbinsville Airport. During the last summer of this past year, we were in a master planning meeting. We always addressed the problem of the runway, which was delaminating, unraveling, and in poor condition. Basically, it was necessary to reconstruct that runway. After that meeting, the Division was able to give us an approval to go ahead with that project -- within about a week after that meeting. We went through design. We went through bidders. We went through construction. We actually had a ribbon-cutting ceremony for that runway about two months after the date that we began talks about that runway. That was unheard of during the years that I was involved. I worked on a lot of Federal projects, and I have never seen a turnaround like that -- like I saw there. That project was approximately $500,000. The aviation community is really happy with the work that has been done out there, and really happy with what the Division of Aeronautics was able to provide. Also, not only did they administrate the project, but they were also able to give us firsthand assistance out in the field. A lot of their personnel got very involved with the day-to-day operations. The State actually even provided testing labs for asphalt testing and temperature testing. So they provided additional services, which were able to speed up the process. 3 I just think that in these days when general aviation is really suffering as far as FAA participation on projects, the Division of Aeronautics is very timely and it is refreshing. At most of the airports that I have dealt with I found two major concerns: The biggest concern is the business aspect of it. There is a major financial problem in running an airport. Revenues on airports are limited, and the types of ways you can make money, you know-- There are fuel, “T” hangers, rentals, but the operating costs far outweigh the revenues that are available to a small general aviation airport. Before I was involved with Robbinsville -- well, actually, during my involvement with Robbinsville, there were two or three owners that I went through. They just could not support the Airport because of the lack of business at the Airport. A lot of times they had difficulty in improving the Airport, because they could not come up with their sponsor’s share on a lot of grants and improvements. When you are talking about a $1 million project, a State project, you are looking for an enormous-- Sometimes you have to spend $100,000, and that is not something you can do on a daily basis. This is not just with private owners. I have been dealing with Woodbine Airport, which is run by the Port Authority. Every month that I go to their Port Authority meeting, they are talking about a couple of thousand dollars left in their checkbook, you know. This is a real difficult situation. At the Flying W, I have gone through two owners. MR. ENGLE: Mr. Yap, did you say the Port Authority on that? MR. YAP: The Woodbine Port Authority. I’m sorry. (laughter) MR. ENGLE: Okay. 4 MR. YAP: We would be in big trouble if it was the New York/New Jersey Port Authority. The Flying W Airport: They have just changed owners. The owners before them went bankrupt. When I got involved, there was a group called the FDIC Corporation. Now the FDIC Corporation found that they cannot support the Airport, and they sold it to another company by the name of Cave Holdings, Inc., which is a big equipment supplies company. They have the capability. But there is no question that you have to have a decent financial background to really run an airport. One of the major expenses I find on airports -- when talking to the airports is the maintenance involved, things like cutting the grass, snow removal, and things of that sort. Of course, the major cost up front is the acquisition of this equipment. Sometimes this equipment can, you know, can get up to nearly $100,000. Again, when you keep talking about $100,000, that is a lot of money for small investors. My thoughts on this are that maybe there are areas where we could be of assistance to small airport owners. Maybe there could be business seminars for airport owners on how to operate the business from an operations standpoint. Maybe there could be a little bit more assistance as far as grants available for purchasing equipment or handling snow removal, like the last winter we had this past year. One thing that always seems to pop up is, everyone is looking to build “T” hangers in New Jersey, because there is quite a demand for them. But, again, it costs a lot of money to build these “T” hangers. I know the present grant process does not include the erection of “T” hangers, because 5 they are not, I guess, public facilities. If there is a possibility for grants for things like that to help the financial viability of an airport and actually preserve airports in New Jersey -- which is a big problem these days -- that would be of assistance to a lot of airports that I talk to. MR. ENGLE: Mr. Yap, at Trenton-Robbinsville, do they still maintain that golf course as part of the Airport? MR. YAP: Yes, they do. They own the golf course and the Airport.