"Big Bear Airport board reviews lease policy"

["Stephen Irwin" <stepheni@xxxxxxxxx>]

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Airport board reviews lease policy 
By BRIAN CHARLES 
The Big Bear (CA) Grizzly


The Big Bear Airport board isn't changing lease agreements with hangar
renters yet. But change is coming.

Airport board vice president Gary Steube read his recommendations to a
quorum of the board at the Feb. 6 meeting. Steube said all the airport
leases should be updated to the most current format, which requires an
operable airplane to be stored in the hangar. "There are three different
versions of the airport hangar rental agreements. Every lease needs to have
the same language," Steube said.

Steube also said the board should have the final say on whether a tenant is
evicted. "I don't want this like airports in Orange County where there's a
hangar czar," he said.

The hangars will be inspected annually by the airport manager, and if the
hangar isn't compliant the airport board will have an eviction hearing
during open session of its monthly board meetings, Steube said. "This is so
interpretive, we want to give people due process," Steube said.

The call for change comes after General Manager Garry Dokter asked the board
to modify the hangar rental agreements. Dokter said he is trying to change
the culture at the airport and encourage hangar renters to store functional
airplanes and not junk. Dokter supports the board being involved in the
eviction process. "It gives the entire board a better idea of what we're
facing," he said.

 
Steube said he didn't support an earlier idea by Dokter to require FAA
annual inspections as part of the lease agreement. Hangar renters who build
planes at the airport don't have annual inspections during construction.
Gliders don't need an annual FAA inspection at all, Steube said. Having a
hard and fast rule requiring FAA annual inspections would push those type of
pilots from the airport, he said.

The airport board will vote on the lease agreements March 5. The board
members present Feb. 6 agreed that absent airport board members Jay
Obernolte and George Berge should get a chance to weigh in on the decision.

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http://www.californiaaviation.org/dcfp/dcboard.php

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