HomeMy WebLinkAboutLaurel Airport Authority Minutes 02.18.2026
Meeting Minutes - February 18, 2026
Roll Call: Doug Myers (Present), Jim Wise (Present), Gary Blain (Absent), Joe Mutchler (Present), Randy
Hand (Present)
Members of the public Present: Fred Lee, Brad Sinclair, Reef Hogan
Approval of Minutes from previous meeting 01/20/2026: Approved by unanimous consent. (Jim / Randy)
Financial Update: Claims: Reviewed/Approved
Codi has paid these bills as of 2/16. We need to sign and mail them off.
• Doug Myers - $74.95 (Rural Broadband Internet)
• Jim Wise - $2,272.83 (Mead Lumber Co …. SRE building garage door openers).
• Yellowstone Valley Coop - $448.00 (Electric)
• Local Government Service - $80.00 (Late fee for State Report)
• Century Link - $88.67 (Quonset Hut Phone Line)
• Cotter’s Sewer - $74.00 (Porta Potty Rental)
• MacKenzie Disposal - $117.48 (Trash Service)
• DNRC - $2,998.05 (Ag Grazing Bureau)
• Power Plan - $1,212.57 (Snow Plow Blades)
Discussion: We are a “For Tax” operation (albeit generating minimal revenue) but acct office still needs
to file tax returns for us.
Public Comment on Non-Agenda Items: Please limit to 3 minutes
Doug Myers – We need to develop an approach re non-compliant hangars at the airport (those not
containing any aircraft in violation of FAA FARs).
Joe Mutchler – We need to get hangar owner list from Acct office … he will call her.
Randy Hand – There is no room on City Server for LAA info. Brock Williams is still hosting the server
used for our website. Randy will approach John Roberts to see if he could coordinate with Brock and
upgrade our website to allow additional information (hangar build site availability, hangar rentals
available, Event postings, general comments etc.).
Public Comment on Agenda Items: Please limit to 3 minutes
No comments on agenda items.
Reports: KLJ Engineering-Master Plan and Construction Report
Cory Lot Lease Updates / Status:
• Fred Lee: Lease signed, lease fee paid, utilities setup paid.
• Chase Moore: Verbal intent to lease but has done nothing yet. He has been provided with lease and costs
info. He’s been given until Wed 2/25 to respond or we’ll go to Bill Austin then Chuck Duke.
• Brad Sinclair: Lease signed, lease fee paid, utilities setup paid. He has submitted a building plan.
• Jerry Nelson: Verbal intent to lease but has done nothing yet. He has been provided with lease and costs
info. His office says that they’ll have all lease and payments to us by end of this week.
KLJ Site survey has been completed for all lots. We are waiting for FAA form 7460 to be completed for Fred
Lee’s lot.
Maintenance Report:
a. SRE building garage door openers … Jim Wise has purchased three openers from Mead Lumber and will
install them with help from a friend Ben Krause
b. Airport entry gate operational concerns … On March 4th (Wed at 8 am) we will have a visit by the gate
maintenance company. Perhaps he can should us how to fully shut down the gate for high wind events.
New Business:
a. SAM Registration … Joe Mutchler has been updating our information within the organization.
b. Cory lots update with building requirements …Cory lot builders need to be made familiar with our
“Minimum Standards”. A plan needs to be developed for allowable (according to codes) placement of
septic and cistern tankage for those wanting bathrooms in their hangars.
c. Runway 9-27 deactivation … may be considered to eliminate runway zone protection issues, and thus
allow building on the strip of land immediately north of the current hail hangar building.
d. Montana State Report … has been signed and sent off to the state.
Old Business:
a. Abandoned aircraft on the parking ramp … can be declared derelict and the sheriff can declare them as
abandoned and have them towed away (would likely require destruction). Current owners need to be
encouraged to sell or move aircraft left indefinitely on the ramp. Maybe LAA Board should contact him and
require he pays rent, moves airplane, gets it airworthy (unlikely) and flies it away, or removes it himself.
Bret McKenney and Joe Mutchler will discuss.
b. High wind event/Perimeter damaged … Heath Olson’s crews cleaned up hangar rood debris the day after
the event very promptly. However, the damage his panels caused the perimeter fence has not been repaired.
Jim Wise will call him.
c. AWOS intermittent wind info … is still an issue. Joe Mutchler will call AWI and get them involved.
d. FAA compliance … we are in hopes that the FAA will soon approve what we believe to be the final edits
that have been made to our minimum standards documents.
Laurel Airport Authority
P.O. Box 242 Laurel, MT 59044
406-628-0172