Contracts of contention

Like a ghost, the issue of hangar leases continues to haunt the Saratoga Airport Board nearly seven years after the subject first came before them. The regularly scheduled meeting of the airport board at 1 p.m. on Dec. 12 at Saratoga Town Hall, which lacked chairman Lance Grubb, vice-chairman Arlen Hughes and fixed based operator Bob Maddox, once again saw the hangar leases take center stage. At recent meetings, the board has taken suggestions from hangar owners under advisement as they have worked to update language in the minimum standards to match the “new” leases that were first introduced in 2011.

The perpetual discussion came up as board member Ellie Dana addressed concerns raised by hangar owner Steven Dyer that would require a change to the minimum standards.

“Just to recap, the current lease says, basically, you either maintain your lease or, 10 days before you depart, you remove your hangar. Your choice, but if you leave the hangar and you don’t spend your $300 a month (sic), then the hangar goes to the town,” said Dana. “What this does, is that gives the hangar owner more control over what happens with that hangar. So, if a hangar owner decides not to renew the lease and wants to sell the hangar to someone else, it’s in their hands. The minimum standards are at odds with that. The minimum standards say you have to leave the hangar there, you built a hangar you have to leave it there when you depart.”

The board discussed with Town Clerk Suzie Cox as to what the best approach would be in making the changes; whether it would have to be read three times before being passed or if a resolution could take care of the changes. With the end of 2018 near and a new council and mayor poised to take their seats in 2019, it was decided that there would be further discussion during the January meeting of the airport board. Following this discussion, outgoing town council member and airport board representative Richard Raymer asked Cox about the number of new leases signed.

Cox informed Raymer that, out of the 18 hangar owners, only three had returned signed leases along the $300 yearly payment. She added that David Worthington returned an old version of the lease. Cox also asked the board what they wished to do in regards of hangar owners who have paid only $200 annually instead of the $300 required by the new leases.

“If we have allowed people, hangar owners, to pay less than what we invoiced and let them stay, isn’t it possible that we could consider ourselves at fault here,” Dana said.

Cox agreed, as did the other members of the board, and it was decided that previous payments that were insufficient would no longer be discussed, but that going forward the board would decide how to approach any future annual payments that were less than the $300. At this time, one of the hangar owners, Andy Van Tol, asked for clarification. Dana told Van Tol that the board was no longer discussing what payments were considered insufficient in the past, but that going forward all payments would be the amount outlined in the most recent lease, including a three percent annual increase.

Van Tol told Dana that his current lease was $200 and that it was good until Dec. 21, 2019. Further discussion between the hangar owner and the board members saw Van Tol ask if he could preemptively sign the lease, but wait for it to take effect in 2020, suggesting that it would be a compromise for both parties. Dana, Raymer and board member Kim Lorenzen disagreed.

“I think as far as the board is concerned, now that we have the lease issue solved, we intend for everyone to sign the new lease because there are conflicts in your old lease the way it sits right now,” said Raymer.

Dana echoed the statement, telling Van Tol that the board “insisted” he sign the new lease. When asked by the Saratoga Sun if the issuance of the new lease effectively made any previous lease null and void, the airport board responded in the affirmative. In the general provisions of the minimum standards, in fact, it reads “The Airport Board of Saratoga reserves the right to require in any lease issued under these minimum standards to make other or more restrictive requirements on a non-discriminatory basis, whenever the Airport Board in its sound discretion deems it necessary to do so.”

With 2018 at an end and 2019 rapidly approaching, it would seem that continued concerns surrounding the airport board, minimum standards and private operator leases will remain for the near future. These issues, however, are no longer the concern of Raymer but will likely fall in the hands of councilman-elect Jon Nelson who received a letter of recommendation from the airport board to mayor-elect John Zeiger.

The next meeting of the Saratoga Airport Board will be at 1 p.m. on Jan. 9, 2019 at Saratoga Town Hall.