HomeMy WebLinkAbout05-20-2021M I N U T E S of Special Meeting
Barkley Regional Airport Authority
FINANCE COMMITTEE
Meeting - Thursday, 05/20/21, 3:30pm Via Zoom Meeting ID 879 7560 1256 Finance Committee (FC) Chairman Durbin welcomed everyone and recognized that a quorum was present. Committee Members present were Emerson Goodman, Marshall Davis, Chairman John Durbin, and Ashley Johnson., Jay Matheny was unable to attend. Staff present was Dennis Rouleau, Executive Director (ED), and Carol Creason, Accountant.
Continued Budget Discussions
Continuing the discussion started at the April 22 meeting, Durbin reviewed the process for coming up with the next year budget. A projection of the full year 6/30/21 financial results compared to budget for 6/30/21 is used to project the quarterly numbers for a new year budget. A comparison of the quarterly actual results for the last full pre-COVID time period ending 12/31/19 was used as a “goal” to reach by the fourth quarter of the next fiscal year ending 6/30/22.
Each line item in the income and expenses was reviewed in the tentative budget spreadsheet with discussion around the major assumptions. On the income side, it was noted the impact of the new terminal construction on the Farm Land Rent which is reducing available plantable space. Dennis noted that some space should return in future periods after the earth moving equipment has completed its work. FBO Facilities Rent is fixed for all quarters based on the current Midwest Aviation (MWA) Lease. Ground Transportation Fees (including car rental fees) are linked to some seasonality but aided by gradual return of passenger post-COVID. Land Lease Income includes all other sources of rental outside of MWA and the farmland which will decline for a time with Simmons Engineering departure but will return after that space is cleaned up and put back out for rental. It is unknown the extent of cost needed to bring the space back to rentable shape. Fuel Flowage Fees and Landing Fees are mostly tied to the two flights per day by SkyWest. Parking Lot Income is directly tied to passengers which will have similar seasonality as Ground Transportation Fees and the ability to market and bring flyers back to Barkley. TSA LEO Charges are a calendar year contract that normally runs about $30,000 per year at $3,000 per month so the second quarter is always less than the other quarters. Tenant Services Income included a lot of special cleaning and some extra mowing that will not repeat itself after the first quarter of the new fiscal year. Additional research will be done by Carol to better identify the revenues that were only COVID related and thus would not be recurring.
Moving to the expense side, Advertising and Marketing was discussed at length about how much is enough and what form the promotion would take. The Committee believe some “front-end” extra marketing will be needed in the first two quarters with steady promotional spend to gradually bring our flyers back and to add new flyers that have not tried us in a while. The new Engineering services were discussed and what such services provide outside of the grant-based AIP types. The Committee would like to keep the $40,000 total annual budget for this to continue to move forward on projects that are not grant eligible. Property/casualty Insurance was discussed – we changed provider the start of the current fiscal year and we believe the premiums for the new fiscal year will be about the same, but Dennis and Carol will check on this. IT Expense was added as at budget line item for the current fiscal year at $7,500 per quarter but a contract was not signed until April of 2021, so we are just getting started on this service. The actual quarterly expense will be less than this as we purchased the IT hardware directly and thus the expense will be just service related and not include renting the hardware. Dennis will update the actual contract cost for the new budget. Maintenance costs is expected to gradually increase quarterly back to pre-COVID days. Some discussion on Supplies was had as it was noted that the current fiscal year will
include about $20,000 worth of “de-icing” from the weather event this past winter. Whether to include a similar budgeted amount will be consider before finalizing the proposed budget.
A long discussion was had on Salaries and Benefits and what it will take to rehire firefighters as our current pay and benefits structure is not as competitive as it likely needs to be. This likely needs to be a
general discussion at the full Board level as personnel expense is about 60% of the total expenses of the airport under current pay scales used and is more than the total revenues of the airport so every dollar of increase adds to the deficit. The impact of potential pay increases will be worked up by Dennis prior to the next budget meeting.
The sizable budget deficit of the airport has always been covered by support from the city and county government. For now, we are assuming that support will remain at the prior $331,500 level combined.
We discussed “capital projects” which are expenditures that do not run through the routine P&L budget. Included for consideration is about $140,000 in equipment replacement, $60,000 estimated for repainting
the fuel tanks, $185,000 for a new roof at the FBO MWA building and some painting inside. A more general discussion on that building was led by Dennis on the needs of that outdated building, again a
discussion suitable for the full Board as well.
Discussion of the second “CARES Act” from December and the March aid bill and how it could benefit the
airport was had. All benefit from the original CARES Act from April 2020 has been collected but no collection on the grant from the “second” bill has been received to date and it is still unknown what level of
funding will be in the March 2021 act.
Dennis and Carol will work on the line items that need more review and the Committee will meet again in
special session on Thursday June 17th at 3:30 to go over with the intention of having a budget to propose to the full board on June 28th.
Other items and adjournment
The next full Board meeting is June 28th, and the next regular quarterly FC meeting is set for July 22nd at 3:30. The special meeting for the budget will be June 20th at 3:30.
Meeting adjourned at 5:05PM