North Adams Airport Renews Gliding Club Lease
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The Airport Commission on Tuesday voted to renew the leases for the Mohawk Soaring Club, stymying the attempts of another club to set flight.
Michael Milazzo had approached the commission last month about space for tie-down gliders and increasing soaring operations.
But when the commission voted to renew the 70-year-old club's use of the Civil Air Patrol building, tie-downs and hangar, Milazzo pulled his proposal for the time being.
"We need cable space to operate and you're about to sign off the cable space," Milazzo said. "If you give Mohawk Soaring five tiedown spaces, I'm going to withdraw my proposal altogether."
But later in the meeting, when his proposal came up on the agenda, he asked if he could continue discussions with airport officials.
Chairman Marc Morandi said the airport manager and city's administrative officer had been discussing how to find space for him.
"There's space available, you know there is space around," he said. "We'll try to work with tie downs of gliders. So we like the idea of having more activity with you at the airport. We just have to figure out where can everybody play on the field."
The commission voted to allow the airport manager and the administrative officer to work with Milazzo.
The meeting room was full at the airport's administrative building and Morandi had moved Mohawk up on the agenda to accommodate the crowd.
Airport user Trevor Gilman questioned if it would beneficial to have another glider company come in for $1,500 or $2,000 in revenue if it hurt the glider club they had been supporting for 50 years.
"I don't think so," he said, adding that raising fees too high would kill any activity at the airport.
Mohawk's President Jon Goodman said there had been a history of multiple soaring operations in the past and that the club had no problem with another one if it could be done safely.
"Nowhere from the beginning of this discussion to now, the Mohawk Soaring was not opposed," he said, speaking up after the vote. "We have not put any opposition or whatever impediments to another soaring operation."
Another flyer said he'd been a member of the club some years ago.
"I know something about the history and groups that can work together. But you have to work on it," he said.
Lee Harrison, a certified flight instructor out of Albany, N.Y., said he wasn't really following what the "big battle" was but thought the airport "would make a really fabulous training site."
Gilman said everyone was tiptoeing around the elephant in the room and hoping they'd all get along.
"There's five years of conflict and everyone has a personal story they'd love to tell about who the bullies at the airport are and what problems they caused," he said. "And we're not even discussing that."
In other business:
• The commission answered questions about language in leases, including the addition of a three-year term. Morandi and Administrative Officer Katherine Eade noted they had been working to update the leasing agreements for some and had used templates from other airports.
The commission voted to remove objectionable language, including the three-year term, allow for mutual termination and remove some insurance requirements more suited for commercial operations.
There was also discussion about the placement of planes and Morandi said the new tie-down leases would be specific to location.
• Stantec engineer Peter Enzien reported that the parts had come in for the new roof on the Northeast hangar. The construction company had been on site Tuesday.
