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HomeMy WebLinkAbout10-09-1959Record of Official Proceedings. of the Common .Council of the City of Rochester, Minn., October 9, 1959 317 06WALD PUHLIH RING CG., NEW IILM. MINN. 9181 Minutes of a special meeting of the Common Council of the City of Rochester, Minnes- ota,. held in the Council Chambers in the City Hall in said City, on October 9, 1959. President Kamm called the meeting to order at 4:30 o'clock P. M., the following "H members being present: President Kamm, Alderman Haas, Hanlon, McGuckin, Morris, Wilkus. Absent: Tingley. The call of the special meeting was read and President Kamm ordered the same placed ,on file, the said meeting having been called for the purpose of approving the building plans for Gopher Aviation,,Inc. and ordering bids for same.and any other business the said Common Council • may deem proper. Mr. Fred Schuster said that first he wanted to report that he had talked with Mr. Knopp and he had suggested that Gopher Aviation, Inc. carry$100,000.00-$500,000.00-$200,000.00 property damage and he had then talked to Mr. Robinson and he had confirmed that they would carry this amount. Mr. Verne Behm of Ellerbe & Company then reviewed the plans for the proposed constr- uction. He said the base bid would be for "B" Hangar 120 x 120 ft. plus a lean-to 30 x 120 ft. with Alternate No. 1 which would be addition of North 2 Bays 40 x 150 ft; Alternate No. 2 - construction of "A Hangar complete with lean-to; and Alternate No. 3 - construction of $T" Hangars and pole hangars. He said there was some thought that they could get along for the present with probably the "B: hangar and one lean-to. Hanlon inquired if in the future Gopher Aviation did not use this building if it would be adaptable to some.other operation. Don Swenson, Manager of the Rochester Airport, said if the large hangar was built it would be hard to use ,'if for anything else. Morris inquired if an audit had been received on Gopher Aviation from a certified public accountant and did not think that the Council should go ahead and order bids until they had received an audit and also inquired it if was possible for a firm of accountants to make a cursory check of the books rather than a thorough checkthat you might have under other circum- stances. R. C. Andrews stated that without a thorough check they would not certify to the amount of assets nor the type of assets, probably we could request that they tell us the amount of State • and Federal income taxes they have paid for the past three years which would indicate the amount of business that they have done, it would not tell us the amount of assets; we should also require that all future audit reports be filed with the City. Mr. Schuster said they would like to order bids at this time so that they would have some indications of what it would cost; he said the idea on the"T: hangars bid is that they want to get a bid to find out what they are going to cost, they don't have to be built right away but once we get the bid we may have to make some arrangment to separate this but we thought by having the bid now we would know hhere we stood and know what we have to do. He ghougt maybe (1) Gopher Aviaition should handle the "T: hangars basis on a manager where they would lease them out and take a percentage for the, care or (2) an outright lease basis; he thought the management basis would be the best. Mr. Schuster said Gopher Aviation is getting themselves back in a conner to • 318 Record of Official --Proceedings of the Common Council of the City of Rochester, Minn., October 9, 1959 06WALD PUSLI5HING CO... NEW ULM MINN. 9787 some extent, Mr. Robsinson said that he almost has to know where he stands by November 1st, if the City does not build -facilities for; Gopher Aviation they have the problem of getting relocated. He then recommended that..bid.s be advertised to be opened on November 9th'and that.45 days be allowed before they were accepted then we would at least know_by the 2nd week in November where we stood. After further discussion Alderman Haas introduced a resolution approving plans and speciii-cations for site preparation and construction of certain hangars and related facilities at the new Rochester Municipal Airport and ordering bids for same, which was read. A motion was then made by Haas, second by Wilk -us that the resolution be adopted as read and upon roll call Haas, Wilkus and Kamm voting "aye" and Hanlon, McGuckin and Morris voting "no", President Kamm declared -the motion lost. Morris again stated that he felt bids should not be ordered until an audit had been received but wondered if the scope of the audit could not be cut down, and that probably if opening of bids could be delayed 45 days this could be taken care of. McGuckin then suggested that the Council take a vote to see if we should go ahead with this•at all. He said he was against it because we have no insurance or surety for how long 'they will go on; we have nothing to hold them down, they are hedging on a personal guarantee and -if we put up a building and they go out we have nothing but one months rent; and another thing aviation is moving ahead so fast we are going to have a problem of obsolescence. He said insurance of $50,000.00 on one key wand and $25,000.00 on each of the others in -case of death but on the other hand if the key man decides to leave the company the insurance does not mean a thing, you have nothing to tie them down, just a months rent. Mayor Smekta suggested that the Council be given an opportunity to review this some (more and discuss it again on the 13th and suggested that R. C. Andrews meet with the auditors for JGopher Aviation to find out how quickly we can get their audit. Hanlon stated that he had heard nothing that would change his opinion; he thought there were many problems to be settled but could not see the haste, he thought these problems should be settled before construction begins and although he appreciated the probihem of Gopher Aviaition he did not think a hasty decision should be lmade. He said if this goes through he will be glad to -be proven wrong but he had strong misgivings. R. V. Ehrick, City Attorney, stated that the Council ld have to make up their minds if they were going to finance private enterprise and then they ld have to decide to what extent they want to go and then after that they would get into liability and leases. After further lengthy discussion a motion was made by Morris, second by'Haas, that the 1 reconsider the action taken previously to adopte a resolution approving plans and specifi- ions and ordering bids for construction of,certain hangars. Upon roll call all voted in favor ereof, except Hanlon and-McGuckin, who voted "no". A motion was then .made by Haas, second by Morris, that a resolution approving plans and specifications for site preparation and construction of certain hangars and related facilities at new Rochester Municipal airport and ordering bids for same be adopted. Upon roll call and all 1 I- 0 1 0 Record of OfficialProceedings of the Common Council of the City _ of Rochester, Minn.. October 91 1959 voting in favor thereof, except Hanlon and McGuckin who voted "no", President Kamm declared the resolution duly passed and adopted. Mr. Schuster then stated that Nietz Electric Company had called him about ordering cable to run doom to the fixed base area. He said they had to order immediately or there would be an increase in the price, this is the heavy cable they would need to serve a fixed base and would amount to about $7,000.00 with a saving of about $1,000.00. He said if they bought it and it was not used and returned there would be a loss of about $850.00. He was told to order the cable. Upon motion by Morris, second by Haas, the meeting was adjourned. t;(C I e �rk