Manager, air association president discuss Hollister Airport
Hollister Municipal Airport is attracting new attention as its
manager eyes converting the World War II relic into a corporate
jetport at the same time developers are discussing a retirement
development of up to 4,200 homes and Gavilan College looks to build
another next door.
Manager, air association president discuss Hollister Airport
Hollister Municipal Airport is attracting new attention as its manager eyes converting the World War II relic into a corporate jetport at the same time developers are discussing a retirement development of up to 4,200 homes and Gavilan College looks to build another next door.
This week The Pinnacle asked Ruth Erickson, president of the Hollister Airmen’s Association – the largest association at the airport – and Airport Manager Bill Gere – to speculate about some of the issues surrounding the area, the challenges/problems it faces, and how the issues could be resolved.
Q: What’s the sense that you get from pilots at the airport about the importance of the airport to Hollister.
Gere: The airport has a lot of untapped potential. We have been a small airport and now we’re trying to become a big airport and that’s a hard thing to manage. Ninety-eight percent of the community never goes to the airport so they don’t see the importance of it. There are a lot of different classifications of tenants out at the airport. The silent majority is happy with growth. There are a lot of pilots who would like to have planes out at the airport, but there are not enough hangers.
Erickson: The importance to Hollister and the whole county are many, especially in times of natural disasters and emergencies. It is a part of the national transportation system enabling the airport to receive federal funds. It is also an important part of California Transportation Authority (Caltrans), which entitles us to state funds. The airport is of major importance during and after natural, local emergencies and disasters.
California Department of Forestry Air Attack Base contains and extinguishes wild land and property fires all over San Benito and neighboring counties. Fires cross county boundaries and CDF are here June through October with personnel staffing all year.
Military and National Guard military aircraft and personnel provide disaster relief to the community and to outlying county residents in case of floods, fires and earthquakes. They will also fly residents off their property into town and fly in supplies to them.
California Highway Patrol provides many services through their aviation division such as search and rescue, traffic control “Eye in the Sky”, medical emergencies and marijuana and drug eradication and enforcement.
Cal Star and Lifeflight also provide medical emergency flights from the hospital and may need the airport for further emergencies, with their air ambulance service.
Vector control can be serviced here by the resident helicopter aerial application business.
During and after emergencies numerous flights, private and governmental bring in food, water, medical supplies and other basic necessities.
Disaster relief and government officials are flown here during emergencies. The airport benefits everyone and has served the community since the early 1920s in the early days of aviation, then the military in WWII, it was turned over to the city of Hollister in 1946. Hollister Airmen’s Association has also served the community since its formation in 1946.
This airport is also unique in that it is very important to sport aviation. It also has a wonderful collection of wa rbirds, home-builts, ultralights, a gliding club and school, a flight school, a skydiving school, an aviation technology college, CDF, aviation businesses and even a rocket building organization. It is well known for its unique qualities and good flying weather. In cases of emergencies outside the county, emergency supplies and personnel often cannot land at neighboring county airports due to fog so Hollister Airport can be used with ground transportation following.
Q: As you see it, what’s the biggest problem currently facing the airport?
Gere: All the other airports in the area, South County, Salinas, Watsonville, they all have like five full-time employees, but I’m the only staff person at Hollister Airport. A good airport staff would allow the city to enhance the airport and really improve it.
Aviation is factionalized. The guy who flies a homemade plane doesn’t know what it’s like to fly a crop duster; and the guy who flies a crop duster doesn’t know what it’s like to fly a commercial jet. It just demonstrates how different forms of aviation all have different needs. I think people lose an appreciation for that.
Erickson: The proposal for California Department of Forestry Air Attack Base. The Airport Master Plan proposed a very good site at the airport for CDF to move to, from their present site. The site would be very close to the main runway and provide sufficient space for their aircraft to land, load fire retardant and take off, without having to turn the plane around as they do now. Their response time would be greatly improved thereby saving more property from fire.
This site is now being looked at for a possible jet center and CDF may be moved to a non-preferred site at the Northwest side of the airport. Loaded tankers from this site would have to taxi over 4,000 feet to Runway 31 then wait for landing and departing air traffic before crossing Runway 24, causing even longer delays in taking off. The speed for CDF taking off is the key to suppressing firestorms. This site would make taking off take so long that it may be necessitate CDF to leave and go to Crow’s Landing, 30 miles away, and another 18 minutes for each round trip. Fire protection for San Benito, Santa Cruz and Monterey counties would be greatly diminished.
Q: With the movement taking place in the vicinity currently – with the senior living development and the Gavilan College development, do you think that the airport can continue in the same vein it has up until now?
Erickson: A senior housing complex and a college by the airport are incompatible with state of California Land Use Commission guidelines on proper planning for land adjacent to airports. If planning like this is allowed then state funds for airport operations are put in jeopardy, in addition the FAA has guidelines for land use and funding.
Gere: Anything that encroaches, limits us. We don’t want to limit our potential until it is absolutely necessary.
Q: What do you think of the location they’ve chosen for these developments?
Gere: With so much vacant land available why are we building in the most remote area first? Why not fill in instead of creating sprawl?
Erickson: I think the location for these developments is not only dangerous but will be extremely noisy, with general aviation aircraft, jets and in the summers, CDF planes flying to and from fires. The danger comes from the close proximity to the runways and I am reminded of a tragedy in Sacramento.
Back in the early 1970s, the city of Sacramento allowed an ice cream parlor to be constructed at the end of the runway adjacent to airport property, (not on airport land). A privately owned jet taking off from this Sacramento airport crashed into the ice cream parlor killing a large group of children and maiming others for life.
Airport land use planning is common sense and made with safety and noise impacts in mind. Lack of foresight and common sense by local governments invites fatal accidents and noise curfews to be imposed.
Q: Have you heard talk about the possibility of making the airport a jet center? How do you think that would affect the current tenants and these proposed projects?
Erickson: Yes, I have heard about a proposed jet center. At the end of 2003 Bill Gere proposed the idea to the city council. He was hired in the fall of 2004 as airport manager and is working on his vision. Many people in the community and at the airport would like to have the proposal discussed with community involvement to have a voice in decisions that will affect the whole community.
Gere: This isn’t really a question, since the airport already houses jets. If we attract more private jet owners to this airport, many of whom own businesses, they may be more inclined to relocate their businesses to this area. Having more jets here would increase the city’s income since the jet owners have to pay personal property taxes to the county where the jet is stored the majority of the time. If a jet costs $10 million, that’s $100,000 personal property tax revenue. One-third of that money then goes to the city, one-third to the county and one-third to the schools.
Q: On that same vein, a jet center could bring new revenues to Hollister, do you think any amount of money would be worth the problems – such as noise and traffic- a jetport could bring to the area?
Erickson: A jet center at the airport could adversely affect the airport and the community. The cost to the city will be higher than the revenue generated in security, noise and air pollution plus millions of dollars to build infrastructure for the center, needing matching funds. It would be a 24/7 operation and like San Jose the community would have to lobby for a noise curfew. The tax base will incur more than it will generate. These jets are registered out of state or out of country where the tax laws allow them exemptions. This community would not receive the financial benefit.
Gere: There are regulations regarding the amount of noise jets are allowed to make in residential areas and most owners generally abide by those regulations, since the owners of those jets represent the companies they stand for.
