No water park. No Ellis subdivision.
So, could we now have that runway extension built at the airport? Do we still have the businessman with the vision to bring jobs to Tracy and start a convention center? Could we now have another pool that children of all income levels can enjoy, instead of us catering to the elite?
We don’t need more houses for a long time. We are knee-deep in foreclosures. Taxes are outrageously high in this city, enough to have produced a “rainy day” fund at one time. I am sure our clever finance man can cut some fat.
Let’s stop this meeting behind closed doors, too, and have more open government. That’s how we wasted time and money with this fiasco in the first place.
Come on citizens — vote some integrity on City Council next time.
Here I thought one was a retired grand mother and the other termed out of office.
Boy, you sure know how to play it up. Toot your horn. And make some noise. Beep beep! Honk honk!
I bet you didn't have toys when you were a kid and banged on pots and pans too.
How about if everyone comes to the April 5th meeting and supports the removal of the city manager and his team of misfits?
We didn't have these problems until he came to Tracy. Before he got here Tracy was a community that pulled together and made sure places like the pool, the parks, and other public areas were safe and available for everyone.
The meeting is April 5th....And without us keeping it in tracy means that price more than likely are going to go up and it wont be a community anymore. Please help
"Ellis Ruling Makes Ruin for Les"
...Ellis ruling makes room for less.
Thank you Mavis Roe... a really good swimming pool without all the lazy river and fantasy park is what was needed in the first place when the City thought they had the money in the general fund. Still need JUST a really good swimming pool set up wherever it can be built. "Build it and they will come"....
Could we now have another pool that children of all income levels can enjoy, instead of us catering to the elite?
Excuse me, the Connollys and Garamendi are the elites!!
Where was your support when we researched Holly for Sports Park/Swim Center/Wetlands/Agricultural Center (Museum).... with selfish view as yours, we lose out.
CN
Be sure you, Mavis Roe, know what you are in support of their (Connolly/Garmendi)plans to fatten their pockets.
Plus, the airport with expansion will bring more noise to the existing residence, Connolly and Garamendi will not be bothered by noise, why.. they're conveniently out of earshot.
Can see why Garamendi said, "not now" since they were busy preparing a fight with the Ellis/Surland.
CN
Measure A had nothing to do with the lawsuit. If you read Jon Mendelson's article (on the CalPilot's website ) it says (at the bottom), "Editor's Note: The Tracy Airport Association was very involved in the defeat of this development location."
That obviously has nothing to do with Measure A. It appears to me that TAA is acting as a political action group and flexing their lobbying power.
http://www.calpilots.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2037:tracy-airport-decision-wipes-out-ellis-developer-agreement&catid=41:california-airports&Itemid=79
It really looks to me like Measure A had nothing to do with the lawsuit. It had to do with property not being defined for all the RGA's. Not the number of RGA's mentioned in Measure A. Measure A was probably used as cover, because we can't find anything that mentions Measure A.
If TAA is going to turn into a lobbyist group then spending money on an airport in Tracy, will do less to promote business. It would be better to move the airport to New Jerasulem, which is owned by the city. I would think the FCC would be more willing to pay for NJ airport than TCY since it has more potential.
Moving the airport to NJ makes sense if you don't really move anything. The cost to the taxpayer goes down if you shut down the airport Make it privately owned. In fact, neither one has a tower. So, there's not much cost moving anything. The TCY airport could continue as its present size, complete with aerobatic box and all.
I don't see any value coming from the TCY airport. From one website I read that, "Without city staff's support for growth, basic infrastructure and maintenance, the airport ultimately will have little or no value to the residents of Tracy and therefore holds no value for business to grow there, he
wrote."
One of the airport runways back up to a water canal. Tesla Road (actually Corral Hollow) is on the other side. The other is up against the Basalite factory. You really can't expand either of the airport runways.
You're right about the FBO though. Years ago someone said they would put a restaurant out there at TCY. And that hasn't happened either. So this shows (over the last few years) there is no direct correlation to prove that business can benefit from spending money on an airport in that location.
Moving it wouldn't cost a dime. Just have the county inmates continue to patch the NJ runway. And continue operations in the current capacity without spending more money on TCY.
When business can support the New Jerasulem airport. Widen the runway from 60' to 100' and extend the runway as needed. The NJ airport has more acerage for hangers. There is only so much room for hangers at TCY. I just don't see TCY as a place for expansion. Jumbo jets, etc. It doesn't make sense. Does it?
Anyway, that's just my opinion for how to save money and it simply involves not spending more money on TCY and redirecting future funding to the New Jerasulem airport. Nothing has to move. So it wont really cost the taxpayers a dime.
You need to re-read your original posting.
You did complain that the City did not market or advertise their airport and did not attend the Bean Festival.
You believe in wasting money too if you think the City should spend tens of millions of tax payers dollars to close a perfectly good airport and build a new one out at New Jerusalem where the city owns a piece of land that is considered an airport only because it has a strip of asphalt on it.
After you build the new airport, then taxpayers get to close the old one, which will require millions more of ILovePeppermint's tax dollars to pay back to the FAA the airport-grants the city has received over the last 20 years.
You made another Moronic comment about lawsuits going away if the airport moved. What lawsuit are you talking about. In the most recent decision to kill Ellis, was the word "airport" even mentioned? No -- the decision was based on the City trying to do something that Measure A, a measure passed by the citizens of this community, did not allow.
You made another Moronic comment about the FCC giving the airport a tower. The FCC has nothing to do with airports other than licensing the radios. The FAA controls what goes on at airport.
You make more Moronic comments about the FBO. An FBO has nothing to do with landing aircraft. An FBO is a private company located on airports that service, sell, or rent airplanes.
You continue to show your Moronic tendencies when you comment on chartering aircraft. My point is that the cost of business and pleasure trips via chartered aircraft makes sense to many people. That 14 of us in our neighborhood flew up to Eugene for a football game shows that you don't have to be a millionaire. Flying commercial airlines to Eugene would have required taking a day off of work so we would be there on Saturday morning, and spending two nights in a hotel plus meals due to airline scheduling, extra days on the rental car, plus another $500 per person for airfare. We still would have had to drive to Sacramento, pay parking, and screw around with security, plus change planes in Portland before arriving in Eugene. That totals at least a $1,000 per person. Add in another $600 bucks or more in lost earnings for the workday you had to take off and you are now up to $1600 dollars per person. We paid less than that by chartering, didn't waste time, and had a great time.
I'm having trouble following the rest of your Moronic comments. You mention Tesla Road which is miles from the airport. You mention cars on the runways, you mention flying out of Livermore, but why do that when we live in Tracy and have a perfectly good, paid-for airport here. You mention financial bleeding and lawsuits, but what lawsuits and what financial bleeding are you talking about, other than the financial bleeding that would occur if the city had to pay the FAA back for all the grant money they have received, plus pay off loans for existing hangars and other airport structures.
Moving the airport to New Jerusalem makes sense only if you ignore the costs to taxpayers, and I just don't think that any taxpayer wants to go down that road.
It might cost a lot of millions to extend a runway (pavement rated at over 100,000 pounds) right smack dab, into the parking lot of the Basalite factory and another $40 million for the tower so you could watch them big jets land on the Basalite factory roof?
Right?
And, if the FCC won't give an airport tower this should tell you something more about the future of the airport. And just because YOU can land with FBO doesn't mean others can do the same - at the same time. Just be sure the rental car isn't out there waiting for you on the runway, flight line, etc - when you are flying blind into the sun with FBO. That's my advice because there's no tower to warn you of any of any obstacles in inclement weather. A deer, a fox, a stray dog?
Good luck to you !
And (at ten times the cost) the COST to charter a small airplane is only worth it if your neighbor has a group of 14 people. Just like you said. Make sure to give them the neighborly discount. How do I get in on that deal?
Honestly, if you want an airport, I would move it to the New Jerusalem airport, which is also owned by Tracy. Otherwise, like I said, if a 747 tried to land at the current Tracy airport, they would have a new opening on the third story of the Basalite factory, which is located, right there, at the end of the runway extension the author of the letter wrote about. I don't blame you for saying the airport runway "isn't worthy of discussion" and I clearly agree with you on it.
Because the opening a jet airplane would create at the end of the runway (in the Basalite factory) is NOT the kind of opening where you put a job application in the paper. We are not going to create jobs this way. And with fourteen people flying to a state regional competition, that may make sense, but why can't they fly out of Livermore? Anyway, you probably wouldn't give me the same discount, as your neighbor, after reading my response, here?
And you cannot extend the other runway which is facing away from the Ellis development because it would end up crossing Tesla Road. If the FCC wont give you a tower then I really doubt they would extend that runway across Tesla Road.
The city should do themselves a favor and move the airport to NJ or just shut it down. Preferably my thinking (right now) would be to shut it down to reduce spending and lawsuits.
Maybe the New Jerusalem airport could be an option? We all know the current airport isn't going to go anywhere except to be used as a political football. Especially when the airport cannot ever be expanded. The airport is a dead end street with no future, which I likened to an "island" and a political football.
PUNT!!!
Besides, shutting down the airport would save the cost of financial bleeding and lawsuits. There are a lot of synergies to be considered there.
Either way, I could still charter an airplane for 14 at Livermore or several other airports.
And considering we can't afford schools, but we can afford to shuttle 14 of your neighbors. Weighing the costs I'd say the needs of the many outweigh the needs of just 14.
It's my opinion that fourteen people using an airport that will never expand (when we have another airport that could extend) is a very big rabbit hole.
Also, many of our "heads of government" would take a serious pay cut or leave. We can no longer afford so much administration.
I moved to Tracy 7 years ago and brought my job and employees with me mainly because of the airport. Convenient, great flying weather, clean affordable hangars, competitive fuel prices, and in recent years, it has been well managed. It is the home of a great FBO, and has well maintained runways.
Like 95% of the airports in the country, it has no control tower, but it does have 4 or 5 published instrument approach procedures that allow you to land in very-low visibility conditions. There is no relationship between the presence of a control tower and a pilot's ability to land in inclement weather.
You seem to be worried about the economy but question why the City, who owns the airport, does not spend money on marketing it. I'm sure that expensive events, expensive marketing and advertising would not be well received by any taxpayer but you. And yes, the City, who is a big sponsor of the Bean Festival, does attend the Bean Festival. Every activity guide published by the city talks about the airport, and the FBO has actively participated in the Bean Festival, and Chamber events.
Although I am an airplane owner, I also charter aircraft when the distance or the number of passengers requires it. Chartering an airplane and being able to leave from Tracy is wonderful. I do it, my neighbors do it, and my employees do it for both business and personal travel. We don't do it all the time, but for example, a group of 14 of my neighbors chartered a Beach 1900 to attend a recent University of Oregon football game in Eugene and it was wonderful and affordable. We left in the morning, rode a few miles to the stadium, had a nice lunch and some football-beverages, enjoyed the game, spent longer than anticipated riding back to the airport, but the plane was ready for takeoff the moment we got there, and we arrived back in Tracy a few hours after we left the stadium. The weather was cloudy and misty when we approached Tracy, but we were able to safely land on runway 12 using the RNAV GPS instrument approach which has you descending to about 275 feet over the infamous Ellis development. All of us were back to our homes in less than 10 minutes after landing.
I also have family members, and business associates who charter aircraft to visit Tracy because of the convenience. Successful people find that the cost of chartering makes sense, but it depends on what your time is worth to you. If both you and your spouse have well paying jobs, then the idea of taking off a day of work to drive to the airport, mess around with parking, mess with luggage, mess with security, wait for frequently delayed planes, just to fly to an airport that may not be exactly where you want end up at, then messing again with luggage, shuttle buses, rental cars, driving sometime hours to your final destination makes no sense. Then you get to do it all thing over again on your trip back home.
When I depart from Tracy, either in my own plane or in a charter, I have a 5 minute drive that gets me to the side of the aircraft for luggage handling, a 1 minute drive back to free parking, a 2 minute walk back to the plane, and it takes off as soon as I and all my party step on board. We fly non-stop to our final destination (Eugene OR, Sun River OR, Sun Valley ID, Sedona AZ, Williams AZ to name a few charter trips from the past three years). Even at most of the tiny airports, Enterprise rent a car pulls right up to the plane, luggage is put directly into the car's trunk and you are at your hotel in minutes. And when you are ready to leave, the plane leaves on your schedule. A three day trip is three days of fun or three days or productive business meetings, not two days of screwing around with the airlines and one day doing what you went on the trip for in the first place.
The runway extension at Tracy airport is not an issue worthy of discussion at this time. It would allow some of the larger jets to land, but I don't believe the city or the FAA will ever find that project move to the top of their funding priority.
Why would you build an airport extension? The airport doesn't even have an airport tower. People can't land in inclement weather without a airport tower. Therefore any idea of extending the runway seems like it would be a waste of money. Most people don't even know that we have an airport. The airport does not market any events, or advertise in the paper, or even attend the bean festival so if you told people we have an airport runway extension they would probably shrug their shoulders and yawn. The place is more like an island than an airport.
WHEN PIGS FLY
To be honest we will probably have a housing market turn around before we would have any need an airport extension. Unless livestock somehow learn to fly. Maybe to that there "convention" idea? But seriously, I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for that to happen.
Now if you go over to the Bay Area where taxes are a little higher you can get a plane ticket for TEN TIMES LESS than what it might cost to charter an airplane at this airport.
Who in their right mind would pay ten times the cost to charter an airplane to go to a "convention" on what exactly?
And who on earth believes in open government? Did you ever attend a city council meeting and after only a 1/2 hour most people are already out the door, or falling asleep. We don't need more of that. Just sign the checks and ell us if there's enough money. If not shut down the airport.
That will save another 80k and another floozy's lawsuit.
At what point are we paying these people to much? Somethings just needs to change at City Hall. To much fat at the top and not enough people asking questions.