by John Dowd
A few weeks ago, on June 2, the Stevensville Town Council held a special meeting to discuss extending a maintenance contract for the point of sale system for fuel at the Stevensville Airport. During this meeting, the former airport manager stood several times to speak out against the Town and the extension of any contract at the airport. During the Town Council meeting on June 12, the current Airport Manager, Brian Germane, rebutted those claims, and the Town moved forward on a decision.
Germane discussed the point of sale system, Fuelmaster Fuel Management System, and said the company, Fuelmaster, normally only does a year-long agreement for maintenance. This includes setting up the system, equipment maintenance, new and updated equipment and more. However, upon discussing the airport’s unique situation, the company agreed to do a six-month maintenance agreement, to allow the airport to turn over the “fuel farm” to the Town.
For clarification, Germane explained that “fuel farm” refers to everything involved with storing and selling fuel. He also clarified some background, describing how the prior owner of the fuel farm, and the fuel tank, was discontinuing service to Stevensville. The airport has since been making efforts to provide their own fuel farm.
The claims made by the former airport manager included concern over the Town entering into any agreement when the ownership of the tank and fuel farm were in question. At that special town council meeting, the decision was tabled until all parties could investigate the previous airport manager’s claims.
For context, Germane and members of the town administration spoke on the background of the tank ownership, from records. According to them, the tank was originally owned by Hawthorne, and they managed the entire fuel farm. Hawthorne decided it was no longer financially viable for them to continue to provide and maintain the fuel offered at the Stevensville Airport. The Stevensville Airport then decided to look into what it would take to have their own tank and fuel farm, so they contacted another company called City Services Inc. to query them about what all might be involved.
In the process, City Services Inc. said they might be interested in purchasing the tank, and already having a relationship with Hawthorne, decided to reach out of their own volition. City Services Inc. then purchased the tank from Hawthorne. They then offered to lease the tank to the airport until Stevensville could get its own tank.
Stevensville was then able to take advantage of a temporary decrease in required match funds, permitted by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), to access FAA funds for several projects. Chief of these was the purchase of a new tank. The airport would then need to wait for the FAA funds to release the funds, and in the meantime would lease the tank from City Services Inc.
Meanwhile, the airport was also able to contact Fuelmaster and convince them to shorten their traditional term agreement for the point of sale system utilized at the Stevensville Airport. That agreement was the question of concern at both the June 2 special Town Council meeting and the June 12 regular Town Council meeting.
On June 12, Germane and the council discussed their findings. It was discovered that there was no truth behind the allegations of a dispute. There was no documentation of any sale of the fuel tank other than the sale from Hawthorne to City Services Inc. Germane added that a dispute would in fact have no bearing on the Town, were it real or not, as any such agreement would be between external parties regarding ownership; the town would not be involved.
“We are really removed from that,” said Germane. Because the claims were unsubstantiated, the town council moved forward to unanimously approve the shortened agreement with Fuelmaster.
Moving forward, the Town will be leasing the tank from City Services Inc., and will start operating the point of sale themselves. As soon as they are able to construct their own tank, they will no longer need to lease the City Services Inc. tank. Germane spoke highly of City Services Inc., saying they were “gracious,” and searched for the “solution that benefited everybody.”
To other claims made by the former airport manager, Germane said the Town of Stevensville, and the Stevensville Airport, have so far “acted reasonably and appropriately,” every step of the way. He said this just “shows our commitment to the safe and responsible operation of this airport.”