AMA-EPA Superfund Site Success Story - 2006/12

AMA-EPA
S u p e r f u n d
Site Success
Story
The circles are to the right and ahead with a great deal of room
for expansion. The field measures 230 x 690 feet.
Keith Sandberg gives Ryan Heath some dual instruction in
aerobatics. At 12, Ryan is the youngest member of the Piston
Poppers.
At the upper end of this photo you can see the first of two
circles ready to be used. Note the rolling noise camouflage
system just beyond the field.
APRIL 26, 2006, at 2:16 p.m. the first flight lifted off from our
club’s new flying site. It’s a simple enough statement, but as
Paul Harvey says, “Now let me tell you the rest of the story.”
Did you ever have the feeling that things were going too well?
The year 2005 had been that kind of year for the Minneapolis
Piston Poppers in Minnesota, with a few small bumps in the
road but many good things happening.
At the top of that list was many great flying sessions at our
meticulously groomed flying site. For the first time in years the
local police had had no noise complaints—something that had
been an ongoing challenge. Ah, yes. It was the last day of
September and all was right with the world!
Then the phone rang. It was Keith Sandberg, our club’s site
coordinator for the old flying field. He had just gotten a letter
from the college where our site was located.
“This letter is to serve as 30 days notice,” it read.
Just like that our facility of 14 years would be gone. The only
good part was that flying in Minnesota after the end of October
is an uncommon activity.
Suddenly our club priorities changed from growth to
survival. At the top of the list was trying to spot a possible site.
Keep in mind that once the snow flies up here it’s almost
impossible to tell what you’re looking at.
Keith happened to notice what appeared to be an abandoned
softball diamond in an industrial area. After taking a quick look
at it, I agreed with him that it would have great potential if we
could get it.
A few inquiries indicated that the possible site and the
surrounding industrial property were in the process of being
sold. That’s when we learned that this was an old Superfund site
that was cleaned and sealed in the 1980s.
The Piston Poppers was formed in 1960 and became an AMA
Charter Club early in its history. I’m the only active original
by Jeff Welliver
& FLYING FIELDS
F i n d i n g K e e p i n g
December 2006 55
12sig2.QXD 10/25/06 9:56 AM Page 5556 MODEL AVIATION
Keith Sandberg chops away at the old backstop. The members
invested much “sweat equity” in bringing their field to completion.
Ivars Greizens and Jim Ehlen watch as the Bobcat lifts out an
existing backstop post. The fence on the left is the north border.
That dual instruction must have paid off!
Ryan Heath flies by himself.
Enjoying the fruits of their labor, these Piston Poppers members take a well-earned
rest. Nice job, guys!
member, having been at the first meeting at age 15, and this is
my second stint as president; the first was roughly 35 years ago.
Sometimes it’s tough to get the timing right!
In 61 years you manage to learn a couple things, and one high
on my list is to never try to “reinvent the wheel.” Knowing our
old site was always at risk, I’d been reading the “Flying Site
Assistance” columns in MA for sometime, and the recent
publicity about the new AMA-Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) partnership regarding the use of Superfund sites as flying
fields suddenly stood out like a neon sign.
Contacting AMA was the next step. We got in touch with
Wes DeCou, who appeared to be our regional flying-site
coordinator. But because of a redrawing of the east-west zone
lines, Wes referred me to eastern-region coordinator Joe Beshar.
Wes kept in touch and provided much encouragement along the
line.
Have you ever wondered what you get for your AMA
membership dues besides the magazine and a card in your wallet
or what your club gets for going through the effort to be an
AMA chartered club? There is no way to overstate the
importance of your AMA chartered-club status when you need to
deal with problems such as the one my club had.
When I called Joe Beshar, there was no need to “prove”
anything or establish credentials as a club; chartered status says
it all. By meeting AMA standards as a chartered club, you
establish that you are a responsible organization. It’s that
simple.
After only a brief conversation, Joe immediately sent me the
AMA site-program information package and put me in direct
contact with Tom Bloom: the Superfund Redevelopment
Initiative Coordinator for the EPA in our district, working out
of Chicago, Illinois.
My reception from Mr. Bloom was warm and enthusiastic.
From the first sentence on the telephone, the strength of the
AMA-EPA partnership was clear. Being a chartered club and
being referred by AMA and Joe Beshar told Mr. Bloom all he
needed to know. At that point we became a part of his life, and
this would not be the last time I’d be pleasantly surprised by
the strength and ability of this pairing.
Photos by the author
12sig2.QXD 10/25/06 9:39 AM Page 56One of the most impressive things
about the Superfund program was that
Mr. Bloom clearly had access to good
information about aeromodeling and
flying-site requirements. Ours was the
first CL club he had dealt with, yet he
was almost instantly up to speed on our
special requirements.
The Superfund site in question was
surrounded on three sides by secured
property including a defense plant, a
railroad yard, and the fenced Superfund
burial vault area, so any kind of departure
of a model from the site might have
created major problems. It was unusable
for RC or FF, but it was perfect for CL.
Another bit of good fortune was that
Mr. Bloom had been closely involved in
the original Superfund cleanup program
on this site and remembered it in detail.
Things were starting to look up as we
headed into winter.
At this point it was decided that the
best approach would be for Mr. Bloom to
determine who the best contacts would be
and likely also make the first call. It was
here when we discovered that the site and
the entire plant adjoining it were being
sold, so contact with the owner would
have to wait until the dust cleared on the
property sale.
Meanwhile, Joe Beshar kept in
contact, provided encouragement, and
monitored progress. Mr. Bloom cleared
the way with the various federal and state
personnel involved with the site so that
there would be no obstacles when the sale
was completed.
On our end, contact was made with the
city to make sure about ordinances and
noise requirements. It is impossible to
overstate the impact of the AMA-EPA
partnership when looking for a site.
Simply mentioning this relationship to
anyone in local government establishes
your respectability and legitimacy.
At this point the club gave me the
authority to speak and negotiate for it,
meaning that I could make decisions so
we could move forward quickly. This is
critical in person-to-person negotiations
with busy business people.
The land involved was zoned Heavy
Industrial. In the city involved that means
in case of a noise complaint all we have
to do is be less than 75 decibels at the
property line of the person complaining.
To the east the closest homes are
approximately 1,700 feet from the site,
with the railroad yard in between. To the
west and 1,600 feet away, the nearest
homes have a major freeway adjoining
their back yards and a park full of trees
plus the Mississippi River and another
noisy four-lane road between us.
Although we won’t try it, a Dynajetpowered
model probably wouldn’t exceed
the noise standards. What a relief after
consistently monitoring (with written
logs) 90 decibels at 9 feet at the old site
for 14 years, where back yards were just
300 feet away from the circle.
The property sale was finally completed
in late February of this year. After
allowing a bit of time for the new owners
to settle in (and for my trip to the Vintage
Stunt Championships contest in Tucson,
Arizona, in March), it was time to
establish contact.
By this time Mr. Bloom had
determined who the new owners were and
the proper person to contact; it was the
vice president/chief operating officer of
the company. Mr. Bloom got in touch
with him, explained who he was and who
we were, explained the AMA-EPA
partnership and what we sought, and then
got the okay for me to approach him
directly.
Stop and think about that. You have
just bought a large piece of property with
a Superfund site attached, and the EPA
calls and suggests a great use for some of
that land. That is my idea of a strong
introduction!
At that point all those involved—
AMA, the EPA, the club, and the
property owner—were pulling in the
same direction. Since the site had been a
baseball diamond and soccer field, and
was actually being maintained although
rarely used, it was capable of
accommodating two circles exactly as it
sat. It was the club’s turn to take action.I have some suggestions covering what
worked well for us during our search-andnegotiation
process.
• Be patient. These processes develop a
kind of rhythm. Keep in touch but don’t
nag, and always follow through on your
promises. Try to establish a positive
working relationship.
• Study the AMA flying-site package
thoroughly. At first the 80-plus pages of
material ranging from letters and articles
to copies of site agreements will look
overwhelming. It is not. It is indexed,
logically sequenced, and provides
priceless insight and information from
years of solving the same kinds of
problems that face you.
• Do your homework as a club. Take the
time, as a club, to understand your needs,
goals, capabilities, and limitations. Spell
these out clearly so your site committee
and spokesperson know what they have to
work with.
• Make one person the contact and voice
of the club, and provide him or her with a
small support committee of two or three
people. Provide the representative with
the authority to speak and negotiate for
the club.
• As the process continues, make members
understand that not all of us get all we
want. Encourage them to let their
spokespeople do their jobs. Our club was
incredibly good about this, and it made a
world of difference.
As club contact, I had two other
committee members backing me up. Even
now most of the principal people involved
have never spoken to or been in any kind
of direct contact with anyone else from
the club.
This is not some kind of ego issue; it’s
good business and simplifies the process
of working things out. Choose someone in
your club who can make decisions and
then set things up so he or she can do so.
It happened that my first call to the site
owner was during a meeting. Since he had
already spoken to Mr. Bloom and saw it
was me on caller ID, he interrupted the
meeting to talk to me. That gives you
some idea of the strength of an EPA
referral. We quickly agreed that I would
provide him with written details via Email
and then call him in 10 days when he
got back from a trip out of town.
What I sent him was a couple pages
long and briefly explained what we
sought. It also explained what I call the
“triangular relationship.”
Picture Mr. Bloom and the EPA at the
top, acting as the point. As you drop
down, the next level widens to the AMAEPA
partnership. Dropping down to the
even wider next line shows AMA, the
Charter Club program, and requirements
for the clubs, including legal structure,
safety, individual AMA membership
requirements, and, of prime importance,
site-owner’s insurance coverage.
At the bottom, the widest line of the
triangle, is the broad base of roughly
160,000 AMA members, including your
own club members. That first call to Mr.
Bloom could not have occurred had it not
been for all these components.
By carefully emphasizing the
interlocking relationship in which each
level of the triangle must meet standards
to be a part of the whole, the site owner
can see a logical assurance of proper
protection for him from liabilities and that
his property will be used in an appropriate
manner.
For us to provide him with that
Certificate of Insurance he knows that our
club and its members meet certain
standards, and that in order to offer siteowner
coverage to clubs, AMA must
maintain and enforce those standards.
And the site owner knows that the EPA
would certainly not enter a partnership
with AMA and its members if it were not
fully confident that all those standards
were being met on an ongoing basis.
The site owner can be assured that his
copy of the Certificate of Insurance is
also his guarantee that we, the people whowill be on his property, are meeting those
standards. Last, he is promised that if that
status changes and the insurance is
canceled, he will be notified promptly. In
reality, we are adding the prestige and
reputation of AMA and the EPA to our
own.
The site-owner’s board saw this
concept and agreed to move forward on
that basis. On his return we set up our
first face-to-face meeting. After only a
few minutes of discussion in the office
we went out onto the site and talked
about what our needs would be.
To simplify matters I offered to draw
up a simple agreement in the form of a
Letter of Authorization for the use of the
site. This is a simple two-page document
showing what each party’s obligations
and rights would be.
The Letter of Authorization for the
land use specifies that the Piston Poppers
remain an AMA chartered club and
provide the insurance certificate, requires
that we operate within applicable laws,
stipulates what changes we can make to
the site itself, and lists our obligations
regarding maintenance.
A review by a club member who is an
attorney indicated no problems with the
Letter of Authorization. It is not a lease
and no money changed hands. It is simple
and straightforward. A copy will be
available through AMA and will
probably become part of the flying-site
packet.
After our member/attorney quickly ran
the document past his legal department, it
was just a matter of our getting together,
working out a few minor details, and
signing it. We had gone ahead and
activated site insurance a few days before
so we could use the site right away.
One of the few hitches was that the
insurance broker had mailed the
certificate to our club secretary, who was
out of town at the time. A call was made
to Club Secretary Lois Pierce at AMA
Headquarters, and in less than 10 minutes
she had gotten a copy of the letter from
the broker and faxed it to the site owner.
I’ve dealt with Lois several times, and
there’s no way to say enough about her
willingness to help. It would be nice if
every organization could provide the kind
of service that seems to be the standard at
AMA Headquarters.
A few minutes after 1 p.m. on April 26,
2006, and just more than an hour after the
certificate was sent, I had the pleasure of
lifting the first model off of our new
flying site!
As you can see in the pictures, the
club removed the old baseball backstop
and did some basic cleanup. The owner
provided a dumpster and hauled away the
rubble. We mow and maintain the grass
on the site and do our best to keep it neat.
We moved the circle center pads from
the old site to the new facility. They are
5-foot-diameter, 5-inch-thick concrete
slabs and were a challenge to move
safely since they weigh probably 600
pounds each. Still, it was easier than
pouring new ones. It’s a shame no one
thought to take pictures of that process.
Was it all worth it? You bet! The former
site was nice, but we could use it only on
Sundays and after 4 p.m. on Wednesdays.
Worse yet, we could never allow more
than two engines to run at once and
always needed someone to keep an
activity log with noise readings.
Now we fly any day after 10 a.m., run
as many engines as we want, and only
check the noise level periodically. At the
homes nearest our site the club’s noise
meters don’t even twitch, and both start
at 50 decibels. It is almost impossible to
hear our activities at all near any of the
homes in either direction; there is only a
rare buzz for a second or so.
Obtaining this field was not only a big
deal for our club, but it was an important
EPA milestone. This site is the first
success story generated by the AMAEPA
partnership.
The EPA felt that it was important
enough to memorialize this event by
taking photographs of the site and our
flying and meeting and interviewing the
people involved. With the help of great
weather and enthusiastic club members,
the EPA personnel had a great and
educational time, including a little dual
time on the handle.
This material will be used internally
by EPA as part of the partnership and
shared with other AMA clubs and local
communities that can benefit from our
experience. It may also be usedfor press
releases when appropriate.
I’ll close with some thank yous. First of
all to Joe Beshar, Lois Pierce, Wes
DeCou, and all other AMA people who
made this success possible through their
work with us on this project and the longterm
growth and refinement of AMA’s
Flying Site Assistance Program.
I can’t say enough thanks to the
EPA’s Tom Bloom for his tireless efforts
on our behalf or to our site owner, whose
open-minded attitude allowed it all to
come together. Thanks also to each of
you as individual AMA members.
Without your loyalty and continuing
support of AMA—our organization—
programs such as the AMA-EPA
partnership would be impossible.
Finally, thanks to the Piston Poppers
members for your patience and
confidence during the process. And
thanks for the time since then for your
hard work to make it into a great place
to fly.
That is “The rest of the story.” MA
Jeff Welliver