The decision was announced Monday by Santa Barbara County 4th District Supervisor Joni Gray.  “Caltrans can now advertise for construction bids,” Gray said in a statement. “A contract is expected to be awarded in August, and construction should start by the end of summer.”  Construction on the interchange is expected to be completed in December 2013.

Plans for the Union Valley Parkway project and accompanying interchange have been in process since the 1960s, and work on the road project — a joint venture of the county and the city of Santa Maria — began in 1997.

In April, the county paved the way for eminent domain proceedings against Wal-Mart Stores Inc. on three parcels that comprise 70 percent of the right of way necessary to finish the road project, which would provide a key roadway link from Highway 101 to South Blosser Road near the Santa Maria Regional Airport when complete.  The county is responsible for obtaining the right of way for the final leg of the project, and the city of Santa Maria will handle the road construction.

Based on 2005 traffic counts, the new Highway 101 interchange would see 10,000 vehicles a day once it’s opened, according to the county, and the UVP corridor is expected to carry between 16,000 and 19,000 vehicles a day between Highway 135 and Highway 101.

The state transportation commission approved the county Association of Government’s request for the $6.1 million on Thursday. The money comes from Proposition 1B funds and will be matched by $6.1 million in local Measure A sales tax money.  The measure was overwhelmingly approved by county voters in 2008 and authorized continuation of a half-cent sales tax for transportation infrastructure improvements in the county.

The interchange project includes construction of a bridge over Highway 101 at the east end of Union Valley Parkway, with on and off ramps connecting the road to the freeway both north and southbound.

Access to Orcutt is now provided by two freeway interchanges at Clark Avenue and Santa Maria Way.

Chris Hastert, general manager at Santa Maria Airport, said in a statement that access to Highway 101 will be another tool to attract business to the area as the Santa Maria Public Airport District moves forward with a future business park.

Staff report, Santa Maria Times | Posted: Tuesday, May 1, 2012

“All of the native grasses and seed you have out there, I requested one thing — California poppies. You look out there now and you’ll see poppies and lupines,” Engel said. “Somebody asked me why I wanted it, I told them when I go up in space, I want to be able to look down and see that orange spot.”  Restoring native habitat surrounding the runway that was torn up during construction was always part of the project. Engel’s suggestion just added a dash of orange and purple to the color palette.

The effort to extend the main runway at the airport to 8,004 feet began around 10 years ago when the district began considering preparation of an environmental impact report for a 700-foot extension. That project grew into the current extension that is now on final approach.

“Basically, the runway extension is an integral part of our plan to develop the airport and to provide services to the public,” Engel said. “By adding this runway we’re going to open up doors we haven’t opened before.”  By extending the runway to its maximum length while staying on airport property, and developing its business park, Engel said the airport district is assuring its long-term financial health. 

Actual construction of the two-phase project took off in 2010. It won’t be completely finished until May 31, according to General Manager Chris Hastert.

“The morning of (May 3) it’s open with two (Instrument Flight Rules) approaches, which is the non-precision approach (VOR) and the Global Positioning System (GPS) approach,” Hastert said. “Our instrument landing system, they’re still working on right now. It’s still scheduled for May 31 for the instrument landing system, so we’ll be fully open after that.”

After navigating the project through unexpected turbulence with the Federal Aviation Administration and construction obstacles, Hastert said he had hoped to be the first to land on the new asphalt, but he won’t be able to do that. He’ll be out of the area when the runway begins accepting aircraft.

“It’s going to be a great feeling, especially for being able to offer up the airport to the industry for Allegiant with Hawaii, or the (U.S.) Forest Service with the DC-10. They’ve been hearing about this for years and years and years. Now we can say yes, you can use it,” he said.  Allegiant Air currently flies to Las Vegas from Santa Maria, and the airport will serve as a reloading base for firefighting planes needing retardant during the fire season.

The airport Board of Directors will consider a pair of change orders related to the extension project when they meet Thursday at 7 p.m. at the airport administration building.  Both are with general contractor Granite Construction, which handled both phases of the project.

The first change order covers some work in the project that didn’t match bid estimates, such as how much asphalt was used and how much excavation was required to finish the project. The project required 414 tons more asphalt than estimated, at $113 per ton. Hastert said the adjustment was small, considering the entire project took 14,000 tons of asphalt. 

The second will provide the district with a bit of a discount on the overall cost of the runway pavement, Hastert said.  Not all of the pavement passed the exacting FAA standards, so the district won’t be charged full bid price for the job.  “It’s a performance-based (specification). The FAA spec is almost impossible to pass,” he said. “There were a couple of areas that were not quite up to full spec, but still well within the limit for good asphalt.”

The board will also consider annual salary increases, which Hastert said are tied to the consumer price index, for both management and non-management employees.

By Brian Bullock/Staff Writer bbullock@santamariatimes.com Santa Maria Times | Posted: Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Sunni Gibbons has been many things throughout her 71 years — daughter, wife, mother, artist, graphic designer, businesswoman, pilot, volunteer and grandmother. Intertwined with all of them has been a love of aviation and a desire to fly.

In June, Gibbons, a licensed pilot since 1996, will be inducted into the Ninety-Nines Forest of Friendship, a living memorial in Atchison, Kansas not far from the home of aviation pioneer and heroine Amelia Earhart. The memorial earns its name by having a tree from each of the 50 states and 35 countries where the honorees reside.

Gibbons is a member of the Santa Maria Valley chapter of the Ninety-Nines, an international organization of women pilots. Along with the other 2012 nominees, she will join the likes of Earhart, Orville and Wilbur Wright, Charles Lindbergh, Chuck Yeager, General James Doolittle, Jeana Yeager, Sally Ride and Col. Eileen M. Collins, the first woman to pilot a U.S. space shuttle, who are honored in the forest.

“There are many big names there and a lot of smaller local names like those of us here,” Gibbons said, adding fellow Santa Maria Valley Ninety-Nines Diane Pirman and the late Pat Rowe are also honored in the forest. “We all have the common love of aviation and our contributions there are part of our lifestyle and the legacy you leave.”

Gibbons’ contributions to aviation are considerable, and include 85 missions for Angel Flight West, a volunteer-driven organization that offers free air travel for children and adults in need of transportation to distant hospitals for medical treatments.

The energetic Gibbons is also heading up coordination of the Santa Maria Valley Ninety-Nines Memorial Park to honor women in aviation history, including local Ninety-Nines Katherine Hulme and Wilma Poage.  Hulme was the museum’s first director. Poage also served as director and came up with the idea for the park, but died from breast cancer before seeing it become reality.

It really didn’t surprise any of the local Ninety-Nines that Gibbons took over the park project when it was proposed.  “She’s the kind of gal when you start talking about doing something, she’s like ‘I can do that.’ And she does,” said  Pat Viker, one of the Santa Maria Valley Ninety-Nines who nominated Gibbons for the honor. “She’s done so much for our chapter.”

Gibbons has used her artistic talent — she earned a bachelor’s degree at the University of Washington and a master’s degree in fine arts at San Jose State University — to design numerous logos for other Ninety-Nines chapters in the southwest region. She is an accomplished artist, painting in both watercolor and oils.

She also designed the Katherine Hume Memorial Trophy, an award annually presented by the Ninety-Nines at the Thunder Over the Valley air show.

Gibbons was probably destined to be a pilot. She was a Navy kid whose father, Jack Odbert, was a navigator on the USS Lexington in 1937 during its search for Earhart, after she and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared over the South Pacific during her attempt to circumnavigate the globe.  While Odbert served in the U.S. Navy, Gibbons, her sisters and mother Trudi hopscotched from base to base including stops in San Diego, Alaska, Florida, Virginia, Spain, Morocco and North Africa.

When the Santa Maria Ninety-Nines honored Gibbons for her induction to the Forest of Friendship, they brought nearly all of her family to Santa Maria to share the moment, including her son Travis Schweizer, a Navy SEAL, who was attending school in Rhode Island.

“That was the most precious and wonderful surprise ever. The acknowledgment was absolutely stunning and thrilling, and to have them bring my family here — all four of my kids, five of my grandkids, some of the other families, my sisters — it was just the most exciting thing ever. I have never had such a wonderful experience in my life,” Gibbons said, her voice wavering with emotion.

Next to her family, flying is what excites Gibbons most. She flies her beloved Piper Cherokee 235 to both San Diego and the San Francisco Bay Area visit her children and mother.   “It’s kind of like flying a cocker spaniel. It’s got a lot of power, but it’s very gentle,” she said, almost affectionately. “Flying is the juice that keeps us going. This wonderful thing. You lift off and leave everything behind. It’s just such a lovely, lovely thing.”

By Brian Bullock/Staff Writer bbullock@santamariatimes.com Santa Maria Times | Posted: Monday, April 2, 2012

The project had been scheduled for completion by April 5, but because of delays the full 8,000-foot runway won’t be open to air traffic until May 3, and it won’t be certified by the Federal Aviation Administration until May 31, according to General Manager Chris Hastert.

The airport Board of Directors will get an update when it meets today at 7 p.m. at the airport Administration Building. It will consider a contract amendment with AECOM to push the finish date from Feb. 29 to May 31.

Hastert said the FAA has had several delays in relocating the airport’s navigational aids which has resulted in the deadline extension. Once the Instrument Landing System equipment is placed and flight checked, the FAA will publish its certification.  Those certifications are only published every 56 days, which accounts for the length of the delay. Hastert said the setback is really pretty minor in the long run.  “Overall on a multi-phase project only being held by 56 days isn’t too bad,” he said.

The two-phase project has run into several setbacks since beginning in 2010 including a political wrangling in Washington D.C. that temporarily suspended the Federal Aviation Administration’s operating authority last summer.

The $11 million project has been funded by grants through the FAA’s Airport Improvement Program and when legislators suspended the agency’s operating authority, $2.5 billion in airport construction grants were frozen and 150 stop work orders were issued.

That hiccup pushed the anticipated completion of the second phase of the project from October 2010 into 2011.  However once it started, the second phase moved along smoothly with Granite Construction handling the paving portion of the extension. Relocating the electronics has caused the delay.

Hastert said the airport is shooting for a grand opening celebration in early May.

The board will also consider a 9-month extension of the contract held by CJJ Farming, which leases approximately 114 acres of airport land near Highway 135 and Skyway Drive. The company has been farming the land since 2000.

By Brian Bullock / Staff Writer / bbullock@santamariatimes.com Santa Maria Times | Posted: Thursday, March 22, 2012

A registration form can be downloaded from the Vapor Trail Vettes website — www.vaportrailvettes.com or online at MotorsportReg.com. The cost to register runs from $40 to $60 depending on when you register and if you are a member of the National Council of Corvette Clubs. 

Check-in & and Tech Inspections will run from 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.  There is a mandatory drivers meeting at 9:30 a.m. with the first car heading out at 9:45 a.m. All registered cars must be at the gate no later than 9:00 a. m.

For additional information, contact Gale Haugen at 773-4515, email galehaugen@charter.net, John Mahoney at 937-1414 614-0503, jd.mahoney@verizon.net or Chuck Jennings at 459-7416, cocourschuck@gmail.com

The Vapor Trail Vettes will be donating a $500 scholarship to a student of the Hancock College Automotive Technology Program from money raised at this event.

Santa Maria Times | Posted: Thursday, March 15, 2012 12:00 am

Rafferty will serve on the Education Committee and the Elections and Bylaws Committee for 2012.

The California Special Districts Association provides legislative advocacy, education and member services for the approximately 900 special districts in California.

Rafferty also currently serves as chairman of the board of Coast Hills Federal Credit Union.

Posted: Sunday, March 4, 2012

The board voted to contribute an extra $12,000 to the annual air show this year to bring in more aerobatics attractions, which have yet to be booked. That money is in addition to its annual $15,000 contribution for safety and security.

Thunder Over the Valley is scheduled for Aug. 24 to 26, 2012.

“It looks this year like it’s working out to be a good show,” General Manager Chris Hastert said in recommending the contribution to the board.

Museum of Flight President Mike Geddry Sr. echoed Hastert’s comment.  “I put 2,000 miles on my car over the Christmas holiday to make sure it will be good,” he said.

In addition to the traditional warbirds fly-by and the Santa Maria Valley 99s flight to honor Amelia Earheart, a simulated dogfight between two World War II vintage planes is scheduled for the show.

Geddry said a V-22B Osprey from the Miramar Marine Corps Air Station also is scheduled to attend.  The large tilt-rotor aircraft combine the vertical takeoff capability of a helicopter with the range and high-speed performance of a turboprop personnel carrier.

Geddry said he hopes the show’s new attractions will increase attendance to record numbers. The show annually attracts around 8,000 visitors to the airport.

The board also approved a new lease for Artcraft Paint, Inc. It is an extension of the business’s current lease at its 3125 Liberator St. location. 

By Brian Bullock/Staff Writer/bbullock@santamariatimes.com Santa Maria Times | Posted: Friday, February 24, 2012

The Ninety-Nines, an international organization of licensed women pilots, has worked for 82 years to stretch those horizons, and its Santa Maria Valley chapter is developing a park to honor women in aviation history.

The park is a natural extension of the Runway of Roses in front of the Museum of Flight, which memorializes some of the local women pilots who have kept Earhart’s pioneering spirit flying over the Santa Maria Valley.  Katherine Hulme and Wilma Poage were two of those women. Hulme was the museum’s first executive director, while Poage and current museum director Mike Geddry came up with the idea for the park.

Geddry said it was a project whose time was overdue.  “When I go on vacation I go to a lot of museums and go to a lot of military installations because of our air show,” Geddry said. “One of the things I kept consistently seeing – I could go to 20 museums and one out of 20 has something about women aviators. And they’re a big contributor to aviation, especially during World War II when they were ferrying planes for the military and actually working in the factories taking the place of men. I’m not a male chauvinist. I believe they should get recognition.”

Poage became ill not long after being chosen to direct the museum, however, and died from breast cancer before her park project could be realized.

Sunni Gibbons and the rest of the local Ninety-Nines are now making sure Poage and other women in aviation are not forgotten.

Much like Earhart, who participated in the first Women’s Air Derby in 1929 which began in Santa Monica and ended in Cleveland, Poage, Gibbons, Diane Pirman, Pat Viker, Sonja Gerfen and Mary Ann King are Central Coast pilots who competed in the annual Palms to Pines Air Race. That race also starts in Santa Monica, CA and stretches to Bend, Ore.

Earhart and 98 other women went on to form the Ninety Nines.  “That was a courageous group of women,” said Pirman, a pilot since 1983 who participated in the Palms to Pines regularly until the race was discontinued in 2009. “There have been a lot of women who have set records in aviation who were not Ninety-Nines.”

Pirman said part of the Memorial Park of the Ninety-Nines will be a mural that will depict the contribution women have made to aviation history.  Pilots from Earhart to the Women’s Auxiliary Service Pilots who were instrumental during World War II, to Jeana Yeager who teamed with Dick Rutan in the first non-stop round-the-world flight, to the women of the Space Shuttle program will be part of the mural, Pirman said.

A display celebrating women aviators is also being assembled in the Museum of Flight, located at 3015 Airpark Drive in Santa Maria.

Much of the work on the front-yard-sized plot has already been completed. A weed-covered space near the Santa Maria Museum of Flight was cleared by Boy Scout Troop 87 and the donated plans of landscape contractor Jim Nishimori were turned into reality through the efforts of Andy Cardinal, who earned his Eagle Scout award for the effort.

Gibbons, whose grandfather was on the USS Lexington during its search for Earhart when her plane disappeared over the South Pacific in 1937, took over the project after Poage died.  She secured donations – aviation legend Clay Lacy provided $5,000 – and grants from the Santa Barbara Foundation and Woods Family to get the project going.

The local Ninety-Nines are seeking sponsorships for the tables and benches to be installed in the park. Memorial bricks will also line the meandering walkway through the area.  “We expect to have the bulk of it finished within the month. We will be dedicating it in September when the whole (Ninety-Nines) Southwest Section comes here for its meeting,” Gibbon said.

The fly-in will attract approximately 100 members for the Sept. 7-9 event.

 By Brian Bullock/Staff Writer bbullock@santamariatimes.com Santa Maria Times | Posted: Wednesday, February 1, 2012

The added flight is a bit of good news in a mixed report airport General Manager Chris Hastert received from Mead and Hunt, an aviation consulting firm.  The report showed that while the airline industry is still sputtering, the airport’s service with commercial air carriers United Express/Skywest and Allegiant compares favorably to other Western Region airports, which includes those in Arizona, Nevada, California and Hawaii.

The news comes as the industry recuperates from the recession that saw several companies struggle, and others forced to merge to stay aloft.

“I think overall the industry – there’s been a lot of bankruptcies and mergers and a lot of uncertainty of routes – so I don’t see any immediate opportunities for expansion. Although we continue to look for different opportunities and be present in the airlines’ minds if they’re looking at different sites to expand service out of,” said Hastert, who attended a conference in Phoenix earlier this month. “I just didn’t get a good feeling from them that they were looking to do much of that.”

Santa Maria’s commercial passenger carriers’ 2011 third quarter numbers sort of reflect the turbulence in the industry.  The load factor – which represents the number of passengers per available seats – dropped 8.6 percent from the third quarter of 2010, but was up over the second quarter of 2011.  The most startling decline was United Express/SkyWest’s Los Angeles service, which dropped 21 percent during the quarter.  That means fewer people were flying out of Santa Maria, but according to Mead and Hunt’s report, nine of the top 25 markets were down, with Denver, Colorado Springs, Salt Lake City and Sacramento all experiencing declines of at least 20 percent.

Santa Maria ranked 35th in the Western Region in the number of outbound passengers with 42,450 for the fiscal year ending in June 2011. Santa Barbara was 23rd with 340,270 flights and San Luis Obispo was 25th with 123,770 flights.

While passenger numbers have dropped, revenue has increased because fares have risen. The average domestic airfare increased 12 percent over the previous year and in 10 markets it went up 20 percent.  Average fares for flights out of Santa Maria were $176 in 2010-11, the 19th highest in the region. San Luis Obispo ($195) and Santa Barbara ($194) were ninth and 10th, respectively, among the 59 regional airports.  The higher fares mean domestic airlines’ revenue at the Santa Maria Public Airport has increased 11 percent since the previous year.

“On Allegiant to Vegas, unit revenue performance we’re doing well and on United to Los Angeles we’re doing well,” Hastert said. “The airlines, for them to be doing really well in a market, they want to see high fares and high load factors and I don’t think we’re quite at that level.”

Allegiant Airlines is doing well enough to be increasing its number of flights to Las Vegas from three to four per week, beginning in February. The new schedule will feature flights on Monday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday.

Communications Director Brian Davis said the company is also working on extending its service to Hawaii from an unnamed location.  “Yes, we are absolutely making plans to serve Hawaii,” Davis said. “Our goal is to serve Hawaii by some time this summer.”

The company purchased six Boeing 757s in 2011 and is working with the Federal Aviation Administration on getting Extended-range Twin-engine Operations (ETOPS) certification in order to fly to the islands.

Davis said Santa Maria has been a solid stop in its network for a long time with approximately 90 percent sales of available seats. He said the company isn’t ready to reveal its plans for the Hawaiian service, but Hastert said Santa Maria has provided the company the information it requested to be included in the discussion.

Hastert said the airport’s runway extension to 8,000 feet puts it in the position to handle such flights. He said without it, the airport wouldn’t have made the 7,000-foot runway length minimum.  “Hopefully, as the airline industry changes and the market changes we’ll be considered one of the earlier (airports) for expanded service,” he said.

 By Brian Bullock/Staff Writer bbullock@santamariatimes.com Santa Maria Times | Posted: Saturday, January 28, 2012

With paving of the 1,700-foot main runway extension complete, the board will begin considering other improvement projects, including what to do with the outdoor viewing area adjacent to the boarding terminal, when it meets at 7 p.m. at the Airport Administration Building.

The area is an angular mix of grass and concrete where visitors can watch travelers board and disembark commercial airliners. The board will discuss how to improve the area, said General Manager Chris Hastert.

“We want to do something different with that area,” Hastert said. “We want to put in a little bit better landscaping, some benches and tables.”  Preliminary plans are to improve the area enough to be used for gatherings such as Chamber of Commerce mixers, arts and crafts shows, and similar events.

A memorial to long-time airport director Ted Eckert is also being discussed, Hastert said.

Hardscape work costs could range from $14,700 to $42,000, depending on the materials and how much of the area is paved, according to an estimate.  Improvements to the area were not budgeted for this fiscal year, so work would not begin until after July 1.

The board will also discuss an amendment to a lease for cattle grazing on airport property, and receive a report from Hastert on a recent air service conference.

Granite Construction finished up paving the 150-foot wide extension last week. The fresh pavement now has to cure for 30 days before any more work will take place.  Hastert said grooves will be cut into the new pavement for water runoff, and striping will be added.  Until then, electrical work on runway lighting will continue.

By Brian Bullock/Staff Writer bbullock@santamariatimes.com Santa Maria Times | Posted: Thursday, January 26, 2012