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Last Thursday (Feb 3), after considerable wrangling, the County and I verbally agreed on a rate per sq ft for my new digs. Friday I heard a rumor that something was up. Monday (Feb 7) I got an e-mail titled <Executive Session Clarification> that included this clarification:

-- -- -- --
Basic rates for County owned buildings at the airport are set by; The annual outside tiedown rate which is 0.19 cents per sq ft, which are then adjusted to the individual building to determine the monthly rental amount.
-- -- -- --

Well, the adjustment for hangars is tiedown rate x 5, and this was going to be Kinetic Aerospace's project development hangar, so you'd think that would be the rate, but I'd had to raise the ante (I offered 12 cents per foot per month instead of the 8 cents the County's other hanger renters pay) because the building had some improvements that raised its value from a usual hangar's four-walls-and-a-roof...improvements which were demolished (yep, a crew with sledgehammers, knocking down walls) shortly after our original verbal agreement; the demolition was explained as an unfortunate communication failure between government agencies. The County responded with an offer which seemed quite fair, considering I intended to do $30,000 worth of repairs and refurbishment: tiedown rate plus a penny per square foot.

But the clarification e-mail included this calculation:

-- -- -- --
Tiedown price per year $180.00
Divided by TD sq ft 940 sq ft
Equals price per sq ft per mo 0.19 cents
-- -- -- --

In brief, the shift of terminology from year to month (calculating the price per month using price per year as the source) increased my rent by a factor of 12, and nobody at the County level seemed to get it. So I spent much of the week prepping for a morning meeting today (Thursday the 10th) and attempting to show this miscalculation wasn't a difference of opinion, it was an error that needed to be resolved.

I felt pretty ready this morning. I had a stack of papers from a local high school math class; I'd given it to the students as a story question and let them explain the error in their comments, but no dice. Two out of three County Commissioners stood firm, the rate to me is 20 cents a foot, take it or leave it. I re-offered my original 12 cents a foot but nope, for me it's 20 cents or take a hike.

I presume the County will rent this former warehouse to anybody else as a hangar for 8 cents...but nobody but Kinetic can actually use it as a hangar because the doors are only 12 feet wide (our aircraft are pretty dang tiny). Last week one of the Commissioners suggested the wall opening could be enlarged and wider doors put in to fit bigger aircraft, which would make it easier to rent for 8 cents a foot to somebody else...but they won't take my aircraft at 8 cents a foot, or even my offer of 12 cents a foot, so I guess I should take a hint.

My current lease is good through October. I'll be moving out of Josephine County some time before that. I lost my bid, so I have to leave my workplace, my home, and my very convenient and low profile test flying airport, but I've been priced off the field. Anyway, it's been stressful, I'm a Southern Oregon native and a local homeowner and the place is perfect for me, so I've really tried to make this work. Having failed in my effort to stick around, I can now focus more on satisfying my customers, including my Locost customers. The bulk of Kinetic's business is aircraft design and development, but Locosting keeps me sane, so I'm not going to bail on you guys. We just need to find a new home.

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Locost builder and adventurer, and founder (but no longer owner) of Kinetic Vehicles

Jack,
So if you move out they will come in and change the door size to the tune of about twenty grand so they can rent it to anyone else for a fair and just price of $.08? I'd get the wife to come in and rent it for $.08 for you. Kinda sounds REAL fishy and it's gonna end up stinking real bad soon for them. It's obvious they are treating like this to get you gone from your location. Maybe some high dollar powerful oil man doesn't like your little 70MPG car or something. I'd at least pass this by a few "out of town" lawyers to see what they might say. Someone is definatelty gunning for you in my opinion!


Mark.

Have someone from a nearby airport or business park send a "Request for References" letter to the County. Sometimes landlords that use other peoples money need to be brought back to Earth for a reality check. Can your business work if it's in a warehouse next to the airport or must you have easy runway access?

My daughter and her husband are having similar problems with their landlord in Tucson. In fact, they are in a business similar to yours, UAV's. The landlord of their 16,000 ft warehouse refuses to maintain the property and and will only fix his assets if the kids agree to a longer lease at a much higher rate. It is almost extortion if you ask me.

Tom

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Sometimes, I'm as confused as a baby in a topless bar.

My short term memory is absolutely horrible and so is my short term memory.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sG16m2e4O6I

Jack, I really feel your pain. Your relationship with this airport management has been difficult over the last couple years. I really find it difficult to understand why they will not rent you the space at your offered 0.12 per month. Their published rates for a county hangar is $97, almost 20% less than what you are offereing. And your hangar is currently un-leasable with the small door. These are published Sept 2010 rates (for both Grants Pass and Illinois Valley Airports). It is too bad you are not one of the "protected" groups, otherwise you could claim discrimination and take them to court.

I know it is difficult to change locations after having so much of your life invested in the area. I'm sorry to hear this is your only option at this point. Perhaps with a bit of time, common sense and logic may prevail with the remaining 2 commisioners.

In some form or another, things will work out for the best.

Chuck

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Chuck.

“Any suspension will work if you don’t let it.” - Colin Chapman

Visit my ongoing MGB Rustoration log: over HERE

Or my Wankel powered Locost log : over HERE

And don't forget my Cushman Truckster resto Locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=17766

That sounds bad and very unpleasent. First I think the bulk of the airports in our country would be have space for rent, it is not a sellers market, and hasn't been for a long time. Second, it would seem you could apply some substantial pressure, a letter from a lawyer, calls from state and federal representatives, maybe a reportor or two. I assume these are defense or law enforcement type contracts so it should enlist the support of Gov't and patriotic minded people...

Gov't agencies do have obligations to behave responsibilly and fairly. I'd be surprised if they have much stomach for a fight if they have to start spending county money on laywers etc. There has been a lot of bad press associated with the folks in Bell, california ( is that the place ) so I would think they would not want to much attention to obvious bad behaviour.

Best wishes...

Hmmm, can your UAV's hover? Outside their kitchen window! Or perhaps just circle their houses, turn the exhaust pipe sideways so it faces their house. I think there are court cases saying that it's OK to hover over someone's house, I don't know why the 500 foot rule wasn't applicable. Maybe having a helicopter hovering 500 feet away is irritating...

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Marcus Barrow - Car9 an open design community supported sports car for home builders!
SketchUp collection for LocostUSA: "Dream it, Build it, Drive it!"
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First comment, I WISH I could get 12 cents a foot rates. .. but thats what I get for living in one of the more expensive areas of the country, the SF Bay Area. Out here you're lucky to find 80 cents a foot for anything under 10k sq/ft. Having said that......
WTF
Sounds to me like a recent move-in to the neighborhood likes to complain.............
NIMBY'rs want their FEDEX packages today but don't want to know how it gets to them, they prefer to think the tooth fairy has a cousin in the freight business.
Theres a woman out here that first managed to get the Woodland Spreckels sugar plant closed because despite it having been around since WW2 and being the largest employer in town you could smell the place(like a brewery) if the wind was just right. .. as if sugar was the biggest stinker in a farming community.
Then she moved to Cameron Springs because she didn't like the smell of fertilizer and tried to do the same thing to McLellan AFB due to it also being used by FEDEX as an air cargo transit point claiming the planes as they passed some 7k feet above her head disturbed her ability to sleep......... Nothing at all like the song of an unmuffled KC-135 imagine what she would have said to that?
Same thing happened to the (farmers cooperative) "AppleTime" brand apple juice plant in Sonoma county........ a county newcomer (spoiled and newly well to do) didn't like that she could smell the apples being crushed and juiced for some 3 weeks a year. After over 10 years of fighting and durn near daily EPA testing the farmers gave up and sent to production elsewhere losing a large percentage of their income which eventually drove a lot of them out of business.

Short end of a long ramble, it sounds to me like someone doesn't like your projects but the process of fighting can be so long and drawn out that even a win ends up a loss.

I don't know if it will help but my brother Phillip lives in Eugene (call sign KC7HNI), shall I inquire if he can be of any assistance in relocating?
One word of warning, don't challenge him to a game of chess unless you're prepared to LOSE(!).


edit>> wait a sec here. .. you do research for the Feds, that makes you a "Homeland Defense Asset" in an area with a large percentage of retired military personnel. Send a "letter to the editor" to a few local papers and see what happens.

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"There are times when a broken tool is better than a sound one, or a twisted personality more useful than a whole one.
For instance, a whole beer bottle isn't half the weapon that half a beer bottle is ..." Randall Garrett

Jack, come check out the Ozarks! Centrally located to the whole country. Minimally intrusive local governments (in most counties). Low population density. Inexpensive land (Approx. $2K per acre). There are quite a few properties around me (in Ozark county, Mo.) that have their own strips. I was born and raised in Los Angeles back when it was still a nice place to live. After 55 years, I finally escaped from The Peoples Republik of Kalifornia, and couldn't be happier. My wife, who was born and raised in Maine, and lived in (and has a special love for) Medford, Or., loves living here, also.

Worth taking a look!

Mike

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Mike - Read my story at http://twinlakesseven.blogspot.com/

Marcus, of "Primal Scream" fame, wrote:


Hover, Hell!!! Mount a Gatling on that baby and go strafe the bastards!!!!

Hey Jack- Our new governor wants to make Florida "business friendly", he says. Come on down here, we'd love to have ya!

Seriously, they just cut business taxes here to try to lure more industry to the state. There's no personal income tax either, for your employees (and you).

There's a little airfield about 15 minutes from here, Quincy, FL (2J9) with a paved and a grass strip that'd probably love to have ya, no matter what you did there!

JD "In the Center of the Universe" Kemp

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JD, father of Quinn, Son of a... Build Log
Quinn the Slotus:Ford 302 Powered, Mallock-Inspired, Tube Frame, Hillclimb Special
"Gonzo and friends: Last night must have been quite a night. Camelot moments, mechanical marvels, Rustoleum launches, flying squirrels, fru-fru tea cuppers, V8 envy, Ensure catch cans -- and it wasn't even a full moon." -- SeattleTom

Sounds like rampant stupidity without oversight (i.e. governement). Good luck with it.

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Minibuggy build to see if I could hack a car build: http://www.minibuggy.net/forum/ar51-buggy-group/16171-ar51-build-ky.html

Finished product: http://www.fawbush.org/images/2012_8_19_buggy/2012_8_19_first_drive_6.JPG

A pulse jet powered RC plane! that'll shake them in their beds at 3am.

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"There are times when a broken tool is better than a sound one, or a twisted personality more useful than a whole one.
For instance, a whole beer bottle isn't half the weapon that half a beer bottle is ..." Randall Garrett

Thanks for all your support. I'll probably post a response full of specifics soon, but (as I'm sure nobody is surprised) I'm pretty busy. I want to reiterate that UPS goes everywhere and no matter where Kinetic Aerospace settles (that's the parent company of Kinetic Vehicles) Locost parts will still be available.

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Locost builder and adventurer, and founder (but no longer owner) of Kinetic Vehicles

I have ordered parts form Argentina, Greece, Italy, the UK, there isn't anywhere Jack that is too far away if we want something.

Al

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Super Seven 3.4

I'm really curious to know what or who is driving Jack's county commissioners to be such dolts. It seems as if there is some sort of ulterior motive here. Welcome to small potatoes politics I guess. I've had my fair share before and don't wish that sort of ill-logical, nightmare, close minded reasoning on anyone. In a court of law, you have the right to face your accusers. It would be really nice to see that same sort of openness apply to commissioners and selectmen boards.

Sucks to be you Jack. It sounds like your commissioners are equal opportunity landlords........for anybody.......as long as it's not you.

It's not fair and it's not right.

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-Duncan

'10 Volkswagon Jetta TDi
'09 Buell 1125R
'07 Mazda CX-7
'05 Buell XB-12S
'03 Ford SVT Focus

I have a theory, but I'm not ready to put it in print. It does seem to be an anti-Jack thing rather than a pro-County thing; getting me off the field will further entrench the powers that be, but it doesn't do anything good for airport users or the citizens of the County. It's not a new neighbors problem, it's a good ol' boys with power problem, it's a de facto policy driven by individuals on the public payroll. Power corrupts, and some folks are already halfway there, even before the power kicks in. Of course, talking like this doesn't endear me to Those Who Must Be Obeyed, and I do tend to blab.Hey, so do I. I offered 12 cents/sq ft/mo as a compromise to get things moving, but the choice wasn't mine to make. Meanwhile, there are other places in Oregon that favor my patronage, but I like living here. I could continue the fight, but if the opposition rents me the hangar under duress, how long before they find another way to get me gone. I'm probably better off moving somewhere else "voluntarily" and keeping my home as a vacation home, than having my house get torched. Or me get torched.

Sounds paranoid, don't it? Well as my father used to say, even paranoids have real problems.

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Locost builder and adventurer, and founder (but no longer owner) of Kinetic Vehicles

Just because you're paranoid it doesn't mean they're not out to get you!

Why not run for County Commission, on a "Let's Clean Up This Mess" platform? Expose the problems, embarrass the bastards out of office! It might surprise you how many votes you get. "Mr. Commissioner McCornack" kinda has a nice ring to it! I bet there's some "pain in the arse" local investigative reporter that'd just love to dig up dirt on 'em...

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JD, father of Quinn, Son of a... Build Log
Quinn the Slotus:Ford 302 Powered, Mallock-Inspired, Tube Frame, Hillclimb Special
"Gonzo and friends: Last night must have been quite a night. Camelot moments, mechanical marvels, Rustoleum launches, flying squirrels, fru-fru tea cuppers, V8 envy, Ensure catch cans -- and it wasn't even a full moon." -- SeattleTom