The Buildings at PGC
If you’ve looked around a bit at PGC you’ve noticed some buildings. Yes, there are the obvious ones:
- The Kraus Hanger where we keep our two seat gliders. That was built by the club (spearheaded by Al Kraus) in the 1980’s, but it is reaching the end of its life. It is a pole barn built by sinking telephone poles in the dirt, and those poles have mostly rotted out.
- The Herr Hanger which houses our tow planes, single seat gliders, our flight office, and much of our ground’s equipment. This is the original hanger built in the 1930s, when our field was the Bucks Gounty Airport. When the field was shut down during World War II, it became a wheat barn.
- The club house. Dave Johnson insists that we refer to this building as Class Room 6, in reference to our status as a 501.C.3 Educational Organization with 5 two seat training gliders.
Past this, most of you are aware that our caretaker, Jack Goritski, lives year-round in his home across the driveway from the club house.
But there are a lot of other structures on the property. Some of them are “T” hangers with gliders inside. Some are cabins. Some are trailer sheds with glider trailers stored inside. There are also some campers. You may be wondering who owns these structures, what is inside, and how do I get one?
Back in the 1950s and 60s, Hilltown Township was very rural. Some of our members wanted to spend weekends at the field, or store their gliders in hangers. The club gave them permission to build structures on the club land. I doubt that there was a permitting process back then. The members built their own structures and paid the club a nominal annual fee for the leasing of the land. Other members brought their campers and parked them along the east end of the field. In the 1980s a group of members build the shed by the driveway to store their glider trailers, and in the 1990s another group built the red trailer shed out behind the windsock. That building has 8 trailer slots, and a big center section owned by the club. We store the Grob 103 trailer and the Duo Discus trailer there.
As time went on, and members wanted to sell their structures, the club developed a procedure for transfers to keep things fair. First, we start with the understanding that we are a club of friends, and we are not interested in profiting from each other. When a member who owns a structure on PGC land wants to sell it, he sets a reasonable price, to recoup his investment. For instance, the members who built the trailer slot shed at the end of our driveway chipped in $5000 each to build the structure. A few years ago, I bought one of those slots for $5000, and some day I expect to sell it for $5000.
So the owner sets a price, and the club secretary announces the price to the entire club. Any member who is willing to pay that price, must contact the secretary to say so. There is no bidding. At the end of 30 days, if one member has agreed to pay the price, the board of directors approves the transfer, and the members exchange money and keys. If more than one member has offered to pay the proposed price, then the board of directors approves the transfer to the most senior member, and the deal is done. If after 30 days nobody has contacted the secretary to accept the price, then the member is asked to lower their price, and to go through the 30 day process again. There are no negotiations. If I announced my trailer slot was available for $5000, I can not sell it to someone for $3000 without letting the rest of the members know that I have lowered the price.
Over the years, PGC has had some problems with personally owned structures on our property. We have had structures abandoned, and fall into disrepair, sticking the club with the cost of cleanup. We have even had members leave the club without selling, emptying, or maintaining the structures. We recently updated Section 2.10 of our Bylaws to deal with these situations.
There is a general feeling that it is in the club’s interest to eliminate the situation entirely. In many cases, the club has stepped in and purchased the structures that were up for sale. As the defacto “senior member” the club has purchased the structures at the asked price, and them rented them out to the membership. Again, to keep things fair, the club has set the rental price, and awarded the structure to the most senior member willing to pay that rent.
We cannot build new structures on the portion of our property that is covered by the township easement, but we can repair and maintain the buildings that exist there now. We can still build new structures on the portion of our land that is not covered by the easement. Of course, the wild, wild west days are over, so any building we do would require township permitting.