Soar Minden owner posts pumps

Soar Minden owner Tony Sabino put up a sign on his gas pumps last week saying they were closed and blaming Douglas County.

Sabino has been in a running battle with the county that included his being the most vocal opponent of a revision of Minden's Tahoe's weight ordinance.

Assistant County Manager Steve Mokrohisky denied that the county had anything to do with closing Sabino's refueling station.

"The county did not close Sabino's fuel tank," he said. "It's not the county's action."

Sabino has said that a new set of minimum standards adopted by the county essentially put Soar Minden out of business.

Mokrohisky said that the new standards are attainable by Soar Minden and the airport's other fixed-base operator Hutt Aviation.

He said the county established a more limited set of standards for fixed base operators who operate self-service and small fueling stations.

"We have a category for fuel sales full service FBO and for a limited fixed base operator," he said. "The full-service requires that the operators sell several different kinds of fuel, including AV gas and jet fuel. In creating the limited fixed-base operator at the airport, we recognize the diversity of operations at the airport. The needs for smaller aircraft and soaring operations at the airport is different than the market that would look at jet fuel."

He pointed out that in the airport master plan soaring will be relocated to the east side of the airport.

"There needs to be a fueling operation on that side," he said. "We don't need large fuel operations at a general aviation airport. What we really need are smaller fuel operators."

He said having limited fixed-base operators is new in Douglas County.

Sabino has owned Soar Minden near the west entrance of the airport for more than two decades.

During debate on the minimum standards Sabino's attorney said that requiring two acres of contiguous land would prevent Soar Minden from meeting the requirement.