Updated: August 13, 2011, 8:40 AM
Imagine buying a home in a nice neighborhood in Cheektowaga. It's near Buffalo Niagara International Airport, but federal and local money has been promised to help muffle the noise from the planes flying overhead.
Some homeowners are finding out now that the money isn't coming. Why? Because a new "noise exposure map" given to the Federal Aviation Administration by the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority shrinks the area eligible for funding.
It doesn't seem fair to go back on a promise, and Rep. Brian Higgins, D-Buffalo, has taken on the fight for his constituents. He has sent a letter to the FAA about the NFTA's noise report, calling the revised noise exposure map "arbitrary in its makeup." He urged the FAA to consider extending the mitigation area to the natural boundaries of neighborhoods. That might lessen the possibility of one home being eligible while the one next door is not, and should be explored.
As News staff reporter Aaron Besecker recently wrote, several homeowners recently discovered that if they want the necessary tens of thousands of dollars in sound insulation, they and not the government will have to pay for it. A total of 242 properties are no longer eligible for the noise-abatement program, according to NFTA officials; 440 properties have been completed and another 545 remain eligible for the work.
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