Hundreds of Georgina residents have signed a petition listing grievances with the Parachute School of Toronto including roaring noise, noxious fumes and rogue skydivers landing on their properties.
“If they wreck anything,” says resident Paul Nicholls, “say they land in your Azaleas and destroy them, that’s criminal trespass.”
Recently, Nicholls went to Georgina town hall to present the petition, signed by 200 other aggravated Georginians, and lobby for change. A town council report on the matter is expected early next week.
The school has been operating since 1974, though it used to run out of Arthur, Ont., north of Guelph. In 2002, it relocated in Georgina — a northern municipality of York Region — to be closer to its Toronto customers. It runs from May to October, from 9 a.m. to sunset, five days a week, during which some thousand flights take place.
Mary Kay, lifelong resident of the area and former owner of the Baldwin General Store, lives some 60 m from the airport. Only a murky creek from Black River, a tributary of Lake Simcoe, lies between her and Baldwin Airport that the school calls home.
The noise had been tolerable, she says, but things changed in the summer of 2010 when a new, louder plane arrived. Now the noise and fumes, says 76-year-old Kay, are unbearable.
“It is hard on the blood pressure when you get all wound up about something like this,” says Kay.
That, says Adam Mabee, president of the parachute school, is a “big, ugly plane great for jumping out of.” The Skyvan is a 40-year-old cargo plane manufactured by Short Brothers of Belfast, Northern Ireland, on lease from a company in the United States. Mabee doesn’t notice it being louder than others.
Of the 400 jumps conducted weekly, Mabee says just a couple of skydivers miss their target, the airport. “Statistically,” he says, “that’s pretty low.” The worst damage happened a couple years ago to an awning and he paid the repairs.
He’s yet to talk with the petitioners.
In fact, he says, people whose property divers land on are pretty friendly about it. “On a Sunday afternoon they’ll be sitting out on a back porch sipping a drink and enjoying the show,” says Mabee. During their three-minute return to Earth, as many as 21 airborne skydivers can be seen at a time.
Still, as far as Kay is concerned, the Baldwin Airport was never meant to house such a large operation. “It’s just a roar,” says Kay. “You just grin and bear it and close the windows.”
No comments:
Post a Comment