YARDLEY BOROUGH – Noise generated by air traffic coming in and out of the Trenton-Mercer Airport has been an issue for quite a while, and the public will have their chance to voice their concerns Monday, Sept. 8.
At 7 p.m., the first Yardley Borough ad-hoc committee will begin in the Yardley Borough Recreation Room, located at the rear of borough hall at 56 S. Main Street in Yardley.
The ad-hoc committee was created by Joe Hunter, president of Yardley Borough Council. He was not immediately available for comment.
Holly Bussey, president of Bucks Residents for Responsible Airport Management (BRRAM), said she sent an email blast to BRRAM members to inform them of the meeting. Yardley Borough Council supports BRRAM.
BRRAM, along with several Pennsylvania and New Jersey residents, filed a lawsuit in Trenton’s U.S. District Court accusing the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Mercer County and the Mercer County Board of Chosen Freeholders of failing to perform a comprehensive environmental impact analysis prior to authorizing commercial operations at the Trenton Mercer Airport (TTN).
BBRAM is asking the freeholders and the county to conduct a mandated Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), to authorize and expand commercial scheduled passenger jet service by any and all previous carriers and authorize and expand commercial scheduled jet service by current carrier, Frontier Airlines, according to the group’s website.
Bussey called the gathering “an action meeting. It’s open to everyone.”
“It doesn’t matter if you’re from Yardley Borough, Lower Makefield, Upper Makefield or anywhere else, we’ll update where we are and brainstorm what steps and actions we should take as a group of individuals or as individuals.”
She said that could mean working with state representatives to obtain documents or to follow up on complaints. Marketing, education and public contact would be other main goals, Bussey said, as would obtaining information about how the airport is operating.
Fundraising is another goal. “We do have legal bills that we have to pay for because this is basically a legal battle now,” Bussey said.
“Our goal is not to shut the airport down – I can’t say that enough,” she said. “What we hope to accomplish is the airport operates legally by doing the appropriate environmental studies that are required. “
She said BRRAM’s stand is that the airport should “be a good neighbor” so that “the flight patterns are distributed evenly and that everyone has equal exposure to sound.”
Bussey said BRRAM wants the airport to implement appropriate hours of operation. “By that I mean, yes, while they may not be able to shut the airport down, certain types of penalties could be enforced for flights that arrive after a certain hour because it impedes people’s lives.”
She said there should be fines for airplanes that arrive at the airport after 11 p.m. and before 6 a.m.
“You’re going to have to pay the airport a certain fee and that discourages airplanes from doing that,” Bussey said. “Therefore the quality of life on both sides of the river would improve … so we could get a good night’s sleep.”
People with concerns about the airport say planes arrive too late at night and arrive too early in the morning.
“Personally, as an example, I know I’m not the only one, I no longer require an alarm clock because I’m awakened every morning at 6. I’d wake up at 7 or 7:30 if I had my choice,” she said.
At night she hears the airplanes at 11:20 up to 12:40 a.m. or later. “If I go to bed [I don’t have] the ability to get a lot of sleep. I’m lucky if I get five hours without an airplane waking me up,“ Bussey said.
She added, “I know there are people out there who have worse issues. Some people say it’s just the people who are nearby [who have issues.] We’ve had people complain about planes as far away as Langhorne. We’re getting support from them. It’s not just the people who live close by.”
Bussey said she is empathetic with the people who say that the noise the freight trains cause in the area is worse than the airplanes’ noise.
“The flip side of that is I’m not bothered by the trains,” she said. “I understand their concerns. As a fellow neighbor, I support their efforts to try to have things changed. That works two ways.”
Bussey said the airport “wasn’t designed as a jetport and in the 50s there were no jets flying in,” she said. She said the issue with jets is a “relatively recent development. The issue is to operate as a good neighbor and take into consideration everyone in the surrounding area.”
Mercer County executive Brian Hughes commented on BRRAM’s lawsuit and said in April. “I don’t think we are out of sync with what the FAA requirements. We have not increased the square footage of the terminal nor have we increased the length of the runways, so there is really no reason for us to do an EIS, which could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
Despite the increase in commercial flights to 73 a week by Frontier Airlines, there has not been a need to increase the footprint of the terminal or a need to bring in larger jets to the airport. According to Hughes, the current runways are long enough to allow the A319 jets, operated by the low cost carrier, to fly into and out of the airport. Also, Frontier’s superior scheduling skills have kept pedestrian traffic at the airport to a minimum, he said.
“We are compromising on the type of jet they have because it is much quiet than some of the 737’s that used to come in and out and which were almost twice as loud,” said Hughes.
“If the noise from the old Eastwind Airlines, (which used to use the Trenton Airport as their commercial hub), was in compliance how do you get an airline that is quieter to be a bigger distraction?”
Story and Comments: http://www.buckslocalnews.com
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment