Look for a sign-up card when you enter the auditorium. Each speaker is permitted up to 5 minutes.
If you would like to get your comments into the record but cannot attend that evening, there is also an opportunity
to speak during the Legislature's General Meeting that starts at 4 p.m. (same date and location). At some point
during this session, there will be a "public comment" period during which anyone may speak on any subject
for up to 3 minutes.
Please attend this important hearing!
Karl Grossman's radio commentary on helicopters
The following commentary by journalist Karl Grossman aired on
WLIU on August 4th. (Although the original version of Romaine's legislation called for a minimum helicopter altitude
of 1,500 feet, the bill was later changed to specify 2,500 feet.)
Bravo to Long Island official Edward Romaine and his challenge
to the helicopters which have again been making a racket this summer on Long Island.
Romaine is a Suffolk County legislator and tomorrow he intends to
introduce a proposed county law at a meeting of the Suffolk Legislature that would establish a minimum altitude
for helicopters to fly at in Suffolk.
His bill accurately declares that "low-flying helicopters have
become a public nuisance in Suffolk County."
And further, it says, "a recent agreement between public officials
and helicopter operators has failed to alleviate the public nuisance."
U.S. Senator Charles Schumer, and Representative Tim Bishop of Southampton
worked on an agreement over the winter with groups representing helicopter operators under which operators promised
to significantly reduce chopper noise, especially by flying no lower than 2,500 feet and taking routes over water
as much as possible.
But the business of bussing by chopper well-heeled folks from New
York City to and from eastern Long Island during the vacation season has become a booming business.
And although the operators promised-they have not delivered.
Helicopters again are routinely flying low and loud on their way
to and from East Hampton Airport, the Southampton Village helipad and the Suffolk County-owned Francis Gabreski
Airport.
Meanwhile, there seems to be little control of the chopper traffic.
Indeed, Romaine says he doesn't see his proposed county law as being
pre-empted by the Federal Aviation Administration "because the FAA does not regulate helicopters."
Others disagree on that and certainly Romaine's measure will stir
up considerable controversy. Good. The hordes of helicopters have impacted most negatively on the quality of life
on eastern Long Island.
His proposed law would set a minimum flying altitude of 1,500 feet,
not onerous at all, and provides a fine of $1,000 and a year in jail for each violation of that.
Romaine says" this problem has to be solved," that the
choppers must fly higher, and over the Atlantic Ocean and the Long Island Sound as much as possible-rather than
right over peoples' homes and heads. Further, he says they should spread the pain by, when flying over land, flying
over a variety of, rather than just a few, communities.
If the chopper operators can't handle Romaine's law, it's high-time
that helicopter traffic-other than for medical and police emergencies-be banned on eastern Long Island.
I'm Karl Grossman and that's my opinion.
Coalition Against Airport Pollution