Coalition Against Airport Pollution
Stop mindless growth at Gabreski Airport

Latest revise: May 8, 2008

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Dates to Remember!

Committee

Date

Time

Location

Public information meeting regarding NYS DEC recommendations
for sites 4, 7, and 9.

Tuesday
May 15, 2008

5:30 p.m.

Gabreski Airport
Administration Building

Noise Abatement Committee

Tuesday
May 16, 2008

4:00 p.m.

Gabreski Airport
Administration Building

Gabreski Airport Advisory Board

Thursday
June 10, 2008

6:30 p.m.

Gabreski Airport
Administration Building

Draft Final Decision Document for the Installation Restoration Program Sites 4,7, & 9
Fact Sheet Proposed Remedial Action Plan and Decision Document

Update - September 3, 2007

WLIU Radio
September 3, 2007
Karl Grossman's Commentary

Well, the Labor Day weekend has arrived and…sadly…the summer vacation season is at an end. But the good news…the helicopters that have made such a racket this summer on Long Island will not be flying as much.

A TV commercial tells the story:

"Liberty helicopters," it proclaims, "Rising above the traffic. Manhattan to the Hamptons in 40 minutes."

Yes, but at what cost to the people below?

At a public hearing in July on a master plan for East Hampton Airport-the destination for many of the choppers-Kathie Goldman, a resident of Northwest Woods in East Hampton, spoke of "so many helicopters coming over my house" that it's been like "Apocalypse Now."

Indeed, the noise from helicopters this summer has replicated a war zone. The choppers have been flying from New York to Long Island at a rate never before seen, or more precisely, heard.

The folks on the ground, maybe not as well-heeled as those well-heeled visitors but they still have plenty of votes-must press their campaign against noisy chopper traffic. It's time helicopters be banned or severely restricted at area airports. Enough is enough.

As to what the industry claims would be voluntary noise abatement, there's a bridge in Brooklyn…

Todd Rome of Southampton, president of Blue Star Jets, in a recent op-ed piece in the New York Times, urged working "with helicopter operators to voluntarily reduce noise."

He was promptly answered by a letter to the editor of the Times from Gail Clyma of Westhampton, a member of the aptly-named Coalition Against Airport Pollution.

She noted that the manager of Gabreski Airport in Westhampton instituted a voluntary noise abatement program last year-part of which involves choppers arriving and departing over State Route 27. "Yet," she wrote, "many if not most helicopters are continuing to fly low over residential areas in violation of the voluntarily guidelines."

Ms. Clyma commented on how the choppers have been "literally rattling dishes in the cupboards" and have "become a significant blight on the quality of life."

The racket must end. We might take a lesson from France on how to end it. After the outrage of people along the Gulf of Saint-Tropez area to chopper-flying vacationers, officials have begun to shut down helicopter landing pads.

A public nuisance is involved. If helicopters can't be banned or severely restricted at the fields harboring them here, those airports should be closed.

I'm Karl Grossman and that's my opinion.

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Coalition Against Airport Pollution
P.O. Box # 121 * Westhampton Beach, New York 11978 *
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