The Southampton Press
Thursday, May 11, 2000
"Letters To The Editor"
No Real Threat

To the Editor:
Last week, Richard Amper took an unfair shot at me [“Ask Around,” Letters, May 4] because I asked too many questions and wouldn’t sign on to his latest public relations quest to stop something that we both know has no real threat of ever happening.

I’m talking, of course, about the former Navy/Grumman airfield in Calverton. In his letter to the editor, Mr. Amper inaccurately states my position about the future of the facility. The fact is, I have gathered a great deal of information and belive that I hold a very informed position on this issue.

Calverton should operate as a general aviation airport without threat of it becoming a jetport. Economics prevents a jetport from happening. The 8.25-percent combined sales tax in Suffolk County makes it impossible for a jet maintenance facility to successfully operate financially. The overhaul of a jetliner costs several million dollars. Who would send their plane to Calverton and pay additional hundreds of thousands in sales tax when they could fly to New Hampshire or Pennsylvania and pay no sales tax? It just makes no sense.

Mr. Amper also raises the knowingly false claim that an East End airport could become a LaGuardia or a freight center. Airlines, in order to survive, need a substantial population base, and unless the East End towns reverse decades of land use restrictions and our population grows to 10 times its current level, we won’t be getting passenger airlines. And so far no one has proposed flying freight into the wrong end of the worst traffic bottleneck in the world.

As far as Suffolk County Gabreski Airport is concerned, under my watch as chairman of the Lease Screening Committee, flights have actually decreased—a fact that can be verified by the control tower at Gabreski. Operators are carefully screened, with the committee always looking for compatible use with the community. In fact, Suffolk County is currently being sued because it has refused to issue operating permits to non-compatible aviation applicants.

I believe Calverton should operate as a general aviation facility. Riverhead should have its fair share of general aviation traffic, just as general aviation airports do in the towns of Brookhaven and Southold as well as the communities of Montauk, East Hampton, East Moriches and Westhampton Beach, all of which are in my district. And, yes, keep the two runways operational. As a pilot, I believe that Calverton should have two runways. Two runways at an airport are always better than one for safety reasons alone. Whether the facility has one runway or two, it’s still an airport. With one runway, you still get the local traffic, you just render the facility less safe.

I’ll put my environmental record up against the records of any of Dick Amper’s “Environmentalist of the Year” recipients any day. I’m surprised at both the scare tactics Mr. Amper is using and his threats against elected officials who have the audacity to ask precise, informed and cogent questions about what it is, precisely, that they are being asked to oppose. This is not about public relations and raising public opposition to things that are never going to happen. It’s about substance and common sense.

Calverton has been an airport for generations. It makes no sense to walk away from the millions of dollars worth of runways while Riverhead spends years to figure out what to do with it. With pine barrens preservation in place, it’s obvious Mr. Amper is looking for a new cause to stay in the limelight.

GEORGE GULDI
Suffolk County Legislator
2nd District
Hampton Bays

Mr. Amper’s letter was published last week in the Western Edition of the Southampton Press; it appears above in this week’s Eastern Edition.—Ed.

Issue Date: Southampton Press 05/11/2000