Politics & Government
RVC Resident Criticizes FAA at Garden City TVASNAC Meeting
Federal Aviation Administration and Port Authority officials were a no-show at Monday night's packed Town-Village Aircraft Safety and Noise Abatement Committee meeting in Garden City.
Already aggravated residents in Garden City and its surrounding communities were even more peeved when they learned Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Port Authority officials were a no-show at Monday night's packed Town-Village Aircraft Safety and Noise Abatement Committee (TVASNAC) meeting in Garden City.
Kendall Lampkin, TVASNAC executive director, said officials from the FAA, Port Authority and the NextGEN division in Washington, D.C. all declined the invitation.
In a prepared statement, FAA officials said, "The FAA and the Port Authority will continue to work together and coordinate with community groups, such as TVASNAC, to address issues and concerns for communities that are impacted by aircraft and airport noise. We have a long working relationship with TVASNAC, and the FAA has regularly attended its monthly meetings. We expect to do so in the future when we have adequate time to prepare materials in response to meeting agendas and to make sure that the right FAA personnel are available to attend the meeting."
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Still, approximately 150 people did show up, from as far away as Rockaway, Queens, to hear what FAA officials had to say about the recent surge in aircraft coming in and out of JFK airport and what the administration was doing to improve what residents' describe as their diminishing quality of life.
Rockville Centre resident Jeff Greenfield, after listening to comments, said he came to the conclusion that the FAA stands for Failure to Answer an Account.
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"I'm very concerned about NextGEN and what it'll do to air traffic in New York, especially since Jet Blue took control of Gate 6," he said. "They're going to put in a ton of gates, a lot more flights and they're counting on this NextGEN to let them have more take offs and landings. We all have to be concerned."
Greenfield, chair of the Nassau County Planning Commission, said his staff tried to get more information about what the future would hold when the new flight patterns came out approximately two years ago. "We weren't successful in trying to find out what the future holds. Maybe we can help at the Nassau County Planning Commission via an ally … we could partner with the town and all the villages in pursuit of getting some answers. I think that's all the public wants. I'm embarrassed to be here as a citizen taxpayer and no one from the FAA or Port Authority are here."
Larry Hoppenhauer, TVASNAC's newest member, represents Malverne. He addressed the Thursday night incident in which black oily sludge allegedly fell from a plane onto a couple enjoying the unseasonably warm weather in their yard. "The FAA said they are going to investigate but they don't work weekends and said they'd come Monday ... I don't know honestly where that's at. I can't get any information," he said. "After three days we're presuming the 'sludge' was harmless but it could've been something worse and we have a right to know what's falling from the sky."
Irene Villacci, representing Sen. Dean Skelos, also addressed the incident. "To have this sludge fall from the sky was a sign of destruction of our quality of life," she said. "As of an hour ago the most that our office was told by the FAA was that they had not concluded the investigation yet and they were not releasing any information yet about the plane or the airline..."
The FAA reauthorization bill, which passed Congress, provides funding for the NextGEN procedure. Shams Tarek, communications director for McCarthy, said the congresswoman voted against the bill because of its lack of a requirement of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).
"As far as she was concerned, the lack of requirement for an Environmental Impact Study was enough for her to say no," he said. "Unfortunately it's a very local issue to us but there are 435 members of Congress voting and as you know the bill passed."
Tarek said McCarthy continues to work with her Senate colleagues and talk to FAA officials and community members. "Hopefully there can be enough public response. Moving forward there may be another opportunity to get some kind of an EIS," he said. "It's not required of course but that doesn't mean it can't happen."
For more information on this issue, visit www.quietskies.net and/or www.quietovergc.com. Email the FAA noise complaint mailbox at 9-aea-noise@faa.gov. The public comment period on NextGEN ends March 7.
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