Town-Village Aircraft Safety & Noise Abatement Committee

TOWN-VILLAGE AIRCRAFT SAFETY & NOISE ABATEMENT COMMITTEE ONE WASHINGTON STREET • HEMPSTEAD 11550 • (516) 489-3296 Town of MINUTES OF MEETING HEMPSTEAD Meeting Date: May 21, 2018 Villages of ATLANTIC BEACH In Attendance: CEDARHURST Carl Baessler, Village of Atlantic Beach FLORAL PARK Larry Hoppenhauer, Executive Director / Secretary Kurt Langjahr, Village of New Hyde Park GARDEN CITY Lawrence Quinn, Village of Garden City LAWRENCE Andrew Weiss, Village of Floral Park MALVERNE NEW HYDE PARK Larry Hoppenhauer called the meeting to order. Larry Quinn led the STEWART Committee and audience members in the Pledge of Allegiance. MANOR Due to a lack of quorum, the minutes of the April 23 meeting were VALLEY STREAM unable to be voted upon. They will be submitted for approval at the June 25th meeting. WOODSBURGH William Huisman, Executive Director of the Aviation Development Council, shared the following information with the committee: • Updated schedule of Runway 13L – 31R rehabilitation o Rehabilitation design completed March 9, 2018 o Contract to be awarded on July 1, 2018 o Start of Construction will be September 4, 2018 o Runway will be closed for a total of 329 days (non- consecutive) o End of construction will be June 1, 2020 • Breakdown of the rehabilitation schedule o Phase I – Sept. 4th to Nov. 16, 2018, full runway closure o Phase II – March 1st to June 1, 2019, full runway closure o Phase III – June 1st to Sept. 3, 2019, nightly runway closure o Phase IV – Sept. 3rd to Nov. 15, 2019, full runway closure o Phase V – March 1st to June 1, 2020, full runway closure Minutes of Meeting Page 2 • The House passes FAA Reauthorization Bill with noise amendments. o It directs the FAA Administrator to conduct a study evaluating alternative metrics to the current dNL standard such as the use of actual noise sampling and other methods to address community airplane noise concerns and provide a report to Congress. A report will be due 180 days after the Bill is enacted. o Request the FAA Administrator to review the North Shore Helicopter Route to address the noise impact affected communities to improve altitude enforcement and to assess alternatives including an all water route over the Atlantic Ocean. • London Heathrow Airport announced its latest rankings in it’s Fly Quiet and Green program. The program ranks the top busiest airlines at Heathrow on seven noise and emission metrics each quarter. For the first quarter of 2018 there was a tie for first place between Scandinavian Airlines and LOT Polish Airlines. The news here is that LOT Polish Airlines went from last place in 2013 to first place. Larry Hoppenhauer started conversations on the following topics. 1. TVASNAC Presentation – He proposed putting together a presentation about TVASNAC. Then when the committee starts to have meetings at various Village locations, this presentation could be made. Many ideas were presented including the following. Kurt suggested we include a section of the rich history of TVASNAC over it 50+ years. Examples given were, SSTL, responsible for legislation to pass in Albany calling for a 150 Study, a unified noise complaint system with one phone number, and a simple online form. It was also suggested by Andrew that we take the opportunity to explain what the committee “is not”. That at times people address us like we can make whatever they ask about, happen. Larry Quinn suggested additional accomplishments of TVASNAC. Carl supported the idea as a good way to simply explain what we are about. Larry Hoppenhauer also suggested that this presentation could possibly be used to share with village governments of those who currently don’t belong to TVASNAC. 2. Noise Complaint Report – He reminded everyone that the new Noise Complaint Report had recently been emailed. The numbers of complaints seem to be going down. This time of year, when people start opening their windows, spending time outside, is a time when noise complaints typically go up. Please remind your constituents to file noise complaints. To please take the time because if the Port Authority doesn’t see complaints, then everything is fine. Larry Quinn also suggested we ask that if phoning the complaint, use more then one Minutes of Meeting Page 3 phone number to call from. The statistics are also collected by phone number of origin. Thereby possibly diluting their impact. 3. LGA Perimeter Rule – Larry shared that he received an email from Len Schaier, Quiet Skies. He was asking for TVASNAC committee members to contact their State and Federal legislatures to support efforts to block the lifting of the LGA Perimeter Rule. This rule states that no flights can go further then 1,500 when originating from LGA during the week. For the last three years there has been discussion by the FAA to possibly lift this rule. A discussion followed where an argument was made that lifting the rule, could switch some of the operations from JFK to LGA. This would favorably impact those affected by operations at JFK. It was also presented that lifting the rule would increase operations at LGA. Further study needs to be done. 4. LAX Metroplex law suit – On May 15th, the FAA filed its response brief in the US Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Residents from around Los Angeles and San Diego filed a Petition for Review of the FAA’s Southern California Metroplex Project. In part, the brief states that in “the Federal Aviation Act of 1958, the FAA was delegated control over the use of the nation’s navigable airspace and regulation of domestic civil and military aircraft operations to ensure that such operations are safe and efficient.” In developing the Project, the safety and operational efficiency of this area was their goal. “The Project was never intended to reduce aircraft noise and design the Project with noise reduction as a priority”. This would have contradicted the FAA’s “statutory mandate.” Verbal briefs are yet to be scheduled. Public input was asked for at the meeting. None was given. A motion to adjourn was made by Kurt and seconded by Andrew. Meeting was adjourned. The next regularly scheduled TVASNAC meeting will be held on Monday, June 25, 2018 at 7:00 pm at the Nathan L. Bennett Pavilion, Town Hall, One Washington Street, Hempstead, New York. Prepared By: Larry Hoppenhauer Secretary, TVASNAC