Town-Village Aircraft Safety & Noise Abatement Committee

TOWN-VILLAGE AIRCRAFT SAFETY & NOISE ABATEMENT COMMITTEE One Washington Street, Hempstead, New York 11550 (516) 489-5000 x3296 – TVASNAC@tohmail.org Meeting Minutes Monday, November 23, 2020 Virtual Meeting In Attendance Carl Baessler, Village of Atlantic Beach Dan Plaut, Village of Cedarhurst Andrew Weiss, Village of Floral Park Larry Quinn, Village of Garden City Ronald Goldman, Village of Lawrence James Vilardi – Executive Director James Vilardi called the meeting to order. Attendance was taken. The November 25, 2019, July 27, 2020, August 24, 2020 and October 26, 2020 Meeting Minutes were presented for approval. Motion was made to approve by Andrew Weiss and second by Carl Baessler. Motion passed unanimously. The TVASNAC Mission Statement was read aloud by Carol Renta and presented for discussion.  Carl Baessler recommended amending the word “four” to “five” in the third paragraph for accuracy, “For more than four decades TVASNAC has challenged…..”  Everyone agreed, and this change will be made, as TVASNAC was established 54 years ago in 1966.  James Vilardi suggested that while this Mission Statement states what the organization should be doing in a general sense, we should have a more specific Mission Statement for each year establishing one to three achievable goals and the method we will use to set out and accomplish those goals.  Carl Baessler agreed stating, “Actions speaks louder than words – it’s what we do that matters.”  Andrew Weiss was in agreement and believes the Mission Statement should be a general overall statement, similar to the top of a resume, with goals listed separately. Andrew offered that the last paragraph of the current Mission Statement is really the actual “Mission Statement” while the rest is just historical 1  background. The Mission Statement should be succinct and general – this is our mission and these are the goals we want to accomplish toward that mission.  Everyone was in agreement. Carol Renta interjected, reminding the committee that at the August meeting three goals were discussed and perhaps should be considered for inclusion in the Mission Statement goals, and everyone was in agreement. They were:  Talking to Justin Connor in Congressman Suozzi’s office to see if the June 2019 “handshake deal” the Congressman made with the FAA can be rekindled.  Fanning out arrivals between different communities, so 90% of arrivals are not going to any one community.  Planes should utilize “Glide Slope vs. Stepping-In” method as much as possible (if not using the engine during landing, noise will be greatly reduced). James Vilardi mentioned that after the last meeting, he reached out to both Congressman Suozzi and Justin Connor in his office, but with election results coming in so slow everyone was in a holding pattern, and he was not successful. James restated that although redundant, it would be productive to get representatives from Senator Schumer, Senator Gillibrand, Congresswoman Rice and Congressman Suozzi’s offices and an FAA representative together with the committee to see what they can do to work together with us in helping our residents; their constituents. For example, finding out if the handshake deal between Congressman Suozzi and the FAA fell apart, where does it stand now and can it be resurrected, will only work if liaisons from the FAA, Senator Schumer, Senator Gillibrand, Congressman Suozzi and Congresswoman Rice work in concert with us.  Everyone was in agreement. Andrew Weiss pointed out that we should aim to deal with the FAA, not the Port Authority, because the Port Authority’s job is basically to manage the airport once the plane touches ground. We are not really worried what happens when the plane hits the ground, we care more about what happens when the planes are in the air, and that is more of an FAA issue. Andrew continued by stating that we should lay out exactly what we want to ask our local officials to lobby for with the FAA instead of us dealing directly with the FAA. Our elected officials have the authority we do not have.  James Vilardi agreed stating that the FAA controls everything. Unless we can marshal all of our elected officials to work in collaboration with the FAA, we will not accomplish our goals. We have to rely on them – the FAA. We have to get our elected officials, and their representatives, moving in the same direction as us, with the same set of goals, in order to move our agenda with the FAA forward. Andrew Weiss asked if everyone was in agreement that the three goals Carol Renta read earlier is what we are going to request help with from our elected officials.  Everyone was in agreement. Larry Quinn asked if the committee thought it would be helpful to also get someone from Governor Cuomo’s office involved.  James Vilardi commented that he did not know how much impact the Governor’s office would have in dealing with the issues at hand, but that it couldn’t hurt. 2   Andrew Weiss commented, while the more the merrier, air traffic is really a federal issue.  Carl Baessler agreed that we have to deal with the FAA on a federal level. James Vilardi offered that before the January meeting the committee have a virtual meeting with the liaison from all four elected official’s offices and the Governor’s office to see if we can engage them in conversation. James proposed a potential date of Tuesday, December 8th for this meeting.  Ronnie Goldman asked the committee if they thought we should invite everyone to speak with us altogether as a group or individually, one at a time.  James Vilardi commented that he thought a roundtable discussion with everyone present would be better, as they would know what is going on in terms of pending legislation, and we could get their input collectively at the same time.  Andrew Weiss suggested holding the meeting with whoever is available, and if some people are not available to meet anyway with those who are available.  Everyone was in agreement. James Vilardi asked for a volunteer to rework the Mission Statement adding our 2020/21 goals. James again suggested the Mission Statement having two parts – Part I is the Mission Statement, and Part II is the list of goals for 2020/21. Part II would change every year.  Andrew Weiss offered to take on this task. James Vilardi asked if anyone is getting complaints about air traffic noise now that Thanksgiving is approaching.  Andrew Weiss said there have been complaints about an increase in airplane noise on a Floral Park webpage, as this week air traffic has picked up.  Larry Quinn commented he has not received any complaints from Garden City residents. James Vilardi asked the committee what they thought of revamping the TVASNAC committee making the Governor’s, Senators’, Congressmembers’ and FAA’s liaison semi-permanent members of the committee to hold them accountable so they would be tuning in to every meeting.  Carl Baessler offered that these liaisons could not be voting members.  Andrew Weiss commented that these liaisons should be treated like guest speakers, or visitors, since the whole point of TVASNAC is Town of Hempstead centric and these representative do not only represent the Town of Hempstead.  James Vilardi added that he would like to make their involvement a little more institutional, so to speak, so we can be in constant touch with what their offices are doing to combat this problem of air traffic noise. Maybe there can be one person who is appointed by the Governor’s office to interface with us on a regular basis and that person talks with the other four officials’ offices, so we are all in contact with each other. Things are going on at the federal level all the time that we are unaware of.  James Vilardi continued to point out the more we talk with these individuals, the more we can get them involved in our discussions. We need to understand what they are doing. They are going to be the sponsors of legislation needed to get the FAA to do the right thing for residents, and hopefully this will be what they want 3  to do as well. We have to construct a more permanent bridge between our elected officials and our committee to benefit our communities so we can make some headway.  Andrew Weiss commented that we first have to identify who in each office is the point person. We know Justin is the contact for Congressman Suozzi and Tom Curry is the contact for Congresswoman Rice, but we have to find out the names of the other representatives.  Carol Renta offered to assist in obtaining this information.  Carl Baessler added that we need to include our elected officials in what we want to accomplish if they are to be accountable. “After all, you are either part of the solution or you are part of the problem, so let’s get them involved.”  Andrew Weiss agreed stating they represent the same constituents regardless of political party. Carl Baessler requested James Vilardi let the committee know if he would like to get together for a few minutes one evening prior to the January meeting to prep before having the elected officials’ liaisons join us for the meeting. James Vilardi thanked everyone for their input tonight and the meeting was adjourned. Prepared by: Carol Renta Secretary, TVASNAC 4