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, February 22, 2021 Virtual Meeting In Attendance Carl Baessler, Village of Atlantic Beach Dan Plaut, Village of Cedarhurst Laurence Quinn, Village of New Hyde Park Akiva Lubin, Village of Lawrence Sean Wright, Village of Valley Stream Avi Muchnick, Village of Woodsburgh Executive Director James Vilardi was not available for this evening’s meeting. Carol Renta called the meeting to order and attendance was taken.  Joining the committee at tonight’s virtual meeting was Tom Curry representing Congresswoman Kathleen Rice’s office. The November 23, 2020 and January 25, 2021 Meeting Minutes were presented for approval. Motion was made to approve by Carl Baessler and second by Sean Wright. The revised TVASNAC Mission Statement with 2021 Goals was presented for approval. Motion was made to approve by Carl Baessler and second by Larry Quinn. Motion passed unanimously for both the minutes and the mission statement. Everyone present agreed that the letter to the FAA from the committee drafted by James Vilardi and Andrew Weiss was on point and should be sent to our elected officials offices to see if they are comfortable signing onto the letter along with the TVASNAC members. Tom Curry stated that FAA Administrator Dickson had appointed an Eastern Regional Director, Jenny Solomon, and they came to an agreement with the Community Roundtable that any community outreach would go through that official roundtable before the FAA would agree to send a representative anywhere. Tom wanted us to be prepared that if we send a letter to the FAA, this is most likely the response we will receive.  Carol Renta commented that the TVASNAC committee is hoping if elected officials sign onto the letter along with us, it might carry a little more weight and the FAA may consider speaking directly with us.  Tom Curry does not foresee a problem with Congresswoman Kathleen Rice signing onto our letter, but he will gladly review it, discuss it with the Congresswoman and get right back to us.  Carol Renta stated she will send a copy to all elected offices shortly, and the TVASNAC committee understands each official will want to have their team review the letter to determine if they are comfortable adding their name. 1 Carol Renta asked Tom Curry if he was able to advise the committee on Congresswoman Rice’s position on airplane traffic and noise, and if she was in agreement as an elected official for the area as well as a resident of Garden City that changes should be made. Tom Curry stated that Congresswoman Rice has been adamant about certain changes that should be happening with respect to airplane traffic/noise. She is definitely a proponent of newer technology coming out to make planes quieter.  For example, there is research and development currently going on by certain companies like Pratt and Whitney and even Rolls Royce. They are developing new engines that increase power and reduce noise up to a 70%. Tom has spoken with people about this technology to see if planes could be retrofitted with this new technology, but it unfortunately is not possible. However, new planes coming out could be fit with this technology once it is perfected. Tom is not certain of the timeframe for this, but does know some planes made in the 80’s are still in use today. So realistically, it will be quite a long time until we see meaningful change in this area.  There are other things we should be doing, like speaking with the FAA administration, especially Secretary Buttigieg and Administrator Dickson, about NextGen technology. We have seen airports getting increases in complaints. Some only received a few dozen a year, now airports are receiving hundreds and thousands of complaints a year, as evidenced through data released by the Port Authority at LAG and JFK. It’s like night and day from ten years ago compared to today. A lot of this is from the same routes being flown time and time again. There is no dispersal of flights. It’s the same people being affected, night after night after night. Congresswoman Rice’s office has sent countless letters stating this should be changed, and will continue to press forward on this.  Congresswoman Rice’s office has also tried to help the New York Community’s Roundtable in better organizing itself. Specifically, Long Island is severely underrepresented on that committee. o This is the committee that the FAA has chosen to do most of its business through, and Nassau County should be given a larger voice on this committee. Not only the Town of Hempstead, but Nassau County in general. There is no representation from the City of Long Beach and no representation from the Town of North Hempstead outside of Supervisor Bosworth’s office. Councilmembers have no voice on this committee, including the Town of Hempstead who only has the TVASNAC Executive Director as a member of the Roundtable Committee. Nassau County legislators do not have a say on that committee either. o If you look at the New York City representation, it is so overdone. The city has representation by way of their community boards, Councilmembers, Assemblypersons, Senators, Congressmen and Congresswoman. o There is a big hole when we talk about Nassau County, since a huge majority of their flight paths, especially on arrival, come directly over Nassau County starting from the North Shore - Glen Cove, through New Hyde Park and Garden City, Floral Park, all the way through the Five Towns, everywhere in Nassau County and then it hits Queens. We have really tried to beef up representation on this Roundtable Committee. o Congresswoman Rice plans to continue pushing for those solutions.  On the federal level, Congresswoman Rice’s office will continue to discuss these issues with Secretary Buttigieg and Administrator Dickson. They are not sure if these officials will stay on at the FAA, but if not, messaging and working with the staff will remain the same and should not be an issue. Carol Renta mentioned that one of the other goals of the committee which we are hoping for assistance from our elected officials offices on, is the possibility of advocating for planes to utilize the glide slope method as opposed to the step down method to reduce noise levels. Tom Curry indicated that they have spoken with the FAA about this as well. It’s part of the NextGen technology, and with the crowded airspace, there are certain restrictions that sometimes prevent planes from using the glide slope. For example, two planes can’t be within a mile of each other unless there is at least 1,000 feet of separation, so it makes it more difficult when you are on a glide path – it would 2 restrict a little more of the airspace. They are certainly willing to continue those discussions with the FAA; Tom will speak with Steve Jones and Jenny Solomon at the FAA. Tom Curry went on to provide his cell phone number to everyone on the TVASNAC committee, and encouraged us to reach out to him with anything of concern. Be it airplane or village related, questions on grants, firefighter money or whatever it may be, he wants us to feel free to shoot him a text and they will do what they can to help. Congresswoman Rice’s office wants to bring as much federal dollars back to the district as possible and relief with respect to airplane noise. Tom mentioned that Congresswoman Rice is on the Quiet Skies Caucus for the federal government. The group has their own web page, introduces legislation regarding airplane noise, sends letters to Administrator Dickerson, has meetings with the FAA, etc. Once the world gets back to normal and they have updates on this group, Tom will forward information to Carol and Jim to share with the TVASNAC committee. Carol Renta brought up that at last month’s meeting it was mentioned that the FAA seems to take numbers into account in terms of the number of people contacting them to voice a particular concern or the number of people attending community meetings, and asked Tom Curry if he can speak to this assertion.  Tom Curry responded that this has usually been the case out of state, but in the last two years the FAA has had this hard and fast rule that if something is not sanctioned by the New York Community Aviation Roundtable, they won’t even send a representative to a meeting. Since the FAA is not the only agency dealing with this matter, they really should be more accommodating especially to Nassau County. Congresswoman Rice’s office has been requesting more representation for Nassau County for the last five years. If TVASNAC wants to pursue this, Congresswoman Rice’s office can certainly advocate on their behalf. Akiva Luben added that airports are in the jurisdiction of New York City, so perhaps this is why Nassau County does not rate representation. The FAA just cares about the city. They don’t care about us, which is clear since they’ve given us almost no representation on their committee. Our biggest problem now is just to get noticed and bring attention to the fact that we exist. Tom Curry suggested that part of the problem is that both subcommittees within the committee are run by Queens residents; one from Jamaica and one from Bayside. This is one reason Tom took a Vice Chair position with the committee just so that we could have a Nassau County voice there, but he was out gunned 4:1. It was an uphill battle. Larry Quinn suggested also checking to see how many trade groups are on the committee. Larry believes trade groups represent about 25% of the entire committee, so they are there for their employees/union members, and not necessarily for the public.  Tom Curry believes this to be true. They have stakeholders on the committee. It may be better if the elected officials weren’t even involved; just citizen members. At least then, the citizen members would not have asked all those stakeholders to join. There is a Baggage-Claim Handlers Association on the committee, and it doesn’t make sense. Better to have “joe public” on the committee who has had to deal with a thousand planes going over his house in the last week then someone who works at the airport. It’s a different perspective. Carol Renta asked if anyone had anything they wanted to add; no one had anything else to add. Carol Renta thanked Tom Curry for being with us tonight, and Tom mentioned he would make it a point to be on a meeting at least four times a year. If he has anything to share in between, he would definitely let us know. Tom reminded the committee to reach out to him at any time with any matter. Carol Renta thanked everyone for their input tonight and the meeting was adjourned. Prepared by: Carol Renta Secretary, TVASNAC 3