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Article
Airport critic says meetings planned to avert public input
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10/feb/2010 |
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Richard Langseth, who has persistently followed developments at Green Airport and is planning to run as a Republican candidate for mayor, has accused the agency of deliberately downplaying data on noise as part of its overall effort to extend the main runway.
Langseth made the charges in a letter to the editor published by the Beacon last Tuesday. And in another letter in today’s paper he calls on members of the Tea Party to seek for greater transparency in RIAC operations by turning out at the airport this Thursday. Notice of the meeting is on the Tea Party Web site.
Despite the announcement’s posting on the website, Rhode Island Tea Party organizer Colleen Conley said she was unaware of the situation, and hasn’t encouraged Tea Party supporters to attend.
“This gentleman has not contacted me on this,” said Conley.
In what Rhode Island Airport Corporation President/CEO Kevin Dillon acknowledges is a departure from not responding to Langseth, Dillon says in a letter published in today’s paper that RIAC is simply following state law and the report is not linked to the environmental study for a longer runway.
In a telephone interview, Dillon said the meetings scheduled for tomorrow at 12:30 p.m. at the William Hall Library in Cranston and Thursday at noon at the Mary Brennan Room at the Sundlun Terminal are not the forums to discuss the proposal to extend Runway 5-23 to 8,700 feet. Rather, he explained these are semi annual meetings required by legislation to solicit comments about current operations. He suggested the nature of inquiries would focus on why aircraft haven’t followed prescribed flight paths to reduce noise in residential neighborhoods and flights not within the voluntary curfew. Both instances, he said, could be related to weather conditions.
“These meetings are intended to present and explain these reports to the general public as well as to present findings based on performance standards and compliance with approved federal noise abatement measures,” Dillon writes. Traditionally, the meetings have been poorly attended. If one or two people show up, it is a lot.
Langseth, however, believes the information generated by the state mandated monitoring program would get fed into the environmental impact statement being drafted on the proposed improvements at Green including the runway extension. He asks why it wouldn’t be, since it reflects actual operations at the airport. And on this score he maintains the data is less than complete because it fails to record more than 2,000 operations at Green’s.
“There’s something missing,” he said, “there’s 2,000 more flights coming in than going out.”
His contends without this information, the environmental study would not accurately reflect the airport’s impact and proposed mitigation would be less than needed. “They’re going to use these numbers. They’re saying they’re not, but that doesn’t make sense.”
Further, Langseth argues the meetings are scheduled at times that people are normally working and at out-of-the-way locations so as to discourage participation.
“It really does not matter all that much that the hearing is about noise control,” Langseth writes in today’s letter. “We simply want an open process. No one should be able to control our noise! He has told the press that he does not even need to hold a hearing – an autocratic position that is contrary to state law. His position is weak; he needs to be shown that a hearing is a hearing, and not some mealy-mouthed community-awareness info session held at lunchtime in a room at the airport.”
Mayor Scott Avedisian has followed Langseth’s arguments in his letters. Last week he said he was not responding to them since he understands Langseth plans to run as a candidate for mayor.
Langseth, who recently registered as a Republican, said he is considering a run and expects to make an announcement soon.
Asked about it Sunday, Langseth said he is in the process of naming a committee, but that he won’t make a formal declaration until April, 90 days after registering as a Republican.
Langseth has been in contact with Tea Party organizers and he expects there will be a showing on Thursday. The message Langseth aims to get across is that RIAC isn’t following the law. He said the meeting was not posted 30 days in advance and even as late as this past weekend the reports to be discussed tomorrow and Thursday haven’t been made available. In addition, he said, the terminal is an inappropriate place for a meeting since people will have to pay for parking.
“What needs to happen is that the airport needs to know people are upset,” he said.
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