Sep 21, 2007
Greenwich air advisers regroup after cancelled meeting
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Greenwich has not retained a lawyer and is not involved in a pending lawsuit at this time. That much is clear.
According to Erica Purnell, vice chairwoman of the Selectmen’s Advisory Committee on Aircraft Noise, that doesn’t mean that “at some point down the road we can’t then join somebody else’s legal platform.”
What’s not so clear for the town, though, is what effects the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA’s) airspace redesign plan for the New Jersey, Philadelphia and New York areas will have on Greenwich.
A planned meeting last Wednesday that Greenwich officials had hoped would clarify the FAA’s Record of Decision report on the redesign and further explain the plan’s impact on the town did not happen after the main speaker cancelled. According to Bruce Dixon, chairman of the selectmen’s committee, Thomas Cahill, tower manager at neighboring Westchester County Airport, called him at 9:15 Wednesday morning (a 10 a.m. meeting had been planned) and told him that his bosses at the FAA had asked him not to attend. They were concerned, Mr. Dixon said, about reports that the town would use the meeting to determine whether to join in a lawsuit against the FAA regarding the airspace redesign plan and perceived adverse noise effects.
“We weren’t asking Mr. Cahill to opine one way or the other on impact,” Bruce Dixon, chairman of the town’s advisory committee, said Friday. “The committee felt it needed to have a better understanding of how this decision on airspace reconfiguration would overlay this area.”
New Canaan officials are considering legal action, as is the state attorney general. Lawsuits have already popped up in Elizabeth, N.J., and Delaware County, Pa.
The town’s next step: Make a recommendation to the selectmen as to whether to take the “wait and see” approach, choose to join other towns in suing the FAA or do nothing at all.
When contacted by the Post, Mr. Cahill referred comment to an FAA spokesman, Jim Peters, who rebuffed questions about Wednesday’s event, saying, “That issue is behind us.”
Approved earlier this month, the FAA’s Sept. 5 Record of Decision officially endorses one of four options it considered: To shift airplane traffic headed into LaGuardia Airport over Fairfield County and direct planes departing Westchester County Airport to make much of their initial ascent over the airport.
Mr. Peters did say that a 30-day “cooling off” period was in effect (having started Sept. 5) to allow municipalities time to “digest” the FAA’s findings.
Selectman Peter Crumbine, ex-officio member of the selectmen’s committee, told the
Post Tuesday that Mr. Cahill is not to blame for last week’s meeting that wasn’t. Mr. Crumbine added that Mr. Cahill has always cooperated with the town and continues to work with it on other matters related to the airport.
Ms. Purnell agreed.
Directed by the selectmen to make a recommendation, Ms. Purnell said the selectmen’s committee will go back to the plan, re-read it thoroughly, check details where there has been concern, and discuss it before making a recommendation to selectmen. Ms. Purnell said she hopes the committee has something in a week or so.
“Based on the information that’s available and the knowledge of the plan, we will make a determination on whether this plan will have a negative impact on Greenwich, no impact or a positive impact,” she said.
Despite the moratorium, Mr. Peters said, the plan continues.
“We are in the implementation stage now,” he said.
© Copyright 2008 by Hersam Acorn Newspapers
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