As Anger Mounts, Town Announces Meeting on Airport Noise

A hastily scheduled East Hampton Town Board meeting will be held next week to address the concerns of many East End residents about noise from aircraft that use East Hampton Airport.

Following meetings last week in Bridgehampton and Peconic and on Shelter Island, town officials anticipated that a large number of people would come to speak out about airport noise at the town board's regularly scheduled meeting Thursday evening, but, with 13 public hearings on unrelated issues already on the agenda, East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell said Monday morning that he was concerned that an overflow crowd would have nowhere to sit and many would not be able to fit into the modest Town Hall meeting room.

"In order to adequately host that many people who want to address the airport noise issue, we're scheduling this special meeting so people can attend," Mr. Cantwell said on Monday.

The airport noise meeting is slated for Aug. 27 at 6:30 p.m. It will be held at LTV Studios at 75 Industrial Road in Wainscott, which has more space than the Town Hall meeting room.

Kathleen Cunningham, the chairwoman of the Quiet Skies Coalition, commended Mr. Cantwell for creating a special meeting just to address airport noise.

"All over the East End, our neighbors and colleagues are being tortured, particularly by helicopter noise," Ms. Cunningham said in a press release.

The meeting comes just as recent numbers show flights in and out of the airport have grown. Between Jan. 1 and Aug. 4, helicopter traffic jumped by nearly 44 percent over 2013.