Expect Airport Crowd

The lame duck Republican majority on the East Hampton Town Board hopes to move forward with planned work on the Town Airport's main runway, although the incoming Democratic Town Board majority is set against it without further environmental review.

As it stands, "It is very definitely the policy of the town that this project should proceed," Councilman Thomas Knobel said last week, pointing to a string of Town Board resolutions that set the project in motion. Mr. Knobel and Councilman Len Bernard took issue with a headline in last week's Star stating that a $2.5 million Federal Aviation Administration grant for the project had been canceled.

The F.A.A. grant is still available for the runway improvements, Mr. Knobel said, and will remain so until the F.A.A. hears officially that the town has changed its mind. "It's a very viable and active project," Mr. Knobel said last week.

Democratic Meeting

The headline was on a story that described a meeting held two weeks ago by several town representatives with F.A.A. officials.

Democratic Councilman Peter Hammerle and Councilman-elect Job Potter attended it, but none of the three Republican board members or the incoming Republican Councilwoman were invited. Councilman Knobel, who has been the Town Board's liaison to the F.A.A. for the past two years, later referred to the meeting as an example of [Supervisor Cathy] Lester's "scheming, maneuvering, and closed-door dealing."

"The Republicans are being set up as a straw man to be fought," he said last week.

Outcome Anticipated

He and his Republican colleagues on the board, Councilman Bernard and Councilwoman Nancy McCaffrey, believe people will feel differently about the runway after tomorrow's public meeting on the project with representatives of the F.A.A. and the town's airport consulting engineers at Town Hall.

The runway was one of the key issues in this year's election campaign and some, including the Town Supervisor, have called the election a referendum on the issue.

Those opposed to the repaving of the runway to its original 100-foot width - 75 feet with a 121/2-foot shoulder on either side - have said the new runway would be a welcome mat to larger, noisier planes, and would intensify use of the airport.

100-Foot Standard

They'd like to see the runway paved without the shoulders, but a 75-foot-wide runway would not meet the F.A.A.'s standards, based on the sizes of planes already using East Hampton Airport. The F.A.A. does not fund projects it considers below standard, so a narrower runway would most likely have to be funded by the town.

The Supervisor and her supporters also believe the project wasn't subjected to sufficient environmental and public review. She notes that the airport layout plan, of which this project is a part, was never brought before the public for comment. The question, as she sees it, is whether the town should give up control of its airport to Federal authorities or whether it can rein in this project.

"The voters made a decision," Supervisor Lester said. "A lot of that had to do with this very project."

Contentious Debate

Those on both sides of the runway debate have often shown up at Town Board meetings to voice concerns. Tomorrow's meeting is expected to be a well-attended and contentious one.

The three Republican Town Board members say the project has been adequately reviewed and will have no adverse environmental impacts. They point out that the town's natural resources director, Larry Penny, examined the site and proposed various mitigation measures to protect plant species there. Councilman Knobel also has contested claims that the paving would be significantly thicker than it is now. "The only thing of additional thickness will be the 121/2-foot shoulders."

There, he said, crushed gravel would be laid to stabilize the shoulders and four-to-five inches of asphalt will cover that. The entire runway would be regraded to provide better drainage, and a two-inch asphalt overlay will be laid on top of it.

Undergo SEQRA?

"Any less smears and cracks," he said. If the runway has an increased weight-bearing capacity, it's no more an increase than if it were repaved to 75 feet wide, he added. "The procedure was correctly done. . . . The process has been followed."

"That can be picked apart very easily," Ms. Lester said Tuesday. She continues to maintain that the project should undergo State Environmental Quality Review. "If there is a community group willing to take some legal action," she said, "a court of law has high regard for SEQRA."

The Democrats hope to put the runway widening and overlay on hold as of January and to bring the airport layout plan to a public hearing sometime next year.

Would Drop Grant

In that case the F.A.A. would close out its grant to the town without prejudice. This was reported last week and prompted the headline the Republicans questioned.

The Supervisor said she pointed out some "procedural problems" with the project when she and other Democrats met with the F.A.A. on Nov. 20, and "We were told we would not be put on the 'bad boys' list."

The town will be reimbursed soon for the nearly $190,000 already spent on the design and engineering of a 100-foot-wide runway, she said, and it will be able to reapply for the runway funding in the future.

No Guarantee

However, there is no guarantee the funds will be available, and, if the town eventually decides to repave the runway to less than 100 feet, it will have to repay that $190,000 to the F.A.A. Mr. Knobel had pressed this fact during the election campaign.

Mr. Knobel pointed to a chain of Town Board resolutions authorizing the engineering and design work, soliciting bids on the project, and, in September, authorizing the Supervisor to sign a contract with the lowest bidder, as proof of the Town Board's intentions.

The Supervisor neither voted for, nor signed, that contract, however, and now the company chosen, Hendrickson Brothers of Farmingdale, is asking a judge to force her or another member of the Town Board to do so. "It's a courtesy to say authorize . . . ," Mr. Knobel said this week, referring to the resolution. ". . . At a certain point it's not your option."

Hendrickson Suit

"What's the point of having a governing body in charge of the town if the Supervisor [doesn't follow its directions]?" asked Mary O'Connor, a representative of the East Hampton Aviation Association. She said pilots were up in arms at the Supervisor's handling of the issue, but also recognized some of the concerns of those living in Wainscott and other areas in the airport's flight path.

"We've been trying to talk to them to see if there isn't some way we can lobby for curfews [on larger planes]." she said. But relations between the pilots and the people in the flight path have been strained over the years. And the tension is sure to be played out at the public meeting tomorrow.

The question of whether the Supervisor or another board member will be ordered to sign the Hendrickson Brothers contract was to have been answered in court yesterday.

Makes Prediction

Even before this suit surfaced, however, the Republican board members had been considering just such a move. Last week, Mr. Knobel said there was a "great possibility" he or another Republican board member would sign the contract. "It's almost incumbent upon us to back up our resolutions," he said.

"I'm not sure if legally they can do that," the Supervisor said Tuesday. "I don't think that's looking at the best interests of the town."

The Supervisor said that if the Republicans push the project through before the end of the year "there is going to be a lot of community outrage. . . . A great number of people basically told us they are willing to take some legal action against the town. Why not let the [SEQRA and public hearing] process go through?"

Tomorrow's voting session begins at 10 a.m. in Town Hall. The hearing portion is scheduled for 10:30 a.m., also at Town Hall, but the American Legion Hall in Amagansett has been booked in anticipation of a crowd.