Government Briefs 06.07.12

East Hampton Town

Airport Tower Here Soon

    An air traffic control facility  — commonly called a tower but actually a modular building to house equipment and traffic controllers — could be up and running at East Hampton Airport by June 18, Town Councilman Dominick Stanzione said on Tuesday.

    The Federal Aviation Administration-approved  structure is expected to arrive at the airport tomorrow, and work such as electric hookups will be done next week.  Also next week, the air traffic control staff will arrive and begin training for their work here.

    In other airport news, Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc said at the town board’s meeting Tuesday that he will call for a full financial feasibility study to determine if the airport can be self-sustaining, allowing the town to stop accepting F.A.A. grants. Taking the federal money, which obligates the town to abide by a number of F.A.A. rules regarding the airport’s operation, has long been the center of a debate over the town’s ability, or lack of it, to minimize aircraft noise disturbance.

Waste Management and Water Protection

    State legislation co-sponsored by Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., which has already passed the Assembly, could be a key element in a future East Hampton Town comprehensive septic waste management program, Councilman Stanzione said Tuesday.

    The state watershed protection improvement district bill would allow the town to establish special tax districts in watershed areas to raise money for projects designed to protect ground and surface waters. They could help pay for septic system upgrades, alternative septic systems, stormwater collection devices, and the like, in order to “capture, treat, and infiltrate runoff and decrease the amount of pollutants” reaching water bodies, as Mr. Thiele said in a press release. Recent discussions about what to do with the town’s aging scavenger waste treatment plant have spawned recommendations that the town take a comprehensive look at the issue of septic waste and water protection and create a multifaceted plan, Mr. Stanzione said. Small, localized wastewater treatment facilities in environmentally sensitive areas, eliminating less efficient individual septic systems, could be a part of the plan, he said.