Runway Is Still Political
The money is in the budget, a contractor has been chosen, and the Federal Aviation Administration has already set money aside for improvements to the runway at the East Hampton Airport, but if the Town Supervisor and the Town Board's incoming Democratic majority have their way, the improvements will not move forward as planned - even if it means paying for a smaller project out of the town's pocket.
"I'm not willing to move [runway] 10-28 forward," Supervisor Cathy Lester stated flatly at a work session of the board last week.
Supervisor Lester, Councilman Peter Hammerle, and Councilman-elect Job Potter were to meet with the F.A.A. this morning to discuss scaling back the project. "We want the F.A.A. to look at it from the town's perspective," Ms. Lester said.
Set Public Forum
At the same work session, the Republican Town Board members, still in the majority for another month and a half, scheduled a public informational meeting on the project as currently planned, inviting representatives from the F.A.A. and the airport's consulting engineer to speak to residents about the repaving and revamping of runway 10-28.
"There's been so much misinformation," Councilman Len Bernard said in calling for the forum. To help "clear it up," he said, the town should have the experts clarify just what is on the agenda for the runway.
Supervisor Lester, who has been asking for a public hearing on the entire airport layout plan, of which the runway improvements are only a part, scoffed at Mr. Bernard's suggestion.
"The F.A.A. will explain why we need La Guardia here," she said.
Sending A Message
A public hearing would send the wrong message to the F.A.A., the Supervisor believes, especially given the fact that she will ask the Federal agency this morning to consider amending the project.
"I don't want to confuse the F.A.A.," she said at the work session.
"It's the public that's being confused," Councilwoman Nancy McCaffrey shot back.
Councilman Thomas Knobel, Mrs. McCaffrey, and Mr. Bernard, who, along with the Republican Councilwoman-elect, Pat Mansir, were excluded from this morning's meeting, approved a public meeting on the project for Dec. 5. But it seems clear the repaving of runway 10-28 will not proceed as planned regardless of what happens on that date.
Majority's Goals
At the very least, the Democrats believe the current plans would need State Environmental Quality Review before proceeding.
Councilman Knobel, who, as the Town Board's liaison to the airport, has spoken on behalf of the town in the past where the F.A.A. is concerned, suggested that if he was not going to be included in today's discussions, the Supervisor should relieve him of his duties as airport liaison.
She declined to do so, but said on Tuesday, "There's going to be a clear majority of the board who have different goals for the airport . . . We want to speak [to the F.A.A.] with a unified voice."
Scaled Down?
The F.A.A. apparently requires the runway be repaved to 100 feet wide. The 100-foot width meets the agency's safety standards for all planes flying into the airport.
It will probably take scores of meetings to convince the F.A.A. to fund a 75-foot-wide repaving, as the Democrats will ask.
The Republicans have cautioned that if the project does not move forward, the F.A.A. will want to recoup nearly $180,000 already invested for engineering plans and will withdraw all its funding for the runway project as well.
Questions Meeting
"I'm not going up there with the idea of not moving some project forward," the Supervisor said on Tuesday. But, given the election results, she does feel the town now has an "obligation" to see it moves forward on a smaller scale.
As for the Dec. 5 meeting, the Supervisor questioned the Republican board members' goals. "They're having a public meeting on a project I'm going to ask for an amendment on," she said. "I don't know what they intend to accomplish."
An editorial on the runway project appears in this issue.