Southold Town residents enraged about helicopter noise are about to harness that energy into action.
A group of concerned neighbors attended the first-ever helicopter noise organizational meeting at Town Hall Tuesday night, where the goal was to create a civic group that would coordinate with those on the South Fork to help advocate for change.
Bob Mellafonte, chair of the Sag Harbor Citizen Advisory Committee, attended the meeting, as did Suffolk County Legislator Al Krupski, New York State Assemblyman Anthony Palumbo, Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell, Councilwoman Jill Doherty and Councilman Bob Ghosio.
Mellafonte took the floor first, explaining how his Sag Harbor CAC was run, with a chair, co-chair, and a secretary, and said their meetings are held on the second Friday of the month at the local high school to discuss an array of issues including water quality, development — and helicopter noise.
Russell said the town was looking to create a helicopter council that would meet at Town Hall and have support from the town board, including posting public notices, and press releases.
The supervisor said he’s been getting scores s of calls about helicopter noise and would like to tap into that to form a large group, with many members and a plan of action.
“I want hundreds of people to join, sort of like the helicopter version of the North Fork Environmental Council,” Russell said.
All town residents are invited and encouraged to join, Russell said, as well as seasonal residents.
“This is not just a Southold committee, it’s for the North Fork. The more hands the better,” he said. “I envision a steering group that will motivate the membership when need be.”
At a helicopter meeting held at the Southold Town Recreation Center in August, Russell said although the federal rule requiring Hamptons-bound helicopters to fly over the L.I. Sound along the north shore was extended for two years in a decision in June, a key component that would have required helicopters to say off-shore and fly around Orient Point and Shelter Island to the South Fork, as requested by New York State Senator Chuck Schumer and Congressman Tim Bishop, did not fly.
On Tuesday, he said the town continued to push for the northern route, but said other issues needed to be advocated for, including curfews and an increased reliance on the south shore route.
East Hampton Town, Russell said, has a new town board that is more willing to work on the issue than others in the past, but in the end, they need to represent their constituents.
And East Hampton residents, he said, do not want the northern route or the southern route, which would require helicopters to fly over the homes of a small group in the Georgia Pond area, where the wealthy and influential live.
“I’m not trying to create class warfare with Georgica Pond,” he said. But while he said he believes, “For the first time, East Hampton is actually listening, they will be hamstrung by how much control they can exert over the airport.” The issue will be subject to litigation, could take years, and in the end, “they will be responsible to their residents,” he said.
The Federal Aviation Administration, Russell added, “has the keys to the kingdom to solve this.”
Federal officials, Russell said, need to work to see that the FAA takes control, extending and mandating the northern route, something he said they have the power to do, as well as mandating the south shore route.
Residents from both Southold and Riverhead towns painted scenarios of quality of life shattered by incessant helicopter noise, as pilots came in “helter skelter” over neighborhoods at all hours. “It has to stop,” one woman said.
Russell said the new group would help to organize residents and show strength in numbers.
“It’s about getting a unified voice.”
Right now, Russell said, “No one is listening to a small town supervisor from Eastern Long Island.”
At the August meeting, over 100 incensed Southold Town residents showed up at the helicopter forum, armed with questions and ready to fight to preserve their quality of life on the North Fork, which they said has been shattered by the steadily escalating procession of helicopters and sea planes that fly overhead at all hours.
One by one, residents spoke passionately at the two podiums, describing years of failed attempts to be heard on the federal level and imploring elected officials for help. Solutions brought to the table included controlling the number of flights and altitude and even banning flights to the area and shutting down the East Hampton airport permanently.
Russell said the noise has just “gotten out of hand. It’s gotten worse.”
Palumbo, who lives in New Suffolk, said the helicopters had really been “pounding away” that morning at 7 a.m., and had woken his kids, ages 10 and 7.
An attorney, Palumbo suggested the way to control the issue was not legislative action, an “exhaustive process,” but controlling the number of flights and other measures.
Russell said one of the keys to mitigating the noise concerns is to demand the helicopters fly higher. Currently, he said, helicopters must fly at 2500 feet when in flight, but when on the transitional route, readying to land, pilots fly at their own judgment, with no regulation, based on what they determine is a safe altitude. “That’s a problem,” Russell said.
Peconic resident John Skabry has lived in his home for 44 years. “I can’t enjoy my backyard. We should be able to worship on Sunday in a quiet church.”
The FAA, Skabry said, is “terrible” on the issue of noise abatement. He suggested no further funding be given to the three airports until noise abatement is addressed. “Noise is pollution,” he said.
And, with the funding from the FAA for the East Hampton airport set to expire in December of this year, if no relief is realized, “We’ll shut that airport down if we have to.”
Skabry also suggested that an airport in Montauk be utilized, instead of the East Hampton facility.
He asked why the FAA had funded a control tower in East Hampton. An FAA rep present said the FAA did not fund that project.
Russell pointed out that the town has no legal right to regulate altitudes, with only the feds are able to make that change. “We’ve been running up against a brick wall,” he said.
Peconic resident Paula Daniel said helicopters also posed a safety concern; according to research, she said they crash 35 percent more often than airplanes. “We’re endangering our lives at a greater rate than anywhere else on Long Island and I don’t think that’s fair for a federal safety agency to accept.”
Teresa McCaskie of Mattituck has been fighting for change for years, attending eastern region helicopter meetings and crying out against the noise.
She read a list of demands, including that all helicopters, private jets and sea planes should fly one mile out around Orient, following the coastline. Private jets should not use Mattituck as a turning point, and all should be required to have flotation devices onboard, she said. In addition, she said, helicopters should fly at a minimum of 3000 feet and decrease altitude as close as possible to the airport, not 13 miles away in Mattituck.
McCaskie also questioned if the registration numbers could be painted on the bottom of helicopters and sea planes in a bold font.
FAA aviation safety inspector Jim Ciccone responded that the registration numbers are mandated to be two inches wide by 12 inches high and placed on the sides of aircraft. They were once put on the bottom of aircraft but that hasn’t been done in years, he said. To alter that procedure, an amendment would be needed. He added that despite claims to the contrary, the numbers have no gotten smaller.
McCaskie said no aircraft should be allowed to fly over Mattituck High School. “As a parent I have every right to demand that my child’s safety is the top priority,” she said.
She also asked why helicopters are not mandated to fly over open space or water and are, instead, flying over populated residential communities.
McCaskie also said the East Hampton town board “cannot accept another penny from the FAA. The board needs to take control of the airport. I support the push to have the airport shut down completely, if they can’t comply.”
Russell asked FAA representatives directly why the all-water route adopted stops west of Mattituck; they responded that they hadn’t worked on the rule and could not answer.
The supervisor said he’s become “far more cynical” and noted the Eastern Region Helicopter Council represents pilots who have “an interest in making East Hampton happy because they need access to that airport.”
The southerly route is rarely used, with an eye toward least inconveniencing East Hampton residents and those on the golf course there. “It comes at our sacrifice because flights come in over Mattituck Inlet,” Russell said.
Krupski asked the FAA representatives what it would take, to get the all-water route extended around Orient Point.
“A miracle,” someone called out from the audience. “Someone dying,” another said.
Again, the FAA reps said they were not part of the rule-making process and could not comment.
“Then why are you here?” one audience member asked.
Mallafonte has been working for years on the issue.
“We are being abused,” he said. “It has to stop. The only way is to ban them completely from this area.”
Mallafonte said residents needed to reach out to the new East Hampton town board. “We would like to see a complete ban of helicopters,” he said.
East Hampton Town is currently not able to regulate its rights as proprietor and impose limitations on the times helicopters can fly and the number of flights allowed, because the town accepted Federal Aviation grant funding years ago, with a 20-year window, Russell said at a town board meeting in 2013.
A noise abatement group sued the FAA nine years ago, based on the fact that the town improvements funded with the FAA funding was based on a master plan that had not yet been formally adopted. The group won, and the statute of limitations for the time when East Hampton has had to give up its rights of proprietorship is set to expire on December 31, 2014. After that time, the town board will be able to dictate helicopter flight times and other restrictions, speakers at that former town board meeting said.
Mallafonte said those in attendance should bombard the East Hampton town board, the FAA, and elected officials.
“They’re terrorizing us, our children, our wildlife,” he said. “Our goal is to have you unite with us on the South Fork and get after East Hampton and the FAA. They’re the ones that caused this and they will be the ones to fix this.”
After the meeting, residents signed up to join the group. Russell said a steering committee would be appointed at the next town board meeting.
