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Democratic Committee
Len Bernard's Hot Air Balloon
March 27, 1999
P. O. Box 4188
East Hampton, NY 11937
(516)329-6930
It was
nice to see that not much has changed in regard to a certain party's methodology
and their revisionist attempts in trying to explain away their woefully
inept performance in regard to community involvement on airport improvements.
Mr. Benard tells us that there have not been any B707, 747, 737, 727, et.
al. aircraft to land at our
airport since it's reconstruction. That's
not surprising since it's only been a few months, winter months, since
its' completion and simple physics won't allow anything bigger than a 737
to land and take off again from our 4242' runway. But really, that
was not the point at all during the debates of last year and the year prior
and I'm surprised he wants to keep beating this dead horse. The question
was,
and still remains, is this: will the
reconstruction of 10/28 result in an increase of volume of larger aircraft
to East Hampton? That includes large business class aircraft of the
type that, as an example, Mr. Zuckerman flies, a Falcon 900. The
only way we will be able to answer this question intelligently will be
to compare the traffic types during the summer months of each successive
year with a
baseline year of say "summer of 1997".
After 5 years of data collection, starting this summer, the answer should
speak for itself and be free of partisan attempts to explain anything away.
I'm sure airport manager Pat Ryan is more than capable to make an independent
analysis if asked. Any conclusions made now or in the interim is
irresponsible conjecture and speculation and will only assist in inflaming
passions again on a subject that needs no accelerants.
Let's be prudent and for a change speak from an informed position.
On another issue, it was amusing to note that at the last Town Board hearing
on the Sammy's Beach/3 Mile Harbor Dredging Project there were no republican
Town Board members in their usual chairs. No, they were in the audience
simulating them being "one with the people" or more likely a shameful attempt
at distancing themselves from a difficult issue.
At this spectacle, solidarity was not the word that came to mind.
Rather it was courage, or more to the point, their lack thereof.
Sincerely,
Barry W. Leach