Residents sound off about their airport neighbor

By John Howell
Posted 7/21/16

By JOHN HOWELL LED lighting may be saving the Rhode Island Airport Corporation hundreds of thousands of dollars, but it's given some neighbors of Green Airport an eternal day. There's more to their disenchantment with the airport. At a Ward 3 community

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Residents sound off about their airport neighbor

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LED lighting may be saving the Rhode Island Airport Corporation hundreds of thousands of dollars, but it’s given some neighbors of Green Airport an eternal day. There’s more to their disenchantment with the airport.

At a Ward 3 community meeting Tuesday evening, Strawberry Field Road West homeowners complained of increased late night flights, the placement of a dumpster and port-a-john across the street from their homes, and how trees and plastic curtains that once shielded the neighborhood from light, noise and jet fumes are gone.

Stanley Snyzyk said the neighborhood has progressively deteriorated to the point where it has become a mess because of the airport. Another area resident said, “It’s wide, wide open now…you get the whiff of jet fumes.”

“These are all reasonable points,” RIAC interim president and CEO Peter Frazier told the audience at the Buttonwoods Community Center. “We’ll make sure this works.”

Frazier thought long-term parking lot lighting could be redirected away from the neighborhood. Moving the dumpster and the port-a-john, he imagined, would be easy fixes, and he would look into replacing the trees that have died or come down that once served as a neighborhood buffer. He wasn’t as hopeful of confining scheduled flights to the airport’s midnight to 6 a.m. voluntary curfew.

“They’ve been nibbling at that,” Frazier said of how scheduled flights are arriving after midnight and departing before 6 a.m., “and we’re pushing back.” But, he observed, RIAC can’t stop the airlines from scheduling flights during the desired curfew, and in the case of the latest arrival at 12:45 a.m., doing so could mean loss of that Chicago service since that flight serves as a connection from other flights across the country.

Reached Wednesday, Frazier said the airport has already started to address concerns raised at the meeting.

“Regarding the dumpster and port-a-john, we should be able to have them moved within a week or so, i.e., the next time the respective service companies come we’ll have them moved to a position off the fence line to a position abutting the airfield or, at minimum, more internal to the parking lot,” he writes in an email. Frazier said RIAC would also be looking into screening material for the fence and replacing trees lost to blight.

As for lighting, he said plans to install solar canopies in the long-term lot would result in a rearrangement of existing lights. Work on the solar array is projected to start next month.

At the meeting arranged by Ward 3 Councilwoman Camille Vella-Wilkinson, Frazier also outlined steps being taken to lessen the impact of runway extension construction on the neighborhood. A lot of that work will take place during the night so as to minimize its effect on airport operations. Frazier said backup beepers on heavy equipment would be silenced and spotters would be used to ensure safety. Also, he said rubber gaskets would be used on the rear flaps of dump trucks to deaden the sound of metal banging on metal when dumping loads. Measures are likewise being taken to prevent dust and sand being blown into the neighborhood, as was the case a couple of years ago at the northeast end of the airport with the relocation of the Winslow Park playing fields.

Some of the measures taken by the airport have resulted in unintended consequences.

Talking about the relocation of Main Avenue to allow for the extension of Runway 5 by about 1,500 feet, Frazier said, “Main Avenue is so smooth, so nice that some people are traveling too quickly.” He didn’t have an immediate answer as to how to slow traffic down.

Frazier will look into restoring the barrier quality of the fence bordering the airport. It once supported a green mesh fabric that, like a curtain, screened the neighborhood. One couple suggested a permanent wooden wall as used along highways and at airports in New York.

In the long range, Frazier thought with quieter aircraft and improved technology the airport’s impact would be reduced. He thought the area next to long-term parking would not be developed for cargo operations as once planned, but more likely developed for corporate hangars when and if the demand arises. He was concerned by claims that RIAC hadn’t responded to complaints and listened to the suggestion that the airport website list individual emails in addition to an information email with no individual identified.

“We should have a dialogue. If [you] make multiple calls and we don’t get back to you [that] is unacceptable,” he said.

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  • richardcorrente

    I WILL renegotiate the Airport Expansion Agreement!

    Mayor Avedisian gave away the tax revenue of over a hundred homes (480 since the beginning) and all his taxpayers got was noise pollution, water pollution, air pollution, and soil pollution and a lot of angry voters that I believe will vote for me. How he gave all that tax money away, year after year decade after decade for infinity and got absolutely NOTHING for it amazes me!

    I have met Peter Frazier and find him to be an intelligent, reasonable person. I believe he truly wants the Airport to be a better neighbor and, as Mayor I plan to help RIAC do just that. Imagine someone wanted to buy your car and wanted to give you absolutely NOTHING for it. Would you do that? Avedisian did. I will redo the expansion agreement. I won't settle for nothing. As Mayor I won't stop until the taxpayers get "something" for the pollution they have to endure. I won't stop until I get them "something" to offset the higher taxes they have to pay to make up for the loss of millions of dollars of real estate taxes Avedisian gave away. I won't accept nothing. I can't.

    Thank you for reading this. Feel free to hold me to it.

    Enjoy your Summer and please join me on August 8th at Lemongrass, 1138 Post Rd. Warwick from 5 to 8 PM for our fundraiser. I would love to meet you.

    Richard Corrente

    Endorsed Democrat for Mayor

    Thursday, July 21, 2016 Report this