East Hampton Helicopter Noise

Dear David,

Thank you for the great front page article in The East Hampton Star, “Airport Money Flows to One Side.” The data on the amount of money donated to the East Hampton Republican Committee by helicopter interests was astounding.

It’s alarming that 75 percent of the money raised by the G.O.P. was given by New Jersey carpetbaggers trying to influence our local elections. They wish to force the toxic waste from their dirty, noisy helicopters on the folks living on the East End. This tells me that the East Hampton G.O.P. candidates’ principles have been bought and paid for by New Jersey helicopter interests, which have no other interest in East Hampton but to disrupt our lives and dump their toxic waste from helicopters, poisoning our environment.

It is horrible, unacceptable, and shameful that G.O.P. candidates sold out by accepting this blood money. Really, is that all it takes to buy these candidates? Their principles have very little value. It’s absolutely disgusting.

One of the pillars of the national Republican Party is to uphold the Constitution of the United States of America. At the heart of that is support for the 10th Amendment, which gives power not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, to the states or to the people. This is the essence of local rule and local control. The National Republican Party embraces certain libertarian principles to reduce government influence on our lives, like Federal Aviation Association control over East Hampton Airport.

At the beginning of this year, certain key grant assurances giving F.A.A. control over restricting airport use expired. The control of East Hampton Airport was given back to the local people, and the local government was finally able to enact legislation setting curfews and restricting the number of aircraft using the airport. These restrictions mostly affected helicopters, thereby reducing the unbearable noise and toxic fumes plaguing the folks in our region.

Taking a single dollar from the F.A.A. will subject the airport to new grant assurances for another 20 years, reverting control of the airport back to F.A.A. and unraveling legislation implementing these restrictions.

All three G.O.P. candidates running for town board said they would take money from the F.A.A., giving control back to the F.A.A., in contradiction to G.O.P. principles. This is what the East Hampton G.O.P. means when its says in its ads it wants to “Take Back East Hampton”: take it back to F.A.A. control, G.O.P. principles be damned. This is unbelievable because they have compromised their G.O.P. principles for money given to them from New Jersey carpetbaggers who want to fly their magic carpets to East Hampton and destroy our way of life.

To drive the point home, we find our Republican congressman, Lee Zeldin, assisting the Democrat-majority town board to regain local control of the airport by writing letters to the F.A.A., drafting legislation, publicly supporting the town board’s restrictions, and holding rallies in the Peconic region to promote the great work he is doing assisting East Hampton Town to bring much needed noise relief for the East End. He does this because he is a true Republican, upholding G.O.P. principles. The East Hampton G.O.P. are nowhere to be found. They have betrayed their own principles for the almighty dollar.

I was born in Norway, where a word for this type of person was made famous after World War II. They are called “quislings.” The meaning of this word is traitor. It’s shameful!

Sincerely,

FRANK DALENE