East Hampton Helicopter Noise

Dear David,
This past Saturday morning all hell broke loose as our 2-year-old Havanese erupted, barking incessantly at the front door. They say dogs are good judges of character; apparently she correctly judged the character of the guy proceeding to put a door hanger on our front door.

When I approached the front door, I interrupted him. He held up the door hanger showing three awful black-and white photos of Supervisor Larry Cantwell, Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc, and Councilwoman Sylvia Overby. “Are you happy with your government?” he asked.

I said, “There’s always room for improvement, however, over all I’m very pleased with our present government.”

He turned the door hanger over and there were three beautiful color photos of the G.O.P. candidates running for supervisor and town board positions. “Do you know these people?” He asked. I realized the scam immediately and asked him who he was and who he represented. He offered only that he wasn’t from around here, whereby I correctly pegged him as the carpetbagger from New Jersey trying to influence our local elections. After a quick exchange of words, he dejectedly walked back to his car parked in our driveway.

Let there be no mistake about it: This year’s election will be the determining factor of whether or not the local citizens of East Hampton will continue to control their own destiny at East Hampton Airport or forever give control to outsiders.

Major outside money and outside influence, coming directly from the helicopter industry, are attempting to upset our local elections. They are doing their damndest to spread their propaganda, to change the minds of local voters to vote for the G.O.P. candidates.

All the G.O.P. candidates said they are willing to take Federal Aviation Administration money and cede control of the airport back to the F.A.A. That would be a horrible scenario, since we all know noise-abatement policies don’t work and the only way to reduce noise at the airport is to restrict aircraft use, as this town board has done by passing legislation to implement curfews and restrict the frequency of use of the noisiest aircraft, mainly helicopters. Aircraft traffic cannot be restricted under F.A.A. control.

Do you remember the last time you were in New Jersey? Do you remember the stench of toxic waste dumps and oil refineries in New Jersey? This is exactly what the helicopter carpetbaggers want to bring to East Hampton. One only needs to drive by the airport Friday and Sunday afternoons during the summer. The stench of spent jet fuel from dirty, noisy helicopters makes me nauseated and makes my eyes water. This is exactly what the Republican candidates promises to take you back to. They want to take back the airport to F.A.A. control. What a disaster!

Vote for the Democrats, who support local control, who said no to F.A.A. funding, who said no to outside influences. This is our town, we need to act, by voting for the Dems, to keep it that way.

Sincerely,

FRANK DALENE