East Hampton Helicopter Noise

Larry,

The airport is a detriment to East Hampton, more than anything else, at present.

I have lived here since I was five years old. A long time.

Our summers are now sacrificed to an unending and increasing onslaught from aircraft noise and the resultant pollution: of our air, our quality of life, our property values, and our essential well being as residents of this once pristine place. I can’t enjoy my home in Wainscott on a summer day, so I go to the beach at Georgica to escape–and the helicopters and jets assault us there as well.

My feeling is that you are not supportive of the best interests of the town, and the East End in general, because you refuse to publicly state that helicopters, jets, seaplanes, and the unbridled expansion of EHA are completely contrary to preservation of East Hampton and the East End as a wonderful rural oasis in a world that continues to destroy itself by kowtowing to economic interests that are unnecessary and environmentally and socially perverse. To say that, “We need to do something at some point” is not helpful at all.

You claim to be an antidote to the misguided and shortsighted policies of your predecessors, monsieurs Wilkinson, Stanzione, et. al. as they promoted unregulated expansion of the airport. Is this the case? Or are you in the pocket of the same people who they pledged fealty to? I hate to think that this is so. The recent facts, however, seem to suggest otherwise.

I don’t enjoy pestering you and being one who calls you out–but what else am I to think?

Every day it gets worse. We cannot enjoy the life that we have made for ourselves through years of hard work and huge investment: physically, financially, emotionally. I so want to believe that you will help us eliminate this airport scourge. But I feel that I must be a fool to continue to believe this. You know that I am not a fool.

When will you take a forceful public stand to get this monstrosity under control, and give us back our beautiful summers? That is what we love most about this place. And this is what thousands of us have lost, so that a few wealthy and unfeeling individuals can get to our home area more easily? Environmental and social considerations be damned?

If I am wrong in my perception, please show me that I am wrong. I will be the first to admit it–and to fully support you in either getting EHA under control in a manner that the people feel is acceptable–or shutting this monstrosity down once and for all.  The great majority will be ecstatic when we can enjoy our summers again free from the aircraft plague. This is bigger than me–and you. We need you to take the lead in this. We expect you to. We voted for you because we believed in you. Please don’t let us down.

Barry