Fewer Noise Complaints Spurs Drive for More Complaints

May 20, 2010 ‹ A neighborhood association in Greenwich, Connecticut, is
imploring its members to keep making noise complaints about Westchester
County Airport, which borders the community in the northern suburbs of
New York City. John Lucarelli of the Round Hill Association,
representing 1,100 homes within five miles of the airport, told
Greenwich Time that noise complaints are down by over 600 from March the
previous year. In April the noise complaints decreased by almost 800.
Lucarelli says that low-flying aircraft and the pilots ignoring the
voluntary overnight curfew continue to be a problem. ³We definitely need
to keep making calls,² Lucarelli said this week during the group¹s
annual*meeting.
Westchester County Airport (HPN) has an active mix of airline,
corporate, rotorcraft, and private aircraft including several flight
schools. 44 percent of the complaints in March involved helicopters and
transient corporate aircraft. John Inserra, HPN¹s noise abatement
officer, says his office dutifully records each complaint and often
shares them with operators when the aircraft causing the noise can be
identified. Chronic complainers, however, tend to skew the statistics.
For example, a single household in Valhalla, New York, accounted for 363
of the 471 complaints in April and 275 of the 300 complaints in March
this year, according to*Inserra. The previous year the same household
accounted for similar a number of calls.
Lucarelli, said the neighborhood association doesn¹t want to be
adversarial and wants to work with the airport to deal with the*issue.
³We are starting to usher in a new era of public and private partnership
with the community and the airport,² he said.

It sounds as if the few chronic complainers are running out of
credibility!

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