Dear Governor
Rendell,
We
are asking that you put the welfare of our children and all Pennsylvanians by
helping in blocking the extension of Runway 17-35 at the
Noise, noise, noise
of thousands of aircraft flying 2,000 feet or less over our homes, schools,
hospitals and places of worship throughout the day 365 days a year in order to
save less than a minute in air travel time is too great a sacrifice.
Many lower and middle
schools
Sacred
Bartram High Schools
Pollution generated
by overhead aircraft creates a “Fight for Life” challenge for a large
percentage of our population suffering with breathing problems such as asthma,
bronchitis, etc. in order to save less than a minute in air travel time is too
great a price to pay.
When we meet, some of
the information you will receive will be from The Cornell Study that finds airport
noise harms children, Aircraft Noise and children’s Development, League for the
Hard of Hearing, and Mothers Against Airport Pollution
to support our position.
Other options must be
found to improve air travel time. Maybe if the FAA had actually used all the
billions of dollars given to them by the taxpayers to improve air travel and
safety throughout the country we would not be facing the problems we are facing
today.
You
will be receiving seven pages of information from the Boyd Group outlining
mis-management and lack of accountability of the FAA.
If the runway is
extended it will only be 650 feet from one of the busiest highways in the
country. The FAA estimates there will be 600,000 operations by the year 2010. The
Boston Globe reported the
We
are not against airport improvements. We are asking all options to be equally
considered and the most favorable to the general public be selected. The 17-35
Runway extension is a temporary measure that will waste millions of dollars in
its completion. Why not use the funding to up-date the air traffic control
system and use the time to develop an intelligent plan for the airport?
We have met with:
Senator Santorum’s staff members Jeffrey Habern, Sara
Holcombe and Marcus Mitchell.
Senator Specter’s staff member Anthony Cunningham.
Congressman Weldon’s staff members Kelly Colvin and Joe
Connolly.
All
the legislators from the
Our
legislators, and their staff members, are our neighbors and friends. Many of us
worked hard to help get them elected to political office. They live in our
neighborhood and will share in the degrading of our quality of life in order to
save less than a minute in air travel time.
There has not been
one legislator, community or industry to publicly voice support for the 17-35
Runway extension. Only the FAA and the
If you would like to
see familiar faces at our meeting, we will invite Mr. Steven Burke, Pat Croce,
Alan Iverson and Andy Reid. Their homes are located under the fight path of
Runway 17-35. They may be interested in joining our meeting. Many of us have
not experienced the degrading of our quality of life that will be caused by the
17-35 Runway extension. We will be inviting families that are now currently
experiencing these changes.
Hundreds of thousands
of people living in
There are some question we would like answers to:
·
Who will be
responsible for closing 291 (
·
How long will
it be closed?
·
Who is going
to pay for the changes in our highway system in order to save less than
one minute of
airport travel time?
·
Has the FAA
scheduled for advanced guidance systems to mitigate noise impacts over
residential neighborhoods?
·
Is the airport
going to base landing fees on noise levels of planes? Noisiest planes are
charged
more to land.
·
The overhead
aircraft will make it almost impossible for our teachers to teach our
children.
Teachers would have to stop teaching every few minutes until the noise of
overhead aircraft
travels out of sound range. An educated population is vital for the economic
growth of our state. Business will migrate to communities that provide an
educated work force. How are you going to address this problem?
We are asking you to withhold any
funding of any kind, especially for the rerouting of 291, until more comprehensive
studies have been completed and shared with the public.
Some
people may say the noise, noise, noise, of thousands of aircraft flying 2,000
feet or less over our homes, schools, and hospitals 365 days a week, 24 hours a
day, our teachers unable to teach our school children properly because of
aircraft noise that causes them to stop teaching until the aircraft is out of
sound range, ignore safety concerns by large number of aircraft flying over our
homes, schools, hospitals and places of worship, damage to homes from
vibrations caused by overhead aircraft,
increase in air and noise pollution will create increases in health
problems to the general public, increases in added health care services may be
required which could result in increases in health insurance premiums for
individuals and business owners is the price we must pay in order for air
travel time to be reduced by seconds. We don’t call this progress, we call it insanity.