'Quiet Skies Over Garden City' Website Up and Running

Concerned residents who've been battling the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to more equally distribute aircraft noise over several north and south shore communities have launched a website to make fellow residents more "aware of the dramatic increase in noise and pollution levels from aircraft over our community in recent years."

On Monday, for the second time in 40 years, the Town Village Aircraft Safety and Noise Abatement Committee (TVASNAC) will hold a meeting in Garden City - rather than its usual location at Lawrence Village Hall - to better allow residents of other member communities to attend.

Garden City's Environmental Advisory Board (EAB) chair and village trustee Laurence Quinn encouraged residents to attend the 7:30 p.m. meeting in the lower level of the Garden City Public Library.

According to the new website, representatives from the FAA and the Port Authority of NY & NJ will "attempt to answer why there has been a very significant increase in the number of commercial aircraft flying at much lower altitudes over Old Westbury, Williston Park, Westbury, Mineola, Albertson, East Hills, East Williston, Garden City, Stewart Manor, Floral Park while en-route to JFK runway 22L." Many federal, state and local elected officials are also expected to attend.

Quinn expects "a little better showing of people who are impacted on the north part of the Town of Hempstead" because of the meeting's more central location.

The website includes information like 2011 JFK arrival statistics and the FAA's new airplane redesign and NEXTGEN programs intended to change air traffic throughout the U.S.