TVASNAC Meeting in Cedarhurst

There will be a Town Village Aircraft Safety and Noise Abatement Committee (TVASNAC) meeting tonight at 7:30 p.m. at Lawrence High School. Please note Lawrence High School is located at 2 Reilly Road in Cedarhurst.

Garden City's Environmental Advisory Board (EAB) chair and village trustee Laurence Quinn, along with village residents, are expected to attend.

Invited Guests Include:

• From the Port Authority NY & NJ: Ralph Tragale, assistant director; Tom Bock, general manager; Ed Knoesel, manager, Environmental Program; and Adeel Yousef
• From the FAA: David Siewart, manager, JFK tower; Paul Laude, program specialist, FAA eastern region; Ralph Tamburro, manager, TRACON; Jeff Clarke, senior manager, FAA eastern region; Jim Dyckman, ATC Union representative; Michael Procello, manager, TRACON JFK area; John Beauchat and an FAA flight standards safety specialist.
• From the Aviation Development Council: William Huisman

Topics For Discussion:

• Explanation of new FAA Noise Abatement Standard Operating Procedures
• Status of Joint FAA/PA MOU on Noise Complaints
• Vertical Approach Guidance and Flight Path Angels
• General Safety Concerns

On Oct. 20 the FAA implemented the second stage of its plan to redesign the airspace over New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia, increasing the amount of planes flying over Nassau County. An additional fifth departure route for westbound flights leaving the New York metro area was added to augment four existing westbound departure routes.

"There should be a lot of potential fireworks available at that meeting," Quinn said. "There's lots of potential things happening but not necessarily all favorable. But we won't know until we hear it from the horse's mouth."

EAB members have been consistent in their fight for a more equitable distribution of overflights. Runway 22L into JFK, which flies over Garden City, has seen an increase in traffic from 14.5 percent in 2004 to 29.2 percent in 2011, based on official data.

Garden City residents like Arnold Finnamore have sent letters to local representatives, including Sen. Kemp Hannon and Assemblyman Tom McKevitt, urging them to personally attend tonight's meeting.