Sounding off about aircraft noise

For more than three years, the Village of Lawrence has been requesting that a monitor that tracks aircraft noise be returned to its location at Village Hall.
The monitors, three of which are currently operating in Cedarhurst, Inwood and Atlantic Beach, are part of an analysis, known technically as a Part 150 study, being conducted by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which has jurisdiction over the area airports.
According to Lawrence Mayor Martin Oliner, a monitor had been installed atop Village Hall. “There was no reason for them to take it out,” he said. “One day, it was disconnected. There was no monitor. It was gone.” Referring to the Town and Village Aircraft Safety and Noise Abatement Committee, he added, “An important thing to note in TVASNAC history is that the committee used to meet regularly in our building at Village Hall.”
TVASNAC comprises representatives of a number of communities who serve as liaisons between residents and the Port Authority.
Village Administrator Ron Goldman said that there was no downside to having the noise monitor reinstalled. “We were happy to host it, but then it got moved,” he said. “All members of TVASNAC should have a monitor in their communities. The plane noise is unbearable in Cedarhurst and it’s unbearable in Lawrence. Mayor Oliner wants to have our own noise information.”

Kendall Lampkin, TVASNAC’s executive director, said that the village made its request fairly recently. “There are monitors around the area in other nearby villages,” he said. “The decision to reinstall it would be made by the Port Authority. Since more communities have advocated for more monitoring and requesting monitors, the Port Authority has to do more careful evaluation. They want to make sure that access to the monitor is easy, for example. They also don’t want to put it near a truck route.”
According to a statement released in 2014 by the Port Authority, its overall goal is to address noise concerns while supporting growth at four area airports: John F. Kennedy, Newark Liberty, LaGuardia and Teterboro, which generate $72 billion in economic activity annually, supporting more than 500,000 jobs in the region with $26 billion in wages. It is “taking a multifaceted, comprehensive series of steps to work more closely with communities on addressing noise issues at its airports, while stepping up the review of noise data.”
The monitors are installed in communities directly under flight paths around JFK, mostly in southeastern Queens and Nassau County. They are not near truck routes, so ground-level noise does not interfere with aircraft noise.
Edward Knoesel, the manager of environmental programs of the aviation department for the Port Authority, said that his office does consider noise monitor requests, and estimated that there had not been a monitor in Lawrence for over three years. He wasn’t able to say why it had been originally removed, but would look into why it had been taken from their site.
“Those requesting a noise monitor must put in an application with my department,” he said. “We would be happy to investigate their request and any potential site in town. They just have to put in an application. We will then look into it and make a determination.”
Lampkin said that while information collected by the newly installed monitors would not be included in the Part 150 study, he believed that more communities deserved to have them. “With monitoring systems such as WebTrak” — an online map that records plane noise in decibels — “it’s good to have a monitor to track and measure aircraft noise,” he said. “I’m going to advance the village’s request to the Port Authority. I think there should have been more monitors installed at the beginning of the study.”
To access WebTrak, visit its website, http://webtrak5.bksv.com/panynj4. To report aircraft noise, call the Port Authority at (800) 225-1071, or electronically report it at www.planenoise.com/panynj/daPRAbr9/qs114wbt.php.