Noise, pollution on residents’ minds in Lynbrook

Lynbrook residents voiced their concerns about noise pollution, traffic, pedestrian safety and other issues at the annual Town Hall Comes to Village Hall meeting, hosted by Town of Hempstead Councilman Anthony Santino and Mayor Bill Hendrick on June 14.

Santino kicked off the meeting by addressing the issue of high taxes. “Local governments, just like families are at home,” he said, “are working to tighten their belts, to do more with less, to try and squeeze every penny that they can, to continue to deliver solid services without raising taxes, or, if a tax increase is unavoidable, to mitigate that increase as much as possible.”

Resident Karen Gordon, however, wasn’t as concerned about her taxes as she was about the airplanes she hears flying over her home, she said, every few minutes.

“If you live in Lynbrook, it’s as if you live at the end of the runway at JFK,” Gordon said. “It’s a problem when you can’t hold a conversation in your own home, or you have to close your windows because you can’t even sleep at night because of the noise.”

Santino and Hendrick agreed that since the Federal Aviation Administration regulates air traffic, there’s not much that can be done on a local level. “It’s probably one of the most powerful agencies in the federal government,” Hendrick said of the FAA.

“My experiences have been, over many years in dealing with this kind of issue,” Santino added, “is all the FAA really cares about is getting airplanes up, out and down in one of the busiest airspaces in the country.” He advised Gordon to contact U.S. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy and members of the State Senate about the issue.

“I would be a one-woman band if I need to be,” Gordon said, “to make enough noise to turn off the noise going over the local villages.”