Airport Noise Committee Seeks Freeholders' Help 

December 12, 2002
By James A. Duffy, Daily Record 

MORRISTOWN -- Having found themselves at a dead end, several mayors from the residential areas surrounding busy Morristown Airport made their case before the county freeholder board on Wednesday, asking for help reducing aircraft noise.

"We know the economic value of the airport in Morris County, but the amount of jet activity at this airport has now reached a proportion that goes beyond nuisance," said Hanover Mayor Ronald F. Francioli, one of several mayors who make up the ad hoc Inter Municipal Airport Committee.

"We're not here in an adversarial role," he said. "We're here to try to peacefully coexist in the community. We've got a problem, and we've got to come to some resolution.

"If I knew what a next move was for IMAC, I would be jumping for joy."

Although owned by Morristown, the four-runway airfield actually lies within Hanover's borders off Columbia Turnpike.

Freeholder Director John J. Murphy said he and his six board colleagues have been invited to tour the site by William G. Barkhauer, whose company, D.M. Airport Developers Inc., leases the airport land and oversees basic operations under a 99-year lease signed with Morristown in 1982.

The freeholders hope to plan the field trip by the end of January and become a conduit for talks between the Federal Aviation Administration, IMAC, local residents and U.S. Rep. Rodney P. Frelinghuysen, R-Harding, who has championed the cause in the past.

"Hopefully, we can help strike up that balance," said Murphy, who said he routinely hears helicopters near his own home at about 5:30 a.m.

"I live in Convent Station -- I recognize some of the pilots' faces," he said.

The noise issue is not a new one: Residents and elected officials have long complained of the excessive racket from the growing number of corporate jets and helicopters that frequent the airport, situated near the headquarters of 54 of the nation's Fortune 500 companies.

But particularly since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, jet traffic has substantially increased there and nationwide. Major carriers have lost precious business to corporate charter companies, which saw requests for private flights skyrocket in the weeks after the attacks.

At 271,074 takeoffs and landings in 2000, Morristown was the second-busiest airport in New Jersey after the 457,182 operations at Newark Liberty International. Although Morristown lost much of its small-plane traffic last year, it retained the second-place position with some 265,000 operations.

"Morristown Airport, over the last 24 months, has undergone a very radical transition," Francioli said.

Francioli, who called the site a "megalopolis" because corporate hangars continue to be built and leased, said a new 50,000-square foot shelter is in the works for private planes owned by pharmaceutical company Novartis, which has its U.S. headquarters in East Hanover.

IMAC has met with various officials at the FAA and at the state Department of Transportation, who said they were limited to only offering money to retrofit local homes with noise insulating measures, such as double-pained windows, Francioli said.

"It's falling on deaf ears," he said of the group's concerns.

William List, head of the nonprofit anti-noise group QUEST, or Quieter Environment through Sound Thinking, in Madison, said he is hopeful Frelinghuysen will arrange a meeting between all the parties. A gathering planned for August never materialized, he said.

"It's tough and very frustrating," List said. "It's just very difficult for the little guy, or a group of little guys, to have any say in our lives anymore."

Frelinghuysen did not return calls for comment Wednesday.

"Maybe we should look at us as being a referee between the groups," said Freeholder Frank J. Druetzler, who also is an IMAC member in his capacity as Morris Plains mayor.

Meanwhile, a study is under way that could result in a change in the route of departing planes. The airport's 6,000-foot-long Runway 23 -- which bears the brunt of corporate jet traffic -- is the source of about three-quarters of complaints from area residents.

According to Barkhauer, the airport director, the goal of the study is to reduce noise by shifting flight paths over nonresidential areas. 

A Binghamton, N.Y., consulting firm is working with the FAA, which entails community input and the use of computer-generated noise models. The study's $30,000 first phase is to be completed by Jan. 1.


James A. Duffy can be reached at jaduffy@gannett.com or (973) 267-7947.

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