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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1977-06-07-GHTF-min.pdf GOVERNOR'S HANSCOM TASK FORCE Minutes of the meeting of June 7, 1977, Room G-15 , Lexington Town Office Building MEMBERS PRESENT Lang Wales, Lincoln, Chairman Mike Goulian, Mass Avia Trades Mora C Rawlings, Concord Maurice J Nolan, Raytheon, AIM Jacquie Smith, LWV Fred Hafer, Bedford Arthur Barnes, Norumbega Assoc MASSPORT John R Davis Tim Campbell te f Jim Korinek �r� Dan Greenbaum Cathy Danaher .,J OTHERS PRESENT Peter P Gallinaro, Burlington Dave Emerson, Hanscom ATF Comm Council Vince Scarano, FAA Bob McWalter, Concord HFC I, Robert Nash, Minuteman NHP Bard Crawford, Merriam Hill Assoc , Lex Jim Walpole, Concord HFC The meeting was opened by the Chairman at 7 40 P .M 1 Planned Rehabilitation of Runway 29 Mr Davis of F Massport Engineering reported on the plans for rehabilitating Runway 29 by repaving the 2000-foot asphalt section, grouting the concrete and sealing the end overruns The need for some maintenance work on the runway has been evident, and the avail- ability of FAA 90/10 money makes it possible to do the complete job rather than minimal repairs It is planned to start the work in September and to complete it in four to six weeks The contractor will be required to work 12-hour days The runway i will be closed daily, but open, so far as possible on nights and weekends The work will necessitate heavier use of Runway 5-23 , and at times employment of the taxiway paralleling 11-29 as a runway In discussion, Mr Crawford asked whether the work couldn't be postponed for a year to permit considering the desirability of shortening the runway by abandoning the section needing rebuild- ing Ms Donaher, Planning Director of Massport, stated that such an option was not considered, and that issues of restrict- ing usage should be addressed through the policy examination now underway rather than through imposition of physical limitations k Others spoke for the desirability of maintaining the facility, with references to the Air Force need for the long runway for occasional flights of large planes Mr Scarano of the FAA pointed out that Pine Hill affected the west end of the runway, -1- and if any shortening were to be done, it should be at that end, where safety would be better served It was also point- ed out that the availability of Federal money was in the nature of a windfall, and could not be expected to recur next year The Chairman noted that the Task Force had been informed, would take no position on the matter, and recommended that Massport utilize its own public relations channels to inform residents of the nature of the project 2 Review of public meetings Members gave their con- clusions and observations from the series of five public meet- ings that took place during the preceding month and a half Several members concurred that people attending the meetings were concerned about single event noise more than contours, generally found present conditions acceptable, but were con- cerned about the possibility of increasing noise in the future, and would favor policies that curtailed noise growth There was disagreement as to the significance of the meetings, as the turnout was numerically small, but some members felt that they were valuable in that they provided for face-to-face discussion of the issues and since residents, users and oper- ators were all represented 3 Economic and noise level issues Ms Donaher pre- sented a concept for resolving the questions about policies that might have economic effects She pointed out that the economic impact of policy changes was important but highly speculative On the Logan curfew Massport stated a policy then determined whether it made sense to those affected Currently, Massport is performing an economic study of the Seaport, with northern New England as the area of evaluation Such a large study permits a systematic, econometric approach At Hanscom the scale is too small to permit such an approach Ms Donaher proposed the following alternative a disciplined approach to evaluating the effects of minor changes in the use of a small economic entity is not feasible Instead, we should go ahead in proposing those policies for the future use of Hanscom Field that are favored by the Task Force, and then responses from the communities and users should be sought on the questions of economic impact to determine what seems economically reasonable After some discussion, this approach was accepted as a working hypothesis, subject to its working out in practice 4 Organization for Summer The Policy Committee, with Evan Semerjian as Chairman, is reactivated with the charge of drawing up policy recommendations for action by the Task Force at the next meeting Since at the time of their last report there was substantial division over certain issues, new inputs to the committee are vital Members and others having new insights into the policy questions or proposed resolutions of the issues are urged to send their ideas to Mr Semerjian in a memo In order to maintain working contact with the Mas sport -2- Planning Department during the summer, when few Task Force meetings are planned, the Planning Liaison Committee is estab- lished Mr Nolan is chairman Members are Messrs Goulian, Gallinaro, Hafer and Wales Mr Emerson, though not a Task Force member, will be a regular observer This committee will serve as a focus of contact with Massport between Task Force meetings, will react to proposals and ideas offered by Mass- port in response to the Task Force policy recommendations, and alert Task Force members when inputs on substantive issues are needed 5 Minuteman National Historical Park Mr Robert Nash, Superintendent of Minuteman National Park, spoke briefly about the Park 's concerns vis-a-vis Hanscom They include the visual impact of the Air Force Base as seen from the Battle Road, traffic to the Hanscom area through the Park, and aircraft noise The Park is planning to start a new master plan study to deal with, among other things, the issue of removing Route 2A traffic from the Park and access to the Hanscom area There will be public participation in the process 6 Spirit of St Louis Frank Hidinger told the Task Force that a replica of the Spirit of St Louis, retracting Lindburg' s post-flight tour of the East, would be at Hanscom from noon to 4 p m on Saturday, June 18, 1977 Other worth- while events may also be seen that day 7 Next Task Force Meeting Tuesday, July 5 , 1977, Room G-15, Lexington Town Office Building 7 30 p m Whereupon, the meeting was adjourned -3-