County helpless against aerobatics complaints

MONTICELLO — Bethel residents Jean Scott and Bill Burns complained September 13 to the Sullivan County Legislature’s General Services Committee about the noise and potential danger created by members of New Jersey aerobatics club who practice stunts in the sky above the Sullivan County International Airport.

They said Mongaup Valley residents have been complaining about the flyers for three years without relief and that Sullivan County continues to issue waivers that allow the stunt flying.

The flyers have been provided with a permitted “box” territory for the stunt maneuvers, but Scott and Burns said the flyers often wander out of the box and below the prescribed 1,500 altitude.

Deputy County Attorney Cheryl McCausland said she recently met with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) about the complaints and was told that residents would have to provide photographs and plane identification numbers to document complaints.

“How can you photograph a dot in the sky,” Burns said.

McCausland said Sullivan County really has no say in the matter and is obligated through agreements related to FAA funding of airport operations, to issue the waivers or lose extensive federal funding.

Burns, an Army Air Corps veteran, said he has no gripe about airport noise in general, but insisted that the aerobatics flyers are a nuisance that provide nothing to the local economy. He said stunt flying has already impacted property values around the airport and will damage the county more extensively as it develops. “How do think the New York Philharmonic is going to like it?” he asked.

Several legislators also voiced frustration about their lack of control and discussed the possibility of instituting landing fees to discourage the stunt flyers.

But Chairman Rusty Pomeroy (D-2) said Sullivan has an extensive investment, some $250,000 in annual operations costs, at the airport and needs to encourage new airport use, not drive it away.

Committee chair, and Bethel resident Chris Cunningham was unsatisfied. “I’m not going to let this go. I’m fed up,” he said.