State officials may have appealed to the Federal Aviation Administration for increased use of air noise monitors to track airplane noise pollution throughout New York State, but an East Hills aircraft noise abatement committee member said Monday that such monitors may not solve the village’s problems.
East Hills resident Josh Peltz, who earlier this year was appointed to lead the village’s aircraft noise abatement committee, said at Monday’s Board of Trustees meeting that even if the village were to receive a noise monitor, “for people to think it’s going to happen tomorrow is not realistic.”
The monitors, he said, may not even provide helpful data.
Because the noise monitors measure airplane noise during the course of an entire year, Peltz said all the moments that do not register a high reading would cancel out higher readings when averaged together.
A single, substantial event would typically register a 65 or higher on the monitors, Peltz said.
“As intrusive as the planes are, there’s a lot of time the planes don’t fly over,” Peltz said.
Earlier this month, U.S. senators Charles E. Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, joined representatives Steve Israel (D-Dix Hills), Carolyn McCarthy (D-Mineola) and Grace Meng (D-Queens), in writing a letter to Port Authority Executive Director Patrick Foye and Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Michael P. Huerta saying that the implementation of additional airplane noise monitors are needed to more accurately monitor airplane noise levels near John F. Kennedy International Airport and LaGuardia Airport.
But Peltz said that even though state officials pushed for more noise monitors throughout Queens and Nassau, FAA officials regarded the request as a casual suggestion, rather than a demand.
In a recent meeting with FAA and Port Authority officials, Peltz said the monitors currently in use were more likely to be replaced or fixed than expanded to other areas.
“We’ve got to keep knocking down politicians’ doors,” Peltz said.
In early July, East Hills Mayor Michael Koblenz met with Israel and other village mayors to discuss the flow of air traffic across the North Shore, and the village earlier this month hosted a public meeting during which residents were informed of the proper ways of sending complaints about air noise to Port Authority officials.
Koblenz has urged residents in attendance at board of trustees meetings in recent months to write letters voicing their discontent with the noise to Israel and state Sen. Jack Martins (R-Mineola), and the village created the aircraft noise abatement committee at its May 20 meeting to direct residents’ complaints. More recently, the village has urged other residents to join the committee.
The village also approved a contract agreement with the Roslyn Water District to split the cost of a water main that will soon be installed beneath Tara Drive, Finch Drive, Cardinal Drive and Flamingo Road.
Koblenz said the project will require the roads to be unearthed, and that the village was planning to replace them this year anyway.
The water district will also cover the full cost of the temporary replacement of the roads at the project’s conclusion.
